A gunman in Texas shot and killed five people, including an 8-year-old child, in the town of Cleveland. The alleged perp is a man named Francisco Oropeza, a Mexican national. He had been asked by the residents of a house — who were from Honduras — to stop firing his gun in front of his house, because children were trying to sleep. In an angry response he went next door with his rifle and shot five people, execution-style. He is still at large and is being sought by police.
In other news, a man is missing and feared dead after screams were heard where he was fishing on the bank of a river in northern Queensland. He is thought to have been dragged off and eaten by a crocodile.
Fisherman is Feared Eaten in a Fatal Crocodile Attack — After Campers Hear Angler’s Desperate Screams at Remote River Bank Where He May Have Been Dragged to His Death
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, DV, Fjordman, Reader from Chicago, Roger, 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.
FDIC Races to Find Buyer for Collapsing First Republic Bank: Report
Federal regulators are scrambling to find a buyer for First Republic Bank as the banking company’s stocks continue to tumble, according to a report.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has asked several high-powered banks — including JPMorgan Chase & Co., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., US Bancorp and Bank of America Corp. — to submit final bids for First Republic Bank by Sunday after gauging initial interest earlier in the week, sources told Bloomberg.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
You’re Not Going Crazy… Your Favorite Snacks Really Are Shrinking…
— Doritos, Honey Nut Cheerios and Gatorade are among dozens of brands to slash size of products in response to inflation
If you’ve picked up a bag of Doritos recently and thought it had less chips in it, you’re not going crazy.
Some of America’s favorite snacks have shrunk by up to 20 percent in the last 25 years as companies cost-cut amid rising inflation, a move dubbed ‘shrinkflation’.
It is not just chips. Fast food, cereals, soda, ice cream and dressings have all been kept at the same price or even made more expensive despite shrinking in size.
Candy industry leaders claim they are reducing product sizes for the good of consumers, saying it helps control sugar and calorie intake.
Domino’s $7.99 box of chicken wings used to contain 10 wings in 2022, but now it only has eight. Cadbury’s creme eggs have decreased more than 14 percent in size from the 1970s to 2015, while the weight of a Toblerone has dropped more than 15 percent since 2010.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
5 Killed in Texas Shooting, Including 8-Year-Old Child; Manhunt Underway for Suspect
A Texas man went next door with a rifle and began shooting his neighbors, killing an 8-year-old and four others inside the house, after the family asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said Saturday.
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told reporters at the scene that authorities were still searching for 39-year-old Francisco Oropeza following the overnight shooting in the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston. He said Oropeza used an AR-style rifle in the shooting.
“Everyone that was shot was shot from the neck up, almost execution-style,” Capers said during an earlier news conference at the scene.
Capers said there were 10 people in the house and that no one else was injured. He said two of the victims, all believed to be from Honduras, were found laying over two children inside.
“The Honduran ladies that were laying over these children were doing it in such an effort as to protect the child,” according to Capers, who said a total of three blood-covered children were found in the home but were determined to be uninjured after being taken to a hospital.
Capers said two other people were examined at the scene and released.
The confrontation followed family members walking up to the fence and asking the suspect to stop shooting rounds, Capers said. The suspect responded by telling them that it was his property, according to Capers, and that one person in the house got a video of the suspect walking up to the front door with the rifle.
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Amicus Brief Asks Appeals Court to Reconsider Ruling That Allowed FBI to Gag Twitter
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed an amicus brief to support Twitter’s bid to get an appeals court to change its ruling on an order preventing it from publishing its 2013 transparency report.
In 2013, Twitter attempted to publish a transparency report about the use of national security letters and FISA orders by the government, including if it had received such requests.
However, without a court order, the FBI prevented Twitter from publishing the report.
Twitter sued, and in March, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the FBI.
The ruling undermined the law on “prior restraints,” which refers to government officials restricting speech in advance.
We obtained a copy of the brief for you here.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Thugs Try to Invade Home With Fake Food Delivery Scam, 2A Patriot Homeowner Turns Tables
Two armed thugs attempted a home invasion by pulling a fake food delivery scam but their plan didn’t quite go as they’d hoped.
They made a fatal mistake when they failed to consider that the Georgia homeowner could also be armed.
Thankfully, the homeowner knew his Second Amendment rights and was ready and willing to exercise them.
The crooks were pretending to be Door Dash delivery men dropping off Taco Bell food.
But when they tried to burst into the home, one of the residents pulled out a gun and killed one of the suspects.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
BLM Activist Ruined White University of Virginia Student’s Rep Over ‘Misheard’ Remark: Report
A well-known Black Lives Matter activist allegedly ruined a fellow University of Virginia student’s reputation, accusing her of referring to George Floyd protesters as “speed bumps” and threatening to run them over — only to later admit she may have “misheard” the offending comments, according to a report.
UVA student Zyahna Bryant, then 19, was already a high-profile activist when she encountered fellow student Morgan Bettinger at the July 2020 protest.
What happened next sparked a social media hate campaign in which Bettinger was denounced as a “Nazi;” school investigations; and a bid by Bryant to have Bettinger expelled, according to the outlet Reason Magazine.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
California Doctor Faces $290 Million in COVID-19-Related Fraud Charges
Authored by Jason Blair via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)
A doctor in Orange County, California, has been charged by federal prosecutors for orchestrating approximately $230 million worth of fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Department of Justice announced the charges against Dr. Anthony Ha Dinh and 17 other individuals on April 20. The total “intended fraud loss” among all 18 defendants is over $490 million, in which Dinh accounts for about 60 percent.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
CNN Host Shockingly Blasts Teachers Union Boss Over School Closure Lies
Randi Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers and a member of the AFL—CIO, but she’s perhaps best known as being the key advocate for shutting schools down during the onset of the Covid pandemic.
Weingarten was called to task this week on the Don Lemon-less CNN by senior political commentator Scott Jennings, who excoriated the union boss after she engaged in historical revisionism over her role in school shutdowns — insisting before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, that she had instead advocated for reopening schools as quickly as possible.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Dehumanizing’: Experts Rip California Pilot Program Testing COVID-Sniffing Dogs on Schoolchildren
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) wants to bring airport screening procedures to public schools in the Golden State — not to search for weapons, narcotics or explosion-prone batteries, but for an endemic virus that poses little risk to children.
Researchers affiliated with the department and Kaiser Permanente shared the results of their dog-sniffing pilot program to detect COVID-19 in 27 unnamed “volunteer schools” in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics Monday.
The screenings may raise civil liberties and medical privacy concerns, according to California doctors who reviewed the research and questioned the tangible benefit of COVID screenings in 2023 versus the risks of routine, compelled interactions with canines.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Health officials are sounding the alarm over a spike in rare and serious brain abscesses in children in and around Las Vegas, Nevada.
Experts at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating the spate of cases, while doctors across America say they are also seeing a rise in cases.
The number of brain abscesses in minors tripled in Nevada last year, shooting up from an average of four or five a year to 18.
Dr Taryn Bragg, a pediatric neurosurgeon and associate professor at the University of Utah who treats the cases, told CNN she had ‘never seen anything like it’ in her 20 years’ experience.
Physicians are not sure what has caused the rise, but said it could be due to weakened immunity to infections due to Covid measures such as lockdowns.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter boss Elon Musk has issued a warning to radical leftists who “advocate for censorship.”
Musk went on Bill Maher’s HBO show last night and responded as people celebrate Tucker Carlson being fired from Fox News.
As Slay News reported, Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was among those gloating about the news.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Five Dead, Including 8-Year-Old After Mexican Gunman Allegedly Opens Fire on Texas Family
An eight-year-old boy and four adults, all who lived in the same Texas home, are dead after 39-year-old Francisco Oropeza, a Mexican national, allegedly opened fire on the group after they asked him to stop shooting a rifle in his yard at 11:30 pm at night. The individuals were reportedly shot “execution style,” according to local news.
ABC News reports that San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said, “My understanding is that the victims, they came over to the fence and said ‘Hey could you not do your shooting out in the yard? We have a young baby that’s trying to go to sleep.’“ Oropeza was reportedly drunk and said, “I’ll do what I want to in my front yard.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The state of Florida has shut down former President Donald Trump’s accusation that Gov. Ron DeSantis violated ethics rules by conducting an illegal “shadow presidential campaign.”
The Florida Commission on Ethics on Friday dismissed the March filing by Make America Great Again Inc., a Trump-aligned super PAC, saying that the document failed “to constitute a legally sufficient complaint,” Fox News reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Harvard Chemistry Professor Sentenced for Lying About Ties to CCP
Former Harvard University Chemistry Department Chair Charles M. Lieber was sentenced on Wednesday to time served and two years of supervised release for tax fraud and failure to disclose his affiliations with the biochemical research efforts of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The first six months of Lieber’s sentence will be under house arrest. Lieber was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine as well as $33,600 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Lieber was arrested and charged with fraud in January 2020 after being accused of lying to both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DOD) about his connections to the Chinese government.
For his work at Harvard, Lieber received over $15 million in research grants from both the NIH and DOD, which would have required Lieber to disclose his foreign ties. Without even Harvard’s knowledge, however, Lieber participated in the Thousand Talents Program (TTP), a CCP initiative to recruit global scientists, from 2012 to 2017.
At the time of the indictment, the Department of Justice (DOJ) stated that Lieber received $50,000 monthly income, $158,000 in living expenses, and a $1.5 million award from the CCP to establish a research laboratory at the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China, as Campus Reform previously reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hearing Shows the Lack of Transparency in the Extent of the US Government’s Surveillance Abuse
On Thursday, House lawmakers held a hearing on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) over accusations that federal agencies use the law to conduct surveillance on US citizens.
During the hearing, the heads of federal intelligence agencies were not willing to reveal how much data they collect on US citizens through Section 702. Expert witnesses were also not able to say how many can conduct the unlawful and warrantless searches enabled by Section 702.
“We don’t actually know the scope of this collection,” said US Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Chair Sharon Bradford Franklin, who was an expert witness at the hearing.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Missouri judge on Thursday moved to hold a George Soros-bankrolled prosecutor in “indirect criminal contempt” after she and her subordinates failed to show up for multiple court dates, lambasting her office as a “rudderless ship of chaos.”
Judge Michael Noble announced he will appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the contempt case against St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, the city’s top prosecutor, and Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Desilets after no one from Gardner’s office appeared at a trial and subsequent hearing in an assault case involving the wounding of an 11-year-old girl.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Majority of US States Have ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws
After a series of highly publizised shootings in the U.S., Stand Your Ground laws — also called Shoot First laws — are back in the news.
Data by the Giffords Law Center shows that these type of laws are common across U.S. states.
As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, they specify that people are allowed to use deadly force if they feel like their life or health is threatened in a public place without needing to try to retreat.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 50 Employees at Cook County Court Clerk’s Office Leave Amid COVID-19 Fraud Probes
More than 50 employees from the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County have either been fired or chosen to resign amid COVID-19 relief fraud allegations.
The employees were found to have defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program designed to help businesses stay afloat amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Iris Martinez, clerk of the circuit court, whose office employs more than 1,400 staff, says she’s “personally offended” by the fraud.
In an interview with WTTW News, Martinez said she had asked the county’s Office of the Independent Inspector General (OIIG) to assist the clerk’s own inspector general’s investigation into the fraud.
The OIIG found that 55 employees in the clerk’s office had applied for PPP loans. All but one of them appear to have applied for the loans fraudulently, said Martinez.
“When you come into the clerk’s office you take an oath — and I take this oath very seriously — and the fact that there was possibly 55 individuals that might be involved with fraud. … I’m very proud of the employees that we have that didn’t engage in this, however, I will not standby and know that a clerk actually lied on a federal application (for PPP loans),” said Martinez. “There’s no excuse for the lies.”
Instances of PPP fraud by Cook County employees goes beyond just one office.
Fraud by employees at other Cook County agencies has also been found, including the Cook County Assessor’s Office, the Cook County Board of Review and the Cook County Public Defender’s office.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that three supervisors in the office of Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans have also been forced to quit because of allegations of fraud.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
NY Congresswoman Claudia Tenney Demands FBI Investigate Threat Posed by ‘Vegan Extremists’
Rep. Claudia Tenney on Thursday called on FBI Director Christopher Wray to investigate alleged “criminal activity being promoted” by a vegan activist group in upstate New York.
In her letter to Wray, the New York Republican alleges that California-based group Direct Action Everywhere has been using her home state to fundraise and recruit people to “actively disrupt farms” in rural communities in Empire State and elsewhere.
“The threat of theft and trespassing posed by this vegan activist group is completely unacceptable. It is the absolute last thing our farmers should be facing right now as they struggle through a labor shortage and soaring costs,” Tenney said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Police Officer Stabbed, Man Arrested After Welfare Check in Chicago Suburb
CHICAGO — A Chicago-area police officer was stabbed while responding to a home in the southwest suburbs Saturday morning.
Police say Francisco Alvarez, 42, of Glendale Heights, was arrested for attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery to a peace officer after an incident at a Joliet residence.
Officers responded to a home in the 500 West block of Bevan Drive around 4 a.m. for a welfare check following a 911 call.
When they arrived, the owner of the home said Alvarez was an acquaintance who had been staying at the home.
Alvarez said he called 911 after seeing someone in the yard. Officers searched the property, but they didn’t see any suspicious activity. They cleared the area and left.
About an hour later at 5:11 a.m., officers were called to the same residence after a report of Alvarez barricading in a coat closet in the home.
Officers determined Alvarez might have suffered a mental health crisis and spoke with him through the closet door. They tried to deescalate the situation and asked home to come out of the closet.
Eventually, police opened the closet door and Alvarez came out holding a large knife in his right hand. He then thrust the knife at them, stabbing a female officer in the stomach.
Officers used a taser, which did not work. Alvarez was detained following a struggle.
The injured officer was transported to Ascension St. Joseph Medical Center where she was treated and released.
| — Hat tip: Roger | [Return to headlines] |
PPP Fraud Probe Results in 6 Chicago Park District Employees Resigning, 5 Facing Discipline
CHICAGO — Add the Chicago Park District to the list of government agencies with employees accused of defrauding federal COVID-19 relief programs.
In a new report, the park district’s internal investigators say they dug into more than two dozen cases in an ongoing probe that’s prompted six employees to resign, with five other workers also facing discipline.
Deborah Witzburg, City Hall’s inspector general, said Wednesday her office is separately investigating whether any of the city’s roughly 30,000 employees have committed similar fraud involving the federal Paycheck Protection Program. The PPP law was enacted to provide forgivable loans to help struggling businesses stay in business in 2020 and 2021 during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
General Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force, warned last week that the U.S. is facing a new era of space activity:
“The threats that we face to our on-orbit capabilities from our strategic competitors [have] grown substantially”, he told CNBC’s “Manifest Space” podcast.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Supreme Court Justices sent a unanimous 9-0 letter addressed to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday which slammed democratic legislators over their ethics complaints about Justice Clarence Thomas.
In a rare move from the High Court, the joint-statement was released following the Senate Judiciary Committee’s requests to propose new legislation on ethics which would allow congress to have independent oversight, instead of a general code of conduct for Justices on the Supreme Court of the United States.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘This is the Acid Test’: Elon Musk Rolls Out Encrypted DMs This Week
Elon Musk announced on Saturday that encrypted direct messages, or DM’s, will be rolled out on Twitter this week as the billionaire mogul continues to make upgrades and improvements to the social media app that he purchased for $44 billion last year.
This is to ensure that direct messages are unable to be hacked and remain private between the two-party users, according to Musk.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
White House Correspondents’ Dinner to be Blockaded by Climate Change Activists
Agroup of climate change activists plan to blockade the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday to protest President Joe Biden’s environmental policies.
White House Correspondents Association President Tamara Keith told ABC News that they are aware of the planned blockade and “security precautions are in place.”
Activists with the group Climate Defiance have held other protests against President Biden due to his administration’s approving of multiple oil and gas related projects.
The group posted a video to Twitter accusing Biden of committing “ecocide,” which is defined as “devastation and destruction of the environment to the detriment of life.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Housing Crisis: Nearly 30% of a Toronto Home’s Cost is Tax
Torontonians who think they’re taxed to the hilt probably have no idea just how right they actually are.
Nearly 30% of a Toronto condominium’s purchase price comprises levies imposed upon developers who, in turn, pass them onto consumers.
According to a report from Altus Group on the Residential Construction Council of Ontario’s (RESCON) behalf, development charges (DCs)—which increased by 46% year-over-year in 2023—parkland levies, ‘community benefit charges’—formerly known as Section 37—and HST, among other taxes, add 22 to 27% onto the cost of a condo’s sale price.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The University of Surrey in England has introduced a new module for staff titled “introduction to race equity” that contains several examples of what it calls “microaggressions.”
The module says that criticizing China’s Covid lockdown is a form of microaggression and should be reported through the college’s online snitch system.
Staff are told not to criticize China’s zero-Covid policy because some Chinese students may feel that complying with the policy means they are “caring more about others.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU and Ukraine Strike Grain Deal After Eastern European Farmer Protests
BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukraine on Saturday welcomed the European Union’s hard-fought deal to keep farm exports flowing into and through the bloc to world markets, saying that the Middle East and Africa would specifically stand to benefit from it.
Late Friday, the 27-nation EU ended a damaging internal standoff over a destabilizing glut of Ukraine farm imports by granting five eastern member countries the right to temporarily ban the most problematic produce while allowing all farm products to transit onward.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Europe is Buying Record Amounts of Refined Russian Fuels Through India, and Paying a Huge Markup
Last August, we were the first to show how Russia was bypassing Europe’s so-called commodities embargo: it was selling LNG to China which was then re-selling it to Europe at a substantial mark up. And while we also frequently reported that Russia was using a similar sanctions bypass for oil, this time using India instead of China, few were willing to confirm as much: after all, it would seem very shortsighted if European consumers were paying an extra surcharge to India, while Russia was not suffering any adverse consequences from Europe’s laughable “sanctions.”
Not any more: on Friday, Bloomberg reported that for all of Europe’s fire and brimstone about an embargo (which has gotten decidedly quieter in recent months), “Russian oil is still powering Europe just with the help of India.“
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: ‘It Strengthens Anti-Establishment Forces’: Pension Reform Protests Threaten Macron’s Agenda
A global credit ratings agency downgraded French debt worthiness a notch on Saturday, citing pension reform protests as a cause. Two weeks after the contested pension reform passed, persistent social movements threaten to erase the financial gains that the French government expected.
As Nantes squares off against Toulouse on Saturday evening for the hotly anticipated French Football Cup finals, the action might not be restricted to the pitch. French trade unions promised a stormy reception for President Emmanuel Macron, who typically greets players of both teams on the pitch before the match kicks off.
They plan to hand out red cards and whistles to spectators outside the Stade de France, to express their anger over the pension reforms.
Macron will still be there despite the pressure, along with 3,000 police officers and gendarmes, but will not step foot on the pitch to avoid being booed, according to AFP.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Freya: Sculpture of Euthanized Walrus Unveiled in Norway
A statue commemorating the walrus, affectionately nicknamed Freya, was unveiled in Oslo. Her antics attracted attention last year but ultimately led to authorities putting her down.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The ‘e-motorway’ will be built along 13 miles of European route E20 which connects Hallsberg and Örebro, located between Sweden’s three major cities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Brexit Betrayal as Tories to Scrap Just One in Five of the EU Laws They Pledged for the Bonfire
Kemi Badenoch told Tory Eurosceptic MPs on Monday that just 20 per cent of the EU laws the Prime Minister pledged to scrap by the end of the year will make it onto the Brexit Bonfire.
Delivering news of the backtrack to the European Research Group (ERG), the Trade Secretary recalled civil servants telling her it would be impossible to remove all the redundant 4,000 EU laws, and that the vast majority of these laws sit in the environment department.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Guardian has been forced to issue a humiliating apology after publishing an anti-Semitic cartoon attacking outgoing BBC chairman Richard Sharp.
The newspaper admitted the shocking caricature — which was published in Saturday’s edition and on its website, before being removed — had failed to meet its editorial standards.
It added: “The Guardian apologises to Mr Sharp, to the Jewish community and to anyone offended.”
The cartoon — by Martin Rowson — depicted Mr Sharp, who is Jewish, as a grinning, big-nosed, puppeteer banker, walking past a bloodied pig’s head carrying a box stuffed with gold and a squid.
The squid is a reference to Mr Sharp’s former employer, Goldman Sachs, once described by Rolling Stone as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” But it is also a well-recognised anti-Semitic trope.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Pro Basketball Game Ends in Mass Brawl on Court Leaving One Seriously Injured
A European professional basketball game ended prematurely on Thursday after players broke into a mass brawl on the court, seriously injuring one.
Match officials were forced to call off a professional basketball game between Real Madrid and Partizan Belgrade on Thursday after a mass brawl broke out on the court between the two competing teams.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Authorities in Egypt have hit back at Netflix for ‘falsifying Egyptian history’ after portraying Cleopatra as a black woman.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Putin Multi-Millionaire Oligarch With Secret Links to UK Mysteriously Ends Up Dead
A wealthy pro-Putin MP with secret links to the UK was found dead with no explanation inside his home in Russia.
Nikolay Bortsov, 77 is the latest prominent Russian figure to die after a string of mysterious deaths.
Bortsov had previously been sanctioned by Britain due to his support for Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
A leak in 2019 revealed that the multi-millionaire had secretly obtained “indefinite leave to remain” status in the UK.
This was despite of him being an ally of Putin and a support in the Russian parliament, the State Duma.
The MP was discovered dead at his home in the Lipetsk region of Russia with no cause given.
He was one of Putin’s richest MPs, reportedly being worth £450million with his wealth coming from the sale of a majority stake in Lebeyansky fruit juice plant to PepsiCo.
He has always denied holding British citizenship but news outlet Argumenti Nedeli reported leaked data which put him on a list of top Russian officials who had been granted residency in the UK.
Following the Russian invasion, Kyiv sentenced Bortsov to 15 years in prison in absentia for recognising the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics”.
Lipetsk region governor Igor Artamonov said: “We will remember Nikolay Bortsov as a patriot of his country, always ready to help those who need it, a man who did not stand aside.”
At least 40 high profile figures in Russia have now died since Putin’s invasion last February with many passing away in strange circumstances such as sudden “suicides”.
Among the recent odd deaths is Colonel Vadim Boyko was shot five times in his office.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Sacks Deputy Defence Minister Dubbed ‘The Butcher of Mariupol’ as Ukraine Progress Falters
President Putin has sacked his deputy defence minister, who was dubbed ‘The Butcher of Mariupol’ for the atrocities he oversaw as Colonel General in the port city last year.
Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, 60, who allegedly ordered the strike on a Mariupol theatre that killed 300 in March last year, has been relieved of duties — but his fate is unclear.
The news was reported by Russian state-run newspaper journalist, Alexander Sladkov, who said: “This is my friend and I respect him a lot.
“The exact reasons are not yet clear, just as it is not clear whether this is removal from office, a suspension or a transfer to a new place of service.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Arrests Baker for ‘Anti-War’ Cakes
Russian police arrested confectioner Anastasia Chernysheva of Moscow on Thursday and charged her with “discrediting the armed forces of Russia” by baking cakes with anti-war and pro-Ukraine messages, including cakes using the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Official: Ukrainian Drones Strike Crimea Oil Depot
A Russia-appointed official in Crimea says a massive fire erupted at an oil depot there after it was hit by two Ukrainian drones
KYIV, Ukraine — A massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two of Ukraine’s drones, a Russia-appointed official there reported Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks on the annexed peninsula as Russia braces for an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, a port city in Crimea, posted videos and photos of the blaze on his Telegram channel.
Razvozhayev said the fire at the city’s harbor was assigned the highest ranking in terms of how complicated it will be to extinguish. However, he reported that the open blaze had been contained.
Razvozhayev said the oil depot was attacked by “two enemy drones,” and four oil tanks burned down. A third drone was shot down from the sky, and one more was deactivated through radio-electronic means, according to Crimea’s Moscow-appointed governor, Sergei Aksyonov.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainian Kamikaze Drones Blow Up Crimean Fuel Depot, ‘Answering’ Yesterday’s Air Strikes
The day after Russia mounted large-scale airstrikes and cruise missile attacks on cities across Ukraine, drones penetrated Crimea air defenses on Saturday and blew up a fuel depot in the peninsula’s main port of Sevastopol.
Home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the port city has throughout the war come under sporadic long-distance drone attacks from Ukraine, also as President Zelensky has continued to promised its “liberation”.
Throughout much of Saturday a huge fire raged in the Kazachya Bay district of the city, with governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev first announcing on Telegram that “according to preliminary information, it was caused by a drone strike.”
He also confirmed the fire’s very large size, at “around 1,000 square meters” — as social media images and footage circulate showing a massive fireball and smoke cloud.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Authorities are fearing for a fisherman after bellowing screams were heard on the banks of the Kennedy River in north Queensland as police believe the man may have been eaten by a crocodile.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
A $220 million quarantine centre has been handed over to a property magnate after only housing 730 tourists in the 1,000 bed facility over 14 months.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
An Aussie tourist was arrested in Indonesia after allegedly spitting in the face of a Muslim prayer leader at a mosque just outside the nation’s capital.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Telegram CEO Tells Brazil’s Government Its Censorship Demands Are “Impossible”
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said it would appeal a decision by a Brazilian court to block access to the platform in the country for refusing to provide data on what the government called “neo-Nazi” activity.
In a statement on his Telegram account, Durov said complying with the ruling is “technologically impossible.” He also noted that the ruling contradicted Telegram’s mission “to preserve privacy and freedom of speech around the world.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
— as Albanians become the biggest contingent of foreign prisoners in UK jails
A crown court judge has rebuked an Albanian migrant who turned to crime after arriving illegally in Britain by boat.
Sentencing Fatmir Limani, who burgled a house in Leeds, to 18 months in prison earlier this month, Judge Simon Batiste told him: ‘Sadly, the UK has far too many criminals of our own. We don’t need to bring them in from Albania.’
It comes as figures obtained by The Mail on Sunday show 75 per cent of Albanian nationals who have arrived illegally have since committed at least one criminal offence in the UK.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A high-profile and respected figure in the Australian fashion world has sensationally announced they take cocaine recreationally and won’t apologise for it
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Bar That Kicked Out Customers After Bud Light Controversy Makes Desperate Plea to Win Back Business
After telling any potentially vocal patrons who disagree with Bud Light making a trans woman one of its spokespeople to get lost, an Indiana bar released yet another statement backtracking its swift dismissal of its patrons.
The latest statement is one of three that The Fairfax Bar & Grill in Bloomington, Indiana has posted in the past couple weeks, indicating that they are desperate to find the right messaging on the subject since they’ve been bleeding clientele.
Where the first public statement denounced those participating in the backlash, the subsequent messages opted for an increasingly softer stance, with the last one admitting the establishment values patrons of all viewpoints and will draw the line at uncivil behavior in the restaurant.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: 27 Colorado Dems Vote AGAINST Making Indecent Exposure to Minors a Felony
On Saturday, the Colorado House of Representatives voted on HB23-1135, a bill introduced to increase the severity of indecent exposure in front of a minor to a class 6 felony, and 27 Democrats voted against the bill, with one saying she was concerned it would lead to the ban of drag shows.
State Representative Leslie Herod said, “These types of laws have been used to ban drag shows, to target individuals who use the restroom of the sex that they identify with—a public restroom—to charge them with felony charges. I am very concerned about the attacks against the transgender community that are happening across the country.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
From Transgendered to ‘Transabled’: People Are ‘Choosing’ to Identify as Handicapped
A troubling societal issue called “transableism” is attracting attention these days.
Transableism is a newer term for BIID, or “Body Integrity Identity Disorder,” in which a person actually “identifies” as handicapped.
BIID has been relabeled to transableism to align with today’s trans community, according to some.
The point of “changing the identifier” from a psychiatric condition (BIID) to an advocacy term (transableism) is to “harness the stunning cultural power of gender ideology” to the cause of allowing doctors to “treat” BIID patients by “amputating healthy limbs, snipping spinal cords or destroying eyesight,” according to Evolution News and Science Today (EN), which reports on and analyzes evolution, neuroscience, bioethics, intelligent design and other science-related issues.
Culturally, transableism is “the next abyss,” that site also notes.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Protesters Swarm Sold-Out SatanCon in Boston: ‘Hellfire Awaits!’
All hell broke loose in Boston Saturday for the city’s annual SatanCon when hundreds showed up to protest the devilish event with signs declaring “Satan has NO rights!” and “Hellfire awaits!”
Celebrating its tenth anniversary, the controversial convention is hosted by the Salem-based Satanic Temple — which does not worship the Bible’s Satan as a deity, instead uses satanic imagery to “reject tyrannical authority” and promote the separation of church and state, according to its website.
The protests came amid reports of a video showing moderators ripping out pages of a Bible and destroying a “Thin Blue Line” flag, which is flown in support of law enforcement, according to the Catholic News Agency.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Montana Bans Child Sex Changes
Montana becomes the latest state to ban “gender affirming care” for minors. On Friday, Governor Greg Gianforte (R) signed Senate Bill 99 (the Youth Health Protection Act) following previously requested amendments to define “male” and “female.”
The bill stated that no synthetic drug may be used to suppress the production of testosterone in males or estrogen in females in order to address a minor’s perception that their gender is not the same as their sex. It also listed the surgical procedures a doctor may not perform on minors in the state. SB 99 did make an exception for those diagnosed with intersex conditions.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Robert Kennedy Jr. Opposes Allowing Trans Women to Compete in Female Sports
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a new interview that he does not support transgender females participating in women’s sports.
The Democrat told CNN on Saturday that “biological males” threaten the integrity of women’s athletics.
“I am against people participating in women’s sports who are biologically male,” Kennedy, 69, said,
“I think women who have worked too hard to develop women’s sports over the past 30 years I watched it happen and I don’t think that’s fair.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Musk Warns Bill Maher ‘Woke Mind Virus’ is Existential Threat to Civilization
“I, at least, think of myself as a moderate,” Elon Musk told Bill Maher during an appearance Friday night on the comedian’s HBO show.
Despite being decried by all asunder as a ‘far-right conservative operative’ or some such hyperbole, Musk said:
“I spent a massive amount of my life energy building sustainable energy, you know, electric vehicles, and batteries, and solar. It’s not exactly far-right.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Not sure about this one. So Bud Light has a new commercial to appeal to young white people who like to go to outdoor events in the rain while it is sunny out. It looked kind of like a swap meet outside of a concert, just made up. The lighting contributed to a golden feel, like some sunsets. So what I am not sure about, is there an intentional rainbow hidden in plain site from the sun and the rain but filtered/washed out or is it some kind of glare. If it is the former, this will go down in history and in the books in whatever form in business schools. Kind of like spitting in the beer before serving it because someone is making you serve the beer and be nice but you can’t help yourself.
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Lecture by Sucharit Bhakdi in English – but not the sought-after one
from Reformation 2.0 in Magdeburg, April 29, which was about vaccine-induced genome changes!
https://youtu.be/wvlUf6L4BgYhttps://youtu.be/wvlUf6L4BgY
The answer for Australian fishermen would be to carry a powerful revolver to neutralise a crocodile. A .357 magnum would do the trick. Obviously, that is not allowed in Australia.
As to the shooting attack in Texas, a foreign man who should not have been in the USA has shot and killed other foreign people who should not have been in the USA. Obviously, the Second Amendment is to blame.
A republic if you can keep it? Don’t make me laugh, that ship has sailed. It died at the election “counts” in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona. A nation stolen and nothing done.
I think it was stolen long before that.
If I had to place a date it would be those span of years when both the 17th and 19th Amendments were ratified. We’ve been marking time ever since. The “election” fraud in 2020 just brought it out into the open in a manner so explicit that one would have to be a die-hard leftist or a confirmed moron (is there a difference?) to not see it.
As to the croc and the Aussie, the only relevant question left to ask is whether or not the fisherman tested positive for the coof at the time he was eaten. An Aussie wandering around in the bush with no weapon amid lots of things that would love to make a meal of some long pork is probably a leftist anyway. If the croc could be coaxed to relocate to Sydney or Melbourne and to start making meals of the swarms of orcs there I would say give it a medal and let it stand at stud.
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MAXIMUM STULTITIAM
The civil war has already broken out.
By Hans Rustad / snaphanen.dk
Thomas Hoffmann is a brave man. His article in Weekendavisen* about the autistic little boy in the English town of Wakefield who brought a translated Koran to school last spring is a lesson for our time. The book got dirty and a roar went up from the ummah at the school and in the local community. England has become Pakistan. All that remains is the death penalty for blasphemy.
The church will not understand, the authorities will not understand, the school will not understand. It tries to mediate between impossible positions. This is what happened in Denmark with the Muhammad cartoons. A storm of emotion rises up against the infidels. The reaction is irrational and impossible to communicate with.
While the school handed over the case to the police, the Muslim community leaders contacted the school to “ensure that all religions are respected”. As often happens in such conflicts: the feather had turned into five chickens.
Rumours that a Koran had been burned, thrown around and spat on circulated. Forgotten in the stream of rumours was the otherwise traditional theological objection that Koran translations can never be authentic and legitimate Korans. The focus was on malicious intent.
The boy with the Koran quickly received a death threat – reportedly from another minor at the school. It is not clear from the story whether the latter had been suspended from the school. A local Muslim politician also demanded that this “terrible provocation” be dealt with – the disrespectful Koran, that is, not the death threat. The police apparently chose not to pursue this threat case, even though death threats, unlike blasphemy, are actually illegal. And yet they did. Law and order took the death threat and the toxic rumours of blasphemy so seriously that they organised a kind of mediation meeting in the local mosque.
The elite has surrendered
Islam has taken over. Forget Magna Carta and British pragmatism. We are talking about an obscurantism that has followed Islam since its inception. The agitation has served to subjugate new territories, to subjugate new peoples.
Now it is the British who must learn what it means to be conquered.
The same thing has happened in Denmark. The attitude towards Islam in 2023 is completely different from the one that prevailed after the Muhammad cartoons. The elite has capitulated.
Hoffmann tells the Danes what is happening. Not what they have in store, but what is happening, right now, wherever Islam penetrates.
The mediation in the mosque, which was streamed live, was set up by various actors: a local councillor and self-appointed mediator. The imam in the mosque. Two police officers, one of whom had a high rank. The school principal. And a local Muslim politician. In the streaming video, you can see that the mosque is packed with men. No women. They are hidden behind a screen that seems to divide the room. Only one woman is in the men’s area: the mother of the non-Muslim and possible Koranic scholar. She had beveiled herself to the best of her ability.
It was supposed to be a mediation meeting, but the balance of power was far too asymmetrical for that, Hoffmann writes.
Islam is a one-way street
Consider also the gender balance: a white non-Muslim woman against a relatively large, brown, Muslim and male audience – the female Muslim audience was invisible. All other things being equal, it was an anxiety-inducing scene to participate in, not least in light of the fact that one’s child’s life is potentially in danger. The imam speaks of the mother’s ‘anguish’ and before handing the microphone to the mother, he asks the congregation to ‘takbir’. This involves shouting “Allahu akbar” three times in unison from the floor. The microphone is handed over to the mother. She now has the floor.
The local councillor, who was apparently the initial instigator, seems almost to have regretted his original endeavour. In any case, he says in passing that the situation is now “frightening”.
Any case that can be interpreted as an offence against the Prophet or the Koran will get out of hand if the imams want to, just as in Denmark, and the situation can only be brought under control by subduing the infidels. The soft Westerners do not have the stamina to resist, even in their own country, and the Muslims feel it. Islam is a one-way street.
Only those who realise this can do something about the problem. Our politicians and media have long since given up. On our behalf.
Just the imam. His rhetoric is ambiguous. He talks a lot about Muslims’ love for Muhammad, that the prophet had never ordered anything violent, that vigilantes are against the teachings of the Koran. But with a raised index finger, he also talks about the global Muslim community, which could probably never accept this desecration of God’s word: “We will never tolerate disrespect for the Holy Quran, never! We will sacrifice our lives for it … We will not let this pass.”
When Muslims talk about martyrdom, watch out, because it is our death they are talking about.
The sovereignty of Islam rests on the power to decide who lives and who dies. This is happening in a modern society in Western Europe and we do not have the strength to face evil.
A civil war with three sides
For all its Middle English colour and storm-in-a-cup-of-water talk, the case points to something bigger. And as such, the imam was right to maximise the case and report the tort of the entire Islamic ummah. For the case and its handling is a sign. And unfortunately a dangerous sign.
The warning that the possible desecration had organised testifies to a society where everyone is aware of a crucial and fatal fact: that we cannot know whether it means life or death. For the potential desecrator(s) of the Koran – or for the school in question. We know we can’t know. We only know that there is a threat, a vague risk and an ambiguous speech. That the police and authorities are taking it very seriously. Not to honour a holy book, but because a future tragedy cannot be ruled out.
For all people of normal intelligence, this message has long been understood. That is why people are leaving Western Europe and moving to Central Europe or abroad.
In the midst of this horror, one cannot help but think that sooner or later this barbarism will be met with a reaction. What that reaction will be is hard to say.
There are many possible scenarios. But they have in common that they mark a red line for Islam. So far, but no further. We know that Muslims are unlikely to respect any boundary set by an infidel. The result is likely to be violent.
As things stand, the authorities will side with the Muslims. Then we will have a civil war with three parties.
Just as in Ukraine, which is being talked about as a third world war already in progress, one could say that the civil war in the West has also broken out. A long time ago.
Thomas Hoffmann, Weekendavisen: Islamist necropolitics.
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https://www.snaphanen.dk/2023/04/30/borgerkrigen-er-allerede-brudt-ud/#more-199683
@ LN
Re: “Just the imam. His rhetoric is ambiguous. He talks a lot about Muslims’ love for Muhammad, that the prophet had never ordered anything violent, that vigilantes are against the teachings of the Koran. But with a raised index finger, he also talks about the global Muslim community, which could probably never accept this desecration of God’s word: “We will never tolerate disrespect for the Holy Quran, never! We will sacrifice our lives for it … We will not let this pass.”
Ambiguous is one way to describe it; two-faced is another. Dr. Paul Warner, one of the foremost scholars of Islam of our time, has written extensively about the shape-shifting, dual or two-faced nature of Islam. It is vital to understanding Islam to understand how it camouflages its aggressiveness, violence and propensity for war-making within itself.
Consider the Koran itself: The Islamic holy book is a mystery wrapped inside a riddle hidden inside an enigma. It was originally written in Arabic,but even once one finds an English translation, the verses are not arranged chronologically, but by length.
If one troubles to read it in chronological order – assuming that one can do that – one finds that it divides roughly into the so-called Meccan and Medinan parts. These periods of Mohammed’s life correspond to his time first in Mecca, and then in Yathrib (Medina).
During the early years of his adult life, it is said, Mohammed did not have many followers and in this time in Mecca he preached a version of Islam which was reasonably tolerant and merciful, and which had a live-and-let-live attitude. The verses corresponding to this time are the most-peaceful parts of the Koran, and are said to the be from the Mecca portion of the book.
However, Mohammed decided to migrate to Yathrib (as Medina was then known), and it is during this period that his words became those of an aggressor, a taker of slaves and despoiler of virgins, in other words, a warlord. This period of his life – which lasted to his death – is called the Medina period, and it forms the basis of the aggressive side of Islam.
You will run across pious old Muslims who lead peaceful lives, and seem to be harming no one. These are generally followers of the Meccan portion of the Koran. There are also modern-day war-lords and jihadists who model themselves after the prophet in all things. These are followers of the Medinan part of the Koran.
Which is the “real” Islam? The answer is – both. But there is an important caveat that utterly falsifies the western apologist’s claims that “Islam is a religion of peace,” and that lies in the Islamic doctrine of abrogation.
The ulema (“wise old men”) at al-Azar University in Cairo, Egypt, the seat of Islamic jurisprudence for over a thousand years and the last word in interpretation of sharia (Islamic law), state that the doctrine of abrogation means that the later verses of Islam supersede or overrule the earlier verses.
Which in turn means that the violent “verses of the sword” supersede or trump the earlier peaceful verses of the Koran, since they appear in the latter half of the Koran when Mohammed was at his most-war-like.
This is how those imams can state with such seeming sincerity to infidels that Islam is a “religion of peace,” yet in Arabic or other language foreign to most westerners, exhort their followers at the mosque to show no mercy to the infidels.
Much of the Koran concerns the treatment of non-Muslims by Muslims. There are dozens of forms of lying, dissimulation, deception and diversion open to devout Muslims when they are dealing with the unbelievers, the infidels.
Such methods – taqiyya, kitman, tawriya, and others – may not be used with a fellow believer, another Muslim, but there is no such proscription when dealing with an infidel. Indeed, it is praiseworthy to protect one’s self as a Muslim or the faith itself, from possible harm by outsiders.
During the numerous military campaigns and raids which he led, Mohammed often resorted to such tactics as false truces, feigned friendship, and other ruses de guerre. Of course, deception in wartime is as old as war itself; what makes Islam unique is the degree to which these methods are utilized not just in war, but in everyday life. A devout Muslim is not just permitted to use such methods with the infidel; he is virtually duty-bound to do so if he considers himself a shahid or ‘true believer’ of the faith.
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In 711(?), Mohamad entered the Iberian Peninsula by force of arms – 800 years later he was ‘persuaded’ to return to North Africa.
Is this not a Mene Tekel for today’s Sweden, so to speak?
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On 1 May 2023, AfS (Alternative for Sweden), advocate of repatriation with 2000 members, held a meeting in Björns trädgård in Södermalm, Stockholm,
about 120 individuals came and listened.
On the other side of the street, the left gathers (“No racists on our streets” + red flags”)
Diversity is noticable in all respects.
https://swebbtube.se/w/u6BjPaUXU8VSiFW5SLE2SU
Re: “In 711(?), Mohamad entered the Iberian Peninsula by force of arms – 800 years later he was ‘persuaded’ to return to North Africa.”
If you’ll pardon my being pedantic and nit-picky, that was the Moors who invaded the Iberian Peninsula and not Mohammed, who died in 632.
Walking through the links.
Here I came across an interesting article on the Danish site Document.
https://www.document.dk/2023/04/30/borgerkrigen-er-allerede-brudt-ud/
The article contains a link to an article by Danish journalist Thomas Hoffmann, who writes for Weekendavisen.
I typed in the name and publication on Google. Apparently, this is a very good journalist. But! All articles are paid.
I understand copyrights and all that… Is there no way to arrange at least shortened publications?
If you remember, some time ago I asked about the town of Urbana in Illinois, where a migrant human rights activist deported from the Russian Federation moved.
(She received replacement migration grants from IOM and Caritas)
She now hosts a YouTube stream for migrants from Central Asia on how to get through Mexico to the United States.
Re: “In other news, a man is missing and feared dead after screams were heard where he was fishing on the bank of a river in northern Queensland. He is thought to have been dragged off and eaten by a crocodile.”
Crocodiles and alligators are nothing to take lightly. Don’t be misled by the apparently laziness with which they seem to move in the water or on shore; they are capable of remarkable quickness and possess enormous bite strength.
Years ago, near where my parents were then retired in South Carolina, a foursome of golfers went out one day to play eighteen holes. One of the men (let’s call him “Charlie”) hit his tee shot into the water hazard on a particular hole, and taking out his telescoping golf-ball retriever (a telescoping long pole with a cup or claw on the end for grabbing submerged golf-balls), he told his friends to keep playing and that he’d catch up with them on the next tee. He wanted his ball back.
Well, you can probably guess what happened next: Charlie didn’t show up on the next tee; his friends grew a bit concerned, but when they went back to the previous hole, there was no sign of him. They thought maybe he’d gone back to the clubhouse and decided to skip the remaining holes. He wasn’t there, either. By this time, the guys were genuinely alarmed and started a search for him,calling his home, etc.
By and by, the search party considered the possibility he’d met an untimely end somewhere on the course. The pond where he’d gone to collect golf-balls was checked, and that was his end – an adult alligator had taken and killed him as he stood on shore, fishing for golf-balls.
In the southeastern U.S., humans are relatively rarely killed by crocodiles and alligators, but it is an everyday occurrence in places with these creatures that pets and small game “disappear” without warning.
And in places like southern Florida, you now have to worry about Burmese pythons, too, which are enormous constrictor snakes which consume prey as large as white-tail tail without any problems whatsoever. Or the occasional unfortunate human….
Re: “And in places like southern Florida, you now have to worry about Burmese pythons, too, which are enormous constrictor snakes which consume prey as large as white-tail tail”
Oh good grief! My apologies. That should read:
“And in places like southern Florida, you now have to worry about Burmese pythons, too, which are enormous constrictor snakes which consume prey as large as white-tail deer..”
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— BEST KEPT SECRET ( CHAPTER 4) NEW WORLD ORDER
https://swebbtube.se/w/mBsTu9YNweY5LdmBEBiKRx