Reader’s links, November 13, 2017

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About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

105 Replies to “Reader’s links, November 13, 2017”

    • 11 aftershocks so far.
      If the tectonic plates are spreading these vibrations around the Middle East, I don’t see how the Iranians could contemplate a nuke on a near-by country. Wouldn’t a large explosion cause after-shocks to Iran or run the risk of triggering another large earthquake?

      • The North Korean nukes were on an earth quake fault and it was only after the last one that a quake occurred.

  1. Grenfell: Kensington borough has residents with TB and rickets, warns local MP (independent, Nov 13, 2017)
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grenfell-kensington-borough-residents-tb-rickets-mp-emma-dent-coad-wealthy-poorest-inequality-report-a8048366.html

    “Residents in the Grenfell Tower borough are suffering from tuberculosis and rickets, Kensington’s MP has warned in a shocking report on inequality affecting the UK’s richest local authority.

    Labour’s Emma Dent Coad warned Victorian illnesses were returning due to devastating poverty levels affecting some of Kensington’s roughly 160,000 residents.

    The damning report, titled “After Grenfell: Housing and Inequality in Kensington and Chelsea”, found multiple instances of children being admitted to hospital with hypocalceamic shock that caused them to collapse due to a lack of calcium.

    The findings were particularly stark in the northern Golborne ward, where Ms Dent Coad was a councillor, with 51 per cent of children living in poverty and the average life expectancy for a man more than 20 years lower than in Hans Town ward where Harrods is situated.

    Ms Dent Coad told The Independent the report exposes extremes of inequality in the borough that prove “trickle down” does not exist.

    “This has been brewing for a very, very long time. Children were coming to school with loose teeth and I spoke to some dentists in the area and they explained, ‘It’s not sugar, it’s not eating too many sweets. It’s malnutrition’,” she said.

    “It’s malnutrition in the womb, perinatal malnutrition which causes the babies to be born undersized and without enough calcium in their bodies. We have had some children collapsing at school.”

    The report also highlights the huge disparity in average income across Kensington’s 18 wards.

    The mean average income is £45,000, but a third of all workers – the majority living in the north of the borough – earn below £20,000, the report found. The average house price in Kensington is £1.4m.

    A global spotlight was shone on the borough’s divisions in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in June that killed at least 80 people.

    Ms Dent Coad said the “entirely preventable atrocity” had revealed an inequality chasm, which, she believes, has been created through years of poor political decision-making and financial mismanagement.

    “There is no trickle down, if it existed we wouldn’t have people with their teeth falling out from such a young age, if we can’t even feed children in Kensington then you know we have to stop pretending that trickle down exists,” she said…”

  2. Floating Cities, No Longer Science Fiction, Begin to Take Shape

    By DAVID GELLESNOV. 13, 2017

    It is an idea at once audacious and simplistic, a seeming impossibility that is now technologically within reach: cities floating in international waters — independent, self-sustaining nation states at sea.

    Long the stuff of science fiction, so-called “seasteading” has in recent years matured from pure fantasy into something approaching reality, and there are now companies, academics, architects and even a government working together on a prototype by 2020.

    At the center of the effort is the Seasteading Institute, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco. Founded in 2008, the group has spent about a decade trying to convince the public that seasteading is not an entirely crazy idea.

    That has not always been easy. At times, the story of the seasteading movement seems to lapse into self parody. Burning Man gatherings in the Nevada desert are an inspiration, while references to the Kevin Costner film “Waterworld” are inevitable. The project is being partially funded by an initial coin offering, a new concept sweeping Silicon Valley and Wall Street in which money can be raised by creating and selling virtual currency.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/business/dealbook/seasteading-floating-cities.html

  3. World’s Top Tech Giants Amass $1.7 Trillion in Monster Year

    Between the FAANG quintet and China’s rivaling BAT companies, gains in the world’s top technology shares are nearing a whopping $1.7 trillion in market value this year.

    That’s more than Canada’s entire economy, and exceeds the worth of Germany’s biggest 30 companies put together. The eight tech giants — Facebook Inc., Amazon Inc., Apple Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc., as well as their Asian peers Baidu Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. — have amassed as much money in 2017 as Pacific Investment Management Co., one of the world’s biggest fund managers, has done in about 46 years.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-13/top-tech-stocks-1-7-trillion-gain-eclipses-canada-s-economy

    Richard: Things like this have happened before in history, the big shock value is the amount money made, this is because of the planned inflation of Keynesian economics. This socialist economic plan has destroyed all of hte gains that the free market gave to the Middle and Lower classes.

      • I wish I could help you, that must be scary having all of our data in someone else’s hands and not being able to get it back or even access it. Once you get control again make sure Apple knows how upset you are.

        • After hours on the phone with Apple, I finished re-installing –
          And I’m STILL in the CLOUD!

          I need wizard help. Everything’s a mess – metadata missing, Cloud controls access to the images of my own files. (All backed-up, though.)
          There’s a mammoth stash of Islamofauxbia on this machine. I’m afraid the downtown Apple Store will do bad things to her.

  4. Is it time for investors to leave the party after the latest bond market wobbles?

    Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

    The credit markets have sharp antennae. They issued early warning alerts four to eight weeks before each episode of stress over the last 20 years, although with several false alarms along the way.

    The shake-out in the US junk bond market last week had an ominous feel for traders and may finally mark the top of the post-Lehman boom in corporate credit. The exuberant reach for yield is nearing its limits.

    “It is a sober moment. People are suddenly aware that central banks are turning serious and are not going to keep creating stimulus ad ­infinitum,” said Marc Ostwald from ADM.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/11/12/time-investors-leave-party-latest-bond-market-wobbles/

  5. We’re probably entering a bond market bubble. Here’s what to do about it

    Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/biz-monday/article183838311.html#storylink=cpy

    Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recently told Bloomberg that we are entering a bond market bubble in the U.S., and all signs point to yes. In fact, I would add that what was once a safe, stable and predictable investment class is about to be turned on its head, as interest rates rise and values plummet.

    Even so, a bond-market bubble is different than a bubble in the stock market or real estate market. These are markets that bubble when the price paid for an investment cannot be justified by the profit the investor will gain. If the purchase price of a condo far exceeds what the investor can charge in rent, real estate prices become unsustainable (as we saw in 2007). If a company’s stock is trading at such a high price that the company can’t realistically generate a return on those investments, stock prices similarly have nowhere to go but down.

    During the tech bubble of 2000, investors mistakenly believed that tech stocks were somehow different than any other investments and that profits weren’t needed for stock prices to rise. The market eventually market realized this, leading to the historic 78 percent decline of the NASDAQ composite. All in all, the common denominator in stock, real estate and bond market bubbles is this: Everyone is rushing to the fire exit, but they cannot get out in time.

    Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/biz-monday/article183838311.html#storylink=cpy

    http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/biz-monday/article183838311.html

  6. North Korean Soldier Shot by Own Troops as He Defects to the South

    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean troops fired on a fellow soldier who was defecting to South Korea on Monday across the heavily armed border dividing the countries, South Korean officials said, amid heightened tensions over the North’s nuclear weapons program.

    The soldier was shot but succeeded in reaching the South, its military said in a statement.

    The North Korean soldier defected through Panmunjom, a village that straddles the border between the two Koreas. Alerted by gunshots, South Korean guards found the North Korean soldier about 55 yards south of the border line that bisects Panmunjom. He was taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds to an elbow and shoulder, South Korean officials said.

    His defection took place amid a joint naval exercise involving three American aircraft carriers in waters off South Korea’s east coast. It was the first time in a decade that the United States Navy had mobilized three carrier groups in the same drill in the western Pacific, and it represented the show of force that President Trump has said Americans “hope to God we never have to use” against North Korea.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/world/asia/north-korea-defector-south.html

  7. Ban on killer robots urgently needed, say scientists

    Technology now exists to create autonomous weapons that can select and kill human targets without supervision as UN urged to outlaw them

    The movie portrays a brutal future. A military firm unveils a tiny drone that hunts and kills with ruthless efficiency. But when the technology falls into the wrong hands, no one is safe. Politicians are cut down in broad daylight. The machines descend on a lecture hall and spot activists, who are swiftly dispatched with an explosive to the head.

    The short, disturbing film is the latest attempt by campaigners and concerned scientists to highlight the dangers of developing autonomous weapons that can find, track and fire on targets without human supervision. They warn that a preemptive ban on the technology is urgently needed to prevent terrible new weapons of mass destruction.

    Stuart Russell, a leading AI scientist at the University of California in Berkeley, and others will show the film on Monday during an event at the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons hosted by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. The manufacture and use of autonomous weapons, such as drones, tanks and automated machine guns, would be devastating for human security and freedom, and the window to halt their development is closing fast, Russell warned.
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    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/13/ban-on-killer-robots-urgently-needed-say-scientists

  8. Privacy fears over artificial intelligence as crimestopper

    Washington (AFP) – Police in the US state of Delaware are poised to deploy “smart” cameras in cruisers to help authorities detect a vehicle carrying a fugitive, missing child or straying senior.

    The video feeds will be analyzed using artificial intelligence to identify vehicles by license plate or other features and “give an extra set of eyes” to officers on patrol, says David Hinojosa of Coban Technologies, the company providing the equipment.

    “We are helping officers keep their focus on their jobs,” said Hinojosa, who touts the new technology as a “dashcam on steroids.”

    The program is part of a growing trend to use vision-based AI to thwart crime and improve public safety, a trend which has stirred concerns among privacy and civil liberties activists who fear the technology could lead to secret “profiling” and misuse of data.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/privacy-fears-over-artificial-intelligence-crimestopper-015326163.html

  9. US breaks ground for new permanent base in Israel
    By: Barbara Opall-Rome

    TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. and Israeli officers broke ground in Israel on Monday for a permanent U.S. Army base that will house dozens of U.S. soldiers, operating under the American flag, and charged with the mission of defending against rocket and missile attack.

    The American base, officers in Israel say, will be an independent facility co-located at the Israel Defense Forces Air Defense School in southern Israel, near the desert capital of Beersheba. Once completed, the base will house U.S. operational systems to identify and intercept a spectrum of aerial threats, along with barracks, recreational and other facilities required to support several dozen American air defenders.

    https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2017/09/18/us-breaks-ground-for-new-permanent-base-in-israel/

  10. Richard: It looks like the British left is supporting Iran.

    Tension mounts in Lebanon as Saudi Arabia escalates power struggle with Iran

    n Beirut’s southern suburbs, where buildings scarred with wars of old blend with posters of the latest dead, talk of another conflict has taken hold. A fight on a scale not seen before may be brewing, say locals like Hussein Khaireddine, a barber who says he and his family in the Shia suburb of Dahiyeh have grown used to tensions over decades.

    “This one’s different,” he said. “It could lead to every valley and mountain top. And if it starts, it may not stop.”

    The trepidation extends beyond the city’s predominantly Shia suburbs and south Lebanon, which bore the brunt of the 2006 war with Israel, to all corners of a country that has suddenly found itself at the centre of an extraordinary regional crisis. The turmoil had been brewing for years. But it was brought to a head on 3 November, at a lunch in Beirut being hosted by prime minister Saad Hariri. Midway through the meal with the visiting French cultural minister, Françoise Nyssen, Hariri received a call and his demeanour changed. He excused himself and left for the airport, without his aides.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/11/lebanon-saudi-arabia-iran–power-struggle-saad-hariri-resignation

  11. Powerful earthquake on Iran-Iraq border kills over 350

    TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake near the Iraq-Iran border killed over 350 people across both countries, sent residents fleeing their homes into the night and was felt as far away as the Mediterranean coast, authorities said Monday.

    Iran’s western Kermanshah province bore the brunt of the temblor Sunday night, with authorities saying the quake killed 348 people in the country and injured 6,603. Kermanshah is a rural, mountainous region where residents rely mainly on farming.

    In Iraq, the earthquake killed at least seven people and injured 535, all in the country’s northern Kurdish region, according to Iraq’s Interior Ministry.

    https://apnews.com/e0c0da2bf1f645689b0244aefd81684e/Powerful-earthquake-on-Iran-Iraq-border-kills-over-330

  12. This one shows how self centered the Hollywood Actors are.

    George Takei blames Russian bots for trying to ‘amplify’ sexual assault accusation

    George Takei had an out-of-this-world explanation for why so many people were talking about the sexual assault claim against him.

    In a now-deleted tweet, the “Star Trek” actor blamed Russian bots for spreading the story after Scott Brunton, an ex-model and actor, accused Takei of groping him in his Los Angeles condo in 1981.

    The tweet, credited to SecuringDemocracy.org, showed Russian bot activity over the last 48 hours.

    “Takei” had increased in popularity almost 20,000% and “George Takei” had jumped by more than 15,000%.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/george-takei-thinks-russian-bots-spread-sexual-assault-accusation-article-1.3628635

  13. Lagerfeld sparks fury over migrants Holocaust comments

    Paris (AFP) – Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has sparked outrage by evoking the Holocaust as he attacked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for opening the country’s borders to migrants.

    “One cannot — even if there are decades between them — kill millions of Jews so you can bring millions of their worst enemies in their place,” he told a French television show.

    “I know someone in Germany who took a young Syrian and after four days said, ‘The greatest thing Germany invented was the Holocaust,'” he added.

    Several hundred people lodged official complaints about Lagerfeld’s comments, the French media regulator said Monday after he appeared on the “Salut les terriens!” (Hello Earthlings!) talkshow on the C8 channel on Saturday.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/lagerfeld-sparks-fury-over-migrants-holocaust-comments-111212848.html

  14. Prehistoric, Dinosaur-Era Shark With Insane Teeth Found Swimming Off Coast of Portugal

    Updated | The rare frilled shark is considered a “living fossil,” because evidence of its existence dates back to at least 80 million years ago. This summer, researchers found one alive and thriving off the coast of Portugal, adding yet more clues about the resilience of this ancient sea creature.

    http://www.newsweek.com/dinosaur-era-frilled-shark-insane-teeth-found-portugal-708764

  15. Naked people rampage through Missouri town, barking and showering in soda water

    By Adam Darby

    adarby@kcstar.com

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    November 12, 2017 2:11 PM

    Last weekend got downright bizarre in the eastern Missouri town of Sullivan, and police say they know why.

    Four people went on a rampage, barking and yelling, breaking into buildings, even stripping off their clothes and showering in soda water, police say. They suspect the synthetic drug flakka is behind the behavior.

    “We had multiple incidents this past weekend of people on some kind of substance acting out of their minds,” Sullivan Police Lt. Patrick Johnson told the Sullivan Independent News. “Barking like dogs, running up and down the street, or other farm animals, entering people’s homes, breaking into a business, yelling outside of local businesses.”

    Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article184248578.html#storylink=cpy

    • This isn’t anywhere near me but the drug will spread to my town, it will spread to all towns and cities.

  16. Purists alarmed over moves to make French less macho

    Paris (AFP) – Moves to make French more female-friendly have sparked impassioned debate in France, with an appalled Academie Francaise warning of a “mortal danger” to the language of Moliere.

    At the centre of the debate is the growing use of formulations such as “lecteur.rice.s” for the word “readers” to embrace both genders.

    Several government ministries, universities and labour unions use so-called “inclusive writing”, but it had largely escaped public notice — until this autumn when it turned up in an elementary school history textbook.

    The Academie Francaise, the arbiter of the French language which has inducted just eight women since its foundation in 1635, did not mince words.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/purists-alarmed-over-moves-french-less-macho-143203826.html

  17. Real risk Black Death plague will reach US, Europe and BRITAIN, disease expert warns

    THE deadly plague outbreak could reach every continent, a disease expert has horrifyingly warned.

    Health officials are warning things will get even worse before they get better and have dubbed this the “worst outbreak in 50 years”.

    A similar outbreak of the Black Death killed off one third of medieval Europe.

    Speaking to Daily Star Online, disease outbreak expert Professor Paul Hunter said the plague could reach every continent, starting with mainland Africa.

    He said: “This current outbreak is concerning given that it is different from previous cases we have seen, and has been spreading to areas that are not used to seeing it.

    https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/659144/Black-Death-plague-disease-global-outbreak-expert-Madagascar-Africa-WHO-pneumonic-death

  18. France raises prospect of new sanctions on Iran over ballistic program

    PARIS (Reuters) – France’s foreign ministry suggested on Monday that new sanctions could be imposed on Iran if needed over its ballistic missile program.

    Iran rejected on Sunday a call by French President Emmanuel Macron for talks on Tehran’s ballistic missiles, saying they were defensive and unrelated to a nuclear agreement with world powers.

    “As you know, the European Union has already placed sanctions on Iranian entities involved in the ballistic program,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne said.

    She was responding when asked to clarify comments made by Macron during a trip to the United Arab Emirates last week about the prospects of possible sanctions with regard to those activities.

    “If needed, new sanctions could be taken,” she said.

    http://www.oann.com/france-raises-prospect-of-new-sanctions-on-iran-over-ballistic-program/

  19. EU readies sanctions on Venezuela, approves arms embargo

    BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union foreign ministers approved economic sanctions including an arms embargo on Venezuela on Monday, saying regional elections last month marred by reported irregularities had deepened the country’s crisis.

    Anxious not to push Caracas any closer to economic and political collapse as authorities there begin debt restructuring talks, EU governments held back from targeting any individuals.

    The bloc instead left names for a later stage to try to persuade President Nicholas Maduro to calm the situation.

    “Everything we do it aimed at seeking dialogue between the government and the opposition to find a democratic and peaceful solution,” Spain’s Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis told reporters at a meeting with his counterparts where the sanctions decision was taken.

    http://www.oann.com/eu-readies-sanctions-on-venezuela-approves-arms-embargo/

  20. A march for peace organized Monday morning in Paris

    Muslims call to gather in Paris to commemorate the second anniversary of the attacks of 13 November, and oppose Islamist terrorism.

    “Wherever you are, neighbors, city dwellers, suburbs, members of associations, employees, workers, unemployed, it is time to make your voice heard!” It is with these words that the writer Marek Halter calls the young Muslims to meet, Monday morning in Paris, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the attacks of 13-November. A march of peace will leave Monday at 9 am from the Wall for Peace, on the Champ de Mars, in Paris, and will end in front of the Bataclan.
    Say “no” to terrorism. The writer, supported by Hassen Chalghoumi, president of the Conference of Imams of France, intends to mobilize young Muslims to block those who exploit their religion for terrorist purposes. “You are more than a billion across the world, more than seven million in France, I ask you, I conjure you down the street, en masse, this day of the second anniversary of the killing of the Bataclan, to say ‘ no ‘to terrorism’, he writes in this appeal published on the Paris Match website.

    “Only you can tell them that they die for nothing”. “By killing innocent people, a handful of men are dirtying your image, your religion,” he says. “All the fonts in the world can do nothing against those who believe and are willing to die, unlike you, only you can tell them that they die for nothing, that the Prophet does not want assassins in paradise”.

    http://www.europe1.fr/societe/une-marche-pour-la-paix-organisee-lundi-matin-a-paris-3490655

  21. German state media: Concerned citizens are the problem, not Arab clans

    After the alarming news that Arab clans infiltrated the German police a reply from the leftist media in the country couldn’t be far away.

    In a column, for German state media, Kaveh Kooroshy (half-Iranian) says that the whistle-blower in the Arab infiltration case is a ‘racist’. (S)He even wants the man to be sanctioned and other people like him.

    (S)He believes in reality people are scared that they will get a parking ticket from a Muslim police officer in the future. In (her)his mind these people have infiltrated political parties with their ‘racist’ ideologies.

    According to (her)him it’s “the concerned citizen who is the problem, because this citizen thinks that immigrants in the police force are a danger”. (S)He adds that they are the same people who are worried about Islamisation and refugees.

    So this is modern day Germany: A country where it’s better to be silent about the problems of immigration or face the racism claim.

    https://voiceofeurope.com/2017/11/german-state-media-worried-citizens-problem-not-arab-clans/

    „Besorgte Bürger” unterwandern Polizei

    http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/Besorgte-Buerger-unterwandern-Polizei,polizeiakademie124.html

  22. Two key questions in the ‘Roy Moore’ fracas
    By J.E. Dyer November 13, 2017

    I’ve avoided writing on this topic so far, partly because it is so very wearing to see everyone in a righteous snit over it, on one side or the other.

    But with time to reflect, I’ve seen that point, in itself, emerging as significant. The righteous snits are exactly what we get, when we insist on government and politics being about every last detail of our social mores.

    The first real question for all of us is not what we expect of Roy Moore, or any other politician. It’s what we expect of government.

    Question 1

    And that in turn is not a question about the character of the people who should be running government. There are, legitimately, standards of character, but that’s not what I’m getting at.

    Instead, by “what we expect of government,” I mean what we expect it to do for us. The role we expect it to play in our lives. The proper relations between man and the state; what the healthy and proper function of government is.

    Erick Erickson had a marvelous essay at the Resurgent on 10 November, in which he pointed out the many avenues of social-mores attack the American left is using government for. He acknowledged that he couldn’t blame Alabama voters for sticking by the one guy who wholeheartedly agrees with them that that has to be stopped (and who, as his voters see it, has accepted professional censure from a corrupted state in order to defend his principles).

    Erickson has tweeted points from that essay in the last couple of days – and he’s right.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2017/11/13/two-key-questions-roy-moore-fracas/

    • I Don’t Blame Roy Moore Voters For Sticking With Him
      By Erick Erickson | November 10, 2017, 05:00am | @ewerickson

      Up front, here is what I think Roy Moore should do. If he continues to deny the allegations, he should hold a press conference and tell people he wants to clear his name. In the interests of helping the President and avoiding a Democrat, he will continue to campaign for the office and then, if elected, resign so that the Governor can appoint his replacement so that he might focus on clearing his name. He can call this move the Corzine gambit.

      Now here’s a post to make everyone mad. I really don’t blame Roy Moore’s voters for sticking with him and I know they are going to come under withering attacks for standing by their man. They don’t deserve it. Clearly a lot of people would prefer to avoid dealing with how we got to this point of moral decay among conservatives who used to really believe character counted.

      Well, just this past Sunday a militant atheist shot up a church in Texas, killing about half the congregation. One of those killed was still in the womb, but the baby gets counted as a person to boost the arguments for gun control, otherwise the baby would just be a fetus.

      http://theresurgent.com/i-dont-blame-roy-moore-voters-for-sticking-with-him/?utm_content=buffer5301c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

    • Paralysis looms if Democrats gain in Senate
      By Jerome Woehrle November 12, 2017

      The GOP may have won the 2016 presidential election, but it won’t mean that much if the Democrats can block the appointment of conservative (or even moderate) judges and agency heads — a specter that may soon become a reality. That would leave liberal bureaucrats in effective control of some federal agencies. It would also result in many of the nation’s federal appeals courts still being controlled by left-wing judges appointed by Obama and Clinton.

      If the Democrats gain even a few seats in the Senate, they will be able to block the appointment of even a mildly conservative Supreme Court justice to replace elderly moderate and conservative justices like Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

      The GOP currently controls the U.S. Senate by a very narrow margin. Its effective control of the Senate may soon disappear due to the December special election in Alabama, where one poll shows the staunchly liberal Democrat Doug Jones leading controversial GOP nominee Roy Moore. Even if the GOP wins that race, it could lose control of the Senate in 2018 due to the potential losses of Senate seats it currently holds in Nevada and Arizona.

      On paper, the GOP currently has a 52-to-48 majority in the Senate. But the Democrats are united in opposition to even well-respected, mainstream Republican nominees, while some GOP senators occasionally cross party lines to vote against conservative legislation, such as changes to Obamacare. On social issues, Maine’s Susan Collins (R) is more like a Democrat than a Republican.

      https://libertyunyielding.com/2017/11/12/paralysis-looms-due-likely-democratic-gains-senate/

    • Mother of Roy Moore accuser contradicts key detail of sexual misconduct story
      By Joe Newby November 12, 2017

      On Sunday, Breitbart’s Aaron Klein reported that the mother of Leigh Corfman, the woman who said Alabama Senatorial Candidate Roy Moore tried to engage in a sexual encounter with her when she was 14, contradicted a key detail of her daughter’s story.

      According to Klein:

      Speaking by phone to Breitbart News on Saturday, Corfman’s mother, Nancy Wells, 71, says that her daughter did not have a phone in her bedroom during the period that Moore is reported to have allegedly called Corfman – purportedly on Confman’s bedroom phone – to arrange at least one encounter.

      Moore strongly denies Corfman’s claims.

      The Washington Post, which first published its newsmaking, on-the-record interview with Corfman last week, cited Corfman as remembering that she provided Moore with her number when she was 14. She said that she spoke to Moore from what she described as the phone in her bedroom.

      https://libertyunyielding.com/2017/11/12/mother-roy-moore-accuser-contradicts-key-detail-sexual-misconduct-story/

      • I am going to try reposting this comment where it belongs.

        Read both of the above articles, they are about modern politics in all of the supposedly Free World. The left who started the Politics of Personal Destruction is attacking Judge Roy Moore for sexual impropriety. One of his accusers was a sign language translator for Hillary and another has a record of accusing Preachers of sexually molesting her. I haven’t seen anything that says any of the charges were fact.

        What we are witnessing here and in the Virginia Governors race are the new tactics that will be used against the political opponents of all leftists. Accuse them of racism (Since Virginia is a very Democrat state and the Republican was anti-Trump we don’t know how much the racist ad affect the race) or accuse them of sexual molestation or harassment decades ago. The latter is seen as a win win for them, if it causes the Republicans to lose it worked, if the Republican wins they can still accuse him/her of sexual molestation and accuse the people who voted for the Republican of being uncaring misogynists.

        FYI the second tactic is straight our of HItlers play book, once he was voted in as Chancellor he used false charges of homosexuality to drive his political opponents out of power and into prisons. The more things change the more they stay the same.

  23. CBC – The ISIS orphans

    Inside the frantic search for Russian kids stranded in Iraq and Syria after their extremist fathers were killed in battle.

  24. Read both of the above articles, they are about modern politics in all of the supposedly Free World. The left who started the Politics of Personal Destruction is attacking Judge Roy Moore for sexual impropriety. One of his accusers was a sign language translator for Hillary and another has a record of accusing Preachers of sexually molesting her. I haven’t seen anything that says any of the charges were fact.

    What we are witnessing here and in the Virginia Governors race are the new tactics that will be used against the political opponents of all leftists. Accuse them of racism (Since Virginia is a very Democrat state and the Republican was anti-Trump we don’t know how much the racist ad affect the race)</em) or accuse them of sexual molestation or harassment decades ago. The latter is seen as a win win for them, if it causes the Republicans to lose it worked, if the Republican wins they can still accuse him/her of sexual molestation and accuse the people who voted for the Republican of being uncaring misogynists.

    FYI the second tactic is straight our of HItlers play book, once he was voted in as Chancellor he used false charges of homosexuality to drive his political opponents out of power and into prisons. The more things change the more they stay the same.

  25. Vancouver Mosque, Tarek Ramadan: It Is Our Duty to Share the Jihad against the Zionists

    Canadian Imam Tarek Ramadan said that it was the duty of the Muslims to fight alongside their brothers and sisters in Palestine “by any means necessary,” because the Al-Aqsa Mosque was “under a gang of the worst kind of Mankind – if you can even call them Mankind, those Zionists.” “We can give them any aid they want: money, weapons, expertise. We are not going to be shy about it,” said Ramadan, whose July 28 Friday sermon at the Muslim Association of Canada’s Vancouver branch was posted on the association’s YouTube channel. He further said that the Jews had plotted and schemed to assassinate Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II when he refused to give them land.

  26. Briton killed in Syria fighting against ISIS died of blast injuries, inquest hears (express, Nov 13, 2017)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/879044/isis-syria-raqqa-briton-solder-death-ypg-inquest

    “Luke Rutter, 22, from Wirral, Merseyside, died in the city of Raqqa on July 5 after joining the Kurdistan People’s Protection Units (YPG).

    An inquest into his death, held at the Gerard Majella Courthouse in Liverpool on Monday, heard he had travelled to the country without the knowledge of the UK authorities and was “more likely than not” to have been killed by IS, also known as Daesh.

    The brief hearing, which lasted less than 10 minutes, was attended by Mr Rutter’s mother and father along with other relatives.

    Coroner’s officer Pamela Robbins said a post-mortem examination showed the cause of his death was blast injuries…”

  27. Anti-Islam agenda promoted from the top in US – former unofficial adviser to Obama

    The heated language of Trump’s presidential campaign is affecting American Muslims, who find themselves increasingly on the receiving end of hate crimes. A year into Trump’s presidency, how will his words and decisions affect the country’s Islamic minority? We ask Trita Parsi, former informal Obama administration’s adviser and head of the National American Iranian Council.

  28. Putin: Russia-Turkey Relations Restored Almost in Full (sputniknews, Nov 13, 2017)
    https://sputniknews.com/world/201711131059057591-putin-russia-turkey-ties-restored/

    “The presidents of Russia and Turkey held talks in the Russian resort of Sochi on Monday to discuss regional issues including the Syrian crisis.

    Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Vladimir Putin said that Russia-Turkey ties “could be considered to be almost fully restored,” while President Erdogan said that the bilateral ties are developing “every single minute.”

    The Russian president, who arrived in Sochi to meet his Turkish counterpart, noted that trade turnover between the two nations has grown by a third during the first eight months of the current year after a fall in 2016. He added that Russia and Turkey are cooperating on a number of regional and international issues, including the settlement of the Syrian crisis…”

  29. Lagerfeld sparks fury over migrants Holocaust comments

    Paris (AFP) – Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has sparked outrage by evoking the Holocaust as he attacked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for opening the country’s borders to migrants.

    “One cannot — even if there are decades between them — kill millions of Jews so you can bring millions of their worst enemies in their place,” he told a French television show.

    “I know someone in Germany who took a young Syrian and after four days said, ‘The greatest thing Germany invented was the Holocaust,'” he added.

    Several hundred people lodged official complaints about Lagerfeld’s comments, the French media regulator said Monday after he appeared on the “Salut les terriens!” (Hello Earthlings!) talkshow on the C8 channel on Saturday.

    The veteran Chanel designer, who was born in Hamburg just as Adolf Hitler came to power, had earlier lambasted Merkel for taking more than one million asylum seekers since the migrant crisis of 2015.

    “Merkel had already millions and millions (of immigrants) who are well integrated and who work and all is well… she had no need to take another million to improve her image as the wicked stepmother after the Greek crisis,” said Lagerfeld.

    “Suddenly we see the pastor’s daughter,” he said in reference to Merkel’s father, who was a Protestant minister in the former East Germany.

    Lagerfeld, who is rarely afraid of controversy, said he was going to “say something horrific” before criticising the chancellor for the “huge error” of accepting so many refugees from war-torn Syria and elsewhere.

    “Look at France, the land of human rights, which has taken, I don’t know, 10,000 or 20,000,” he added.

    The French TV regulator, the CSA, said it had received several hundred complaints over the weekend about Lagerfeld’s comment, and was looking at the programme.

    The designer was roasted for the outburst on social media, although some users also came to his defence.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/lagerfeld-sparks-fury-over-migrants-holocaust-comments-111212848.html

  30. Young Dutch Woman Convicted of Supporting Terrorism (nytimes, Nov 13, 2017)
    https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/11/13/world/europe/ap-eu-netherlands-terror-trial.html

    “A 22-year-old Dutch woman who traveled to Syria and Iraq to support her family while her husband fought with the Islamic State extremist group has been convicted of supporting terrorist acts and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.

    A court in Rotterdam suspended 13 months of Laura Hansen’s sentence, meaning she won’t have to go to prison following Monday’s conviction since she spent a year in pretrial detention.

    Hansen traveled with her husband and two young children to IS-controlled territory in September 2015.

    She made headlines in July 2016 when she surrendered to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul in northern Iraq, saying she had been trying to escape the “hell” she was living in “all the time.””

  31. 8 Afghan Officers Killed by Taliban Militants Wearing Night-Vision Goggles (NYT, Nov 13, 2017)
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/world/asia/taliban-shooting-policemen.html

    “Taliban insurgents using sophisticated night-vision goggles killed eight Afghan police officers in their beds early Monday near the capital of western Farah Province, Afghan officials said.

    The authorities suspect there was also a Taliban infiltrator, according to Naser Mehri, a spokesman for the Farah governor, adding that the only police officer who had survived the attack was being interrogated but had not been charged.

    Afghan officials said the killings were the latest in a wave of attacks by the Taliban using night-vision goggles, usually with Russian markings. United States forces introduced night-vision technology in Afghanistan, and American trainers instructed the Afghan Army how to use them to get an advantage against the Taliban.

    Now, the Taliban have apparently managed to obtain the same technology. “Night-vision equipment is used in ambushes by the insurgents and it is very effective,” said Maj. Gen. Dawlat Waziri, the spokesman for the Defense Ministry. “You can see your enemy but they cannot see you coming.”

    While Afghan soldiers often have night-vision equipment, police officers usually do not.

    Mr. Mehri said the attack was carried out on an Afghan National Police checkpoint in the village of Pule Regi, about three miles from the center of the provincial capital, the city of Farah, around 2 a.m.

    Hajji Abdul Rahman Aka, a village elder, said the insurgents had hidden in a graveyard and were monitoring the movement of the police using night-vision goggles.

    “The Taliban attacked the post and did not even give the police a chance to wake up and reach their weapons,” Mr. Aka said. One officer was wounded and escaped, he said: “The rest of the police were killed, still in their beds.”…”

  32. Ignorance and Caricatures Mar Our Understanding of Russian Foreign Policy
    And why it’s harming our national interests.
    November 13, 2017
    Bruce Thornton

    All it took to transform Vladimir Putin from a candidate for a foreign policy “reset” into a global villain was a change in presidents.

    In 2012 Barack Obama mocked Mitt Romney for his 1980s view that Russia under Putin was our most serious global rival. Obama earlier had sent his Secretary of State to offer a cartoonish “reset button” to the Russians, and followed up a few years later by offering Putin “flexibility” after his reelection. After Hillary’s defeat and Trump’s campaign suggestions of outreach to Russia, Putin suddenly became a villain straight out of Joe McCarthy’s central casting, the Svengali who seduced Republicans into “collusion” with “fake news” and “hacks” in order to put into power a president beholden to him. At least Senator John McCain has been consistent, holding fast to his reductive view of Putin as a dead-eyed KGB thug with whom it is impossible to do geopolitical business.

    Once again, our foreign policy lacks continuity and coherence because we ignore history and rely instead on gratifying caricatures that serve partisan interests or moral preening rather than our country’s security and interests.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268401/ignorance-and-caricatures-mar-our-understanding-bruce-thornton

  33. Trump Keeps Spotlight On North Korea
    Quiet from the Kim Jong-un regime during the president’s Asia trip speaks volumes.
    November 13, 2017
    Joseph Klein

    President Trump has maintained a laser-like focus on two themes during his Asia trip – the need for firm collective action against the North Korean regime to thwart its nuclear ambitions and the need for negotiation of fairer, more reciprocal bilateral trading arrangements between the United States and its Asian trading partners.

    While modulating his rhetoric regarding North Korea, and even holding out the possibility of resumed talks under the right circumstances, the U.S. president made clear that he would not be content with a deal that continues to kick the can down the road. He pointed to the deals over the last 25 years that were supposed to lead to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, which the North Korean regime failed to honor. “The North Korean regime has pursued its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in defiance of every assurance, agreement, and commitment it has made to the United States and its allies,” the president declared in his speech to the South Korean National Assembly in Seoul.

    Trump warned North Korea that it now faced an administration determined to take a different approach. “Do not underestimate us, and do not try us,” he said. The president added “a message directly to the leader of the North Korean dictatorship” that the weapons he is acquiring “are putting your regime in grave danger.”

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268400/trump-keeps-spotlight-north-korea-joseph-klein

    • The two articles above point out the problem we face, too many people believe the propaganda of the left, and to many on the left believe their own propaganda. Thus we are faced with dealing with real people instead of the leftist cartoons and find that the left is incapable in looking beyond their propaganda cartoons.

  34. USA – Transracial’ man born white feels like he is Filipino

    TAMPA, Fla. — Riding in a flamboyant purple vehicle, Ja Du shows up to a coffee shop to open up about his new identity.

    Ja Du, born a white male named Adam, now considers himself a Filipino. Turns out the purple ride he drives around in is called a Tuk Tuk, an Asian-derived vehicle used for public transit in the Philippines he says.

    Ja Du is part of a small, but growing community of people who considers themselves transracial. It refers to someone born one race, but identifies with another.

    Sound weird? Not to them. Ja Du says he grew up enjoying Filipino food, events and the overall culture.

    […]Standpoint from a psychologist

    Dr. Stacey Scheckner is a licensed psychologist with a B.A. from Washington University, plus M.A. and doctorate from Florida State. She hasn’t had a client who wanted to change their race but has worked with many clients wanting to change their body in some way.

    “If someone feels that they feel at home with a certain religion, a certain race, a certain culture, I think that if that’s who they really feel inside life is about finding out who you are. The more knowledge you have of yourself, the happier you can be,” she said.

    “And, as long as it’s not hurting yourself or anyone else, I don’t see a problem with that.”

    […]Ja Du hasn’t told his family yet because he believes they will laugh at the notion of changing your ethnicity. […]

    more :

    http://www.wtsp.com/news/transracial-man-born-white-feels-like-he-is-filipino/491290902

    • Things keep getting weirder and weirder, we have turned the inmates loose to run the asylum.

  35. STEAMROLLED: Advertisers Abandon Sean Hannity Show After Coordinated Media Matters Attack
    Keurig, IHOP, others bow to Soros-driven campaign designed to drive Hannity off the air.

    Major advertisers Keurig, IHOP, Nature’s Bounty, ELOQUII, Ford and others have pulled advertising from Sean Hannity’s prime time show, ostensibly over the Fox News host’s interview with Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. But the mass exodus may have less to do with accusations against Moore and more to do with a coordinated campaign lead by the Soros-funded “watchdog” site, Media Matters.

    Last week, Hannity had Moore, who stands accused of sexually harassing teenagers when he was in his 30s, on his radio program to answer The Washington Post’s allegations. On the show, Moore told Hannity that he did not remember dating a 14-year-old girl, and maintained that while he dated much younger women, he did so with the permission and knowledge of their parents.

    http://www.dailywire.com/news/23468/steamrolled-advertisers-abandon-sean-hannity-show-emily-zanotti?utm_medium=email&utm_content=111317-news&utm_campaign=position5

  36. Democrat Who Accused Trump Of Harassment Is Now Accused Of Sexually Harassing Women
    “I almost got her. Working on her pretty hard, but I almost got her.”

    A Democratic state senator who accused President Donald Trump of sexual harassment is now facing calls to resign after facing multiple sexual harassment allegations of his own.

    Several women accused Minnesota state Sen. Dan Schoen of “persistent and unwanted” invitations to meet and allegations that Schoen grabbed them from behind and sent them photographs of male genitalia on social media, the MinnPost reported.

    Schoen, a first-term senator who previously served in Minnesota’s state house, knew of each alleged incident when the MinnPost approached him for comment, but called the allegations either false or taken out of context.

    http://www.dailywire.com/news/23462/democrat-who-accused-trump-harassment-now-accused-ryan-saavedra?utm_medium=email&utm_content=111317-news&utm_campaign=position6

  37. Should Faculty Choose Who Speaks on Campus?
    The new guardians of the Maoist gate.
    November 13, 2017
    Richard L. Cravatts

    As universities continue to be roiled by a debate over which speakers, and which viewpoints, can and should be heard on campuses, some concerned administrators, faculty, and students have sought ways to mitigate the increasing number of events during which heckling, intimidation, and even physical violence were used to foreclose unpopular speech.

    Those who have led these protest against conservative viewpoints—progressive students, Muslim students, leftist professors, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and others—have displayed a shocking disregard for the university’s cardinal virtue of free expression, deciding themselves who may say what about whom on their respective campuses, and purging from campuses those ideas they have deemed too hateful, too unsafe, too incendiary to tolerate or to allow to be heard.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268392/should-faculty-choose-who-speaks-campus-richard-l-cravatts

  38. Year of the Sword: A Century of Christian Genocide
    How the grandparents of today’s Christian victims of ISIS were also butchered by Muslims.
    November 13, 2017
    Raymond Ibrahim

    Editor’s Note: The following review was written by Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. The book reviewed is Year of the Sword: The Assyrian Christian Genocide, a History (published by the Oxford University Press, 2016), by Joseph Yacoub, an Honorary Professor of Political Science at Catholic University of Lyon. A significantly shorter version of this review first appeared in the Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2017.

    This important contribution to genocide studies documents how the world’s oldest Christian communities—variously referred to as Chaldeans, Syriacs, and Arameans, but best known as Assyrians—were, along with the Armenians, “victims of the [Ottoman] plan for exterminating Christianity, root and branch,” to quote Lord Bryce, circa. 1920. In fact, as half of the Assyrian population was massacred—going from 600,000 to 300,000 in 1915-18—relative to their numbers, no other Christian group, including the Armenians, suffered as much under the Ottomans.

    Yacoub, emeritus professor at the Catholic University of Lyon, offers copious documentation and reports from reliable eyewitnesses, state actors, and relief agencies that recount countless atrocities against the Assyrians—massacres, rapes, death marches, and the destruction of some 250 churches. Most disturbing are the detailed eyewitness accounts that go above facts and figures (such as the sadistic eye-gouging of Assyrians or the gang rape of their young children on the altars of their churches).

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268346/year-sword-century-christian-genocide-raymond-ibrahim

  39. The Professor Who Wants to Help Kids Become “Queer”

    According to a new story in Campus Reform, an Art Institute of Chicago professor now thinks that K-12 teachers should be using art classes to help kids transition from straight to gay.

    “We can, and perhaps should, help our kids turn out queer,” Adam Greteman wrote in an article for the Journal of Studies in Art Education. The title of the piece, in case you haven’t received this month’s edition yet, is “Helping Kids Turns Out Queer: Queer Theory in Art Education.”

    http://www.conservativefreepress.com/politics/professor-wants-help-kids-become-queer/