Reader’s links, December 14, 2017

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

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Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

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

117 Replies to “Reader’s links, December 14, 2017”

  1. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) on Wednesday reportedly called clothing worn by some lawmakers and their aides on Capitol Hill an “invitation” during a discussion on sexual harassment.

    “I saw a member yesterday with her cleavage so deep it was down to the floor,” Kaptur said during a House Democratic Caucus meeting to talk about sexual harassment issues, Politico reported, citing sources in the room.

    “And what I’ve seen … it’s really an invitation.”

    http://thehill.com/homenews/house/364728-dem-lawmaker-said-revealing-clothing-can-be-invitation-to-harassment-report

    • This is just one of many examples of the leftist journalist slanting or at times using outright lies about gun control. In the minds of the gun control people the gun has some magical ability to take over a persons mind and make them commit crimes. by removing the guns their ability to force people to commit crimes will be removed.

      You see the same type of magical thinking in their approach to the economy, ie the government can decide what you need better then you can. Another example of this magical thinking is the idea that the government creates jobs, the private sector creates jobs and thus tax cuts for the people who own the businesses (small to large) creates jobs. If you listen to the left and their magical thinking this isn’t what happens, if you give a tax cut to the people who own businesses they will stash that money in a mattress.

      Both examples (gun control and the economy) are part of the divide in the world about the purpose of government, to the Right the government is suppose to protect the nation from external enemies (primary responsibility) and enforce the laws that stop criminals from preying on the non criminals. to the Left the purpose of government is to wrap everyone in cotton at birth and provide them with what they need while preventing them from doing anything that will harm them.

      Little Government and large freedom v Large Government and small freedom. We have to keep the government in check while ensuring that they do their primary responsibility. Back in the 60s when government was still relatively small (at least as compared to now) well over 50% of the Federal Budget went to the military so they could preform their primary responsibility and hardly any went to welfare. In hte 1970s the far left took control of the Democrats (yes it was in the 1970s, the media being leftists don’t recognize a far leftist because most of them are far leftists) and started increasing the welfare spending. This increased inflation and increased taxation as well as increasing government spending.

      We are now faced with a massive government where the Deep State/the Swamp/the Sewer (bureaucrats and self proclaimed elite in the elected officials who have been in office way too long) forget that they are Public Servants for the owners of the nation (the voters/the people) and think they are the owners of the nation ruling by divine right. The ancient Greeks said that government goes from Democracy to tyranny to monarchy to democracy. The US Constitution was written to break that cycle, we are now fighting to see if we can remain a democracy (representative republic) instead of going into a dictatorship.

      While I am writing from the view point of a US Citizen this same fight is occurring in all of the nations that compose what use to be Western Civilization. We are fighting to preserve freedom, the left has done so much damage to civilization that it is probably impossible to preserve civilization but freedom is the main thing. If we can hang onto freedom in just one nation we can spread freedom around the world and rebuild civilization.

        • Thank Mike Huckabee, I heard him say that swamps have ecological value as do their animals, calling it a sewer says what you think and is a worse insult.

  2. A plane with 22 passengers and three crew aboard crashed shortly after takeoff from Fond du Lac, but no fatalities are reported.

    The crash happened at about 6:15 p.m. Wednesday and emergency crews located the airplane less than a kilometre from the Fond du Lac airstrip, according to an RCMP news release.

    While multiple injuries were reported, there did not appear to be any fatalities, RCMP said.

    http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/plane-with-25-people-aboard-crashes-near-fond-du-lac?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook

  3. Not sure what to make of this: but, with the vast majority of polls already destroyed, at this point, what difference does it make!?!?!

    After nearly an entire precinct in a black neighborhood in Birmingham was tossed out this morning by the Alabama Secretary of State for widespread and rampant voter fraud, estimates have Roy Moore in the lead by more than 300 votes. The 421st precinct racked up nearly 26K votes for Doug Jones, mostly with brand-new voter registrations, in an area with only 1100 residents.

    http://potatriotpost.com/not-over-yet-moore-pulls-ahead-after-fraudulent-votes-are-thrown-out-in-birmingham/

  4. 200 ‘Secret Bankers’ Facilitate Money Flow to ISIS (aawsat, Dec 13, 2017)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1111796/200-secret-bankers-facilitate-money-flow-isis

    “France has identified 150 to 200 “secret bankers” who have been facilitating the flow of money for ISIS in Lebanon and Turkey, announced the Financial Intelligence Unit (TRACFIN).

    TRACFIN director, Bruno Dalles stated that the unit had worked on the identification of 150 to 200 of those individuals who are mainly based in Lebanon and Turkey who send money for ISIS enabling it to continue with its operations.

    “These secret bankers of ISIS receive funds that are clearly aimed at allowing the group to continue operating,” he said, in his yearly report on money laundering and terrorist financing risks.

    Dalles pointed out that the challenge for TRACFIN now is to locate the new funders of the terrorist organization that is relying more on foreign funding.

    Financial Intelligence Unit (TRACFIN) was established in 1990, and is a department affiliated to the French Ministry of Economy, Finance, and Industry and is in charge of combating money-laundering and terrorist financing. It aims to fight against illegal financial operations, money laundering, and terrorism financing.”

  5. Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee gets byline in Saudi news outlet Elaph (alaraby, Dec 14, 2017)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/blog/2017/12/13/israeli-army-spokesman-gets-byline-in-saudi-outlet-elaph

    “A news website has become the first mainstream Saudi outlet to run an article co-written by a serving Israeli army officer, adding further credence to reports of growing Saudi-Israeli relations.

    On Tuesday, Saudi online news service Elaph ran an anti-Hamas article co-authored by Maj. Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army spokesman in Arabic.

    The article described Hamas repeatedly as a terror group, a label contested by the vast majority of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims who accept the Palestinian militant group as a legitimate resistance against occupation.

    Although Elaph is blocked in Saudi Arabia, it is believed the website operates with Riyadh’s blessing as an Israeli backchannel into the Arab media landscape…”

  6. Indonesia court rejects petition to bar consensual sex outside marriage (reuters, Dec 14, 2017)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-court-adultery/indonesia-court-rejects-petition-to-bar-consensual-sex-outside-marriage-idUSKBN1E80BI?il=0

    “Indonesia’s constitutional court on Thursday narrowly rejected a petition by a conservative group to make extramarital sex illegal, but rights activists braced for a renewal of the battle in parliament and other state institutions…”

  7. Suicide bomber kills at least 13 in police academy attack in Somali capital (reuters, Dec 14, 2017)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-somalia-security/suicide-bomber-kills-at-least-13-in-police-academy-attack-in-somali-capital-idUSKBN1E80GF?il=0

    “A suicide bomber in police uniform blew himself up inside a police training camp in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Thursday, killing at least 13 police officers, officials said.

    Police spokesman Major Mohamed Hussein said the attacker, with explosives strapped to his body, infiltrated the General Kahiye Police Training Academy and struck during a police parade…”

  8. Turkish MP linked to boxing gang in Germany (DW, Dec 14, 2017)
    http://www.dw.com/en/turkish-mp-linked-to-boxing-gang-in-germany/a-41789389

    “An investigative report links Ankara to a boxing gang in Germany accused of going after opponents of the Turkish government. The report ties a Turkish MP close to President Erdogan to violent criminal activity.

    A Turkish parliamentarian has provided money to a boxing gang in Germany to buy weapons, organize protests and go after critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, German media reported on Wednesday.

    Metin Kulunk, a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and close confidant of Erdogan, directly and indirectly provided money to the Turkish nationalist Osmanen Germania, according to an investigation by ZDF-Magazin Frontal 21 and the Stuttgarter Nachrichten.

    The investigation was based on German police phone taps and surveillance of the group leaked to the news organizations.

    It suggests a relationship between Osmanen Germania and Kulunk, as well as the Turkish intelligence agency MIT, the AKP’s European lobby and Erdogan himself.

    Osmanen Germania describes itself as a boxing club and “brotherhood,” but authorities have long suspected it of being involved in criminal activity and violence. It is estimated to have 20 chapters and 2,500 members in Germany…”

    • To quote my Father: “If you don’t understand the rules of the game, stay out of the game.”

      That applies to the crypto currencies as well as any gambling game.

      I want my currencies to have some backing, precious metals preferable but when that isn’t possible some type of government backing.

  9. A volunteer working with victims of the Grenfell Tower fire has said the 71 people who died in the disaster were “burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice”.
    Tahra Ahmed, a conspiracy theorist who believes the 9/11 terror attack was faked by Jews, has been running an aid network to help those affected by fire.
    According to The Times, Ms Ahmed, 47, told reporters that the fire was a “holocaust”.
    Ms Ahmed shared her view that Jews were responsible for the tragedy on her Facebook page.
    She claimed the tower, in west London, was owned by a Jewish property developer. It is in fact owned by Kensington and Chelsea Council.
    “Hitler and the Germans were the victims of the Jewish conspiracy to destroy Germany,” she wrote.
    “Watch the live footage of people trapped in the inferno with flames behind them. They were burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice.
    “Grenfell is owned by a private Jewish property developer just like the Twin Towers. I wonder how much Goldman [Goldman Sachs,] is standing to make in the world’s most expensive real estate location [Kensington].”
    Mark Gardner, of the Community Security Trust, said: “To describe the appalling Grenfell Tower disaster as a Jewish sacrifice is to reach a new depth of grotesque antisemitic racism.
    “Worse is that the traumatised survivors have to grapple with the reality that one of those who claims to stand up for them seems to be primarily motivated by a vile hatred of Jews.”
    Marie van der Zyl, Board of Deputies vice president said: “The Grenfell Tower tragedy catalysed an outpouring of grief and support, from people of all faiths and backgrounds, who were united in solidarity.
    “It is shameful that a conspiracy theorist should misuse this tragedy as a platform for her extreme and repugnant views. We are sure those active in supporting the survivors of the Grenfell will want to ensure that such noxious individuals will not undermine their important work.”
    Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said: “This is a new low. What happened at Grenfell was the most terrible tragedy, but to see Holocaust language and antisemitic conspiracy theories about ‘Jewish control’ invoked to further a world view that Jewish people are responsible is deeply hurtful, dangerous and intentionally provocative.”
    According to The Times, councillors in Kensington and Chelsea have written to Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary, over concerns that volunteers’ work with survivors is unmonitored.
    When questioned by reporters Ms Ahmed told them she did not care about other people’s opinions.
    She is known to have previously described the Shoah as a “holohoax”.
    https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/volunteer-aid-worker-says-grenfell-tower-victims-were-burnt-in-jewish-sacrifice-1.450096

    • Her observation is consistent with the “cultural” baggage of countries where Jews get blamed when mail (male) does not arrive.

    • LONDON ST-PAUL’S CATHEDRAL DEC 14 2017

      Muslim students recite Nasheed at Grenfell Tower memorial event

    • UK: Artist drapes London church with refugees’ clothing to raise awareness

      Seven hundred items of refugees’ clothing found on the Greek island of Lesbos make up a new installation in London’s St James’s in Piccadilly church, which opened on Thursday.

  10. Cologne To Distribute ‘Tolerance’ Wristbands to Combat New Year’s Eve Sex Attacks (breitbart, Dec 14, 2017)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/12/14/cologne-distribute-tolerance-wristbands-combat-sex-attacks/

    “The city of Cologne has announced they will be handing out “respect” wristbands to encourage understanding between individuals on New Year’s Eve and prevent the kind of sex attacks that occurred in 2015.

    The wristbands are part of a new campaign called “respect” which is sponsored by the city government and controversial Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker. Many have slammed Reker and the campaign on social media likening it to comments she made shortly after the 2015 attacks calling on women to keep men at “arm’s length”, Kronen Zeitung reports…”

  11. Facebook ‘like’ for ISIS propaganda clip ‘serious’ sign of guilt – Italian court (RT, Dec 14, 2017)
    https://www.rt.com/news/413040-italy-court-facebook-like-crime/

    “A thumbs-up under a video promoting jihad can be the decisive factor when ruling whether to detain a suspect, as it can be seen as evidence of being an apologist for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Italy’s highest appeal court has ruled.

    Liking an IS-related video on Facebook can be considered a “serious indication of guilt” and “justifies pre-trial detention in jail” in context of other evidence, Italy’s supreme Cassation Court ruled Tuesday, Italian media reported. The decision followed a local prosecutor’s appeal against 25-year-old Kosovar Gaffur Dibrani, who used to live in the northern Italian province of Brescia. Dibrani was arrested on charges of online propaganda in 2016. He was released two weeks later and deported from Italy.

    His Facebook page “contained documents and files of jihadist propaganda, as well as contacts with two well-known Islamists,” according to the Interior Ministry.

    However, at that time a Brescia appeal court found the evidence against Dibrani insufficient, saying that “evoking holy war does not necessarily result in the creation of organized structures aimed at carrying out terrorist acts.”

    The court was looking into two videos, which featured a militant who called on others “to help Syria and praised fallen mujahideen for protecting Muslims in the war against enemies of Allah,”according to Giornale di Brescia. However, those didn’t contain a “clear reference” to IS, the court ruled twice, also citing the short period of time when the videos were published, as well as the fact that one of them was only “liked,” not shared, by Dibrani.

    The Brescia prosecutor insisted the man openly supported the militants’ group, saying it was “self-evident.” He also said the appeal court didn’t consider Dibrani’s links with the suspected extremists.

    The Cassation Court agreed with the prosecutor Tuesday, ruling that neither the short period, nor the fact that he only pressed the “like” button under one of those videos reduced the “offensive scope” of Dibrani’s actions. Although Dibrani had already left Italy, the Brescia court will have to rule again on his case, according to local media.”

  12. Richard: There are so many ways this can go wrong, starting with the government programing people to the chips being hacked.

    Humans 2.0: meet the entrepreneur who wants to put a chip in your brain

    Bryan Johnson’s company, Kernel, aims to improve mental function and treat disorders by creating a brain interface

    Bryan Johnson isn’t short of ambition. The founder and CEO of neuroscience company Kernel wants “to expand the bounds of human intelligence”. He is planning to do this with neuroprosthetics; brain augmentations that can improve mental function and treat disorders. Put simply, Kernel hopes to place a chip in your brain.

    It isn’t clear yet exactly how this will work. There’s a lot of excited talk about the possibilities of the technology, but – publicly, at least – Kernel’s output at the moment is an idea. A big idea.

    “My hope is that within 15 years we can build sufficiently powerful tools to interface with our brains,” Johnson says. “Can I increase my rate of learning, scope of imagination, and ability to love? Can I understand what it’s like to live in a 10-dimensional reality? Can we ameliorate or cure neurological disease and dysfunction?”
    The Guardian’s Science Weekly A neuroscientist explains: the need for ‘empathetic citizens’ – podcast
    What is the neuroscience behind empathy? When do children develop it? And can it be taught?
    Listen

    The shape that this technology will take is still unknown. Johnson uses the term “brain chip”, but the developments taking place in neuroprosthesis are working towards less invasive procedures than opening up your skull and cramming a bit of hardware in; injectable sensors are one possibility.

    It may sound far-fetched, but Johnson has a track record of getting things done. Within his first semester at university, he’d set up a profitable business selling mobile phones to fellow students. By age 30, he’d founded online payment company Braintree, which he sold six years later to PayPal for $800m. He used $100m of the proceeds to create Kernel in 2016 – it now employs more than 30 people.

    https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2017/dec/14/humans-20-meet-the-entrepreneur-who-wants-to-put-a-chip-in-your-brain

    Richard: Using this tech to treat health problems is one thing, using it to boost you IQ and for various other reasons can lead to all sorts of problems. As I said at the beginning the problems range from the government programing the chips to push you into being a good little prole to various bad actors hacking the chips. Having said that this is probably coming in the future for good or ill it is probably going to happen.

    • AI will allow humans to ‘communicate via TELEPATHY’

      HUMANS may soon be able to communicate without speaking a word as a leading tech company develops “brain augmentation”.

      Kernel – a business set up last year – is developing technology that would give people super-intelligence like never seen before.

      Bryan Johnson, who founded the company, presented the idea of a “brain-computer interface”, which will also allow us to communicate with machines.

      It would also give people the capabilities to solve incredibly complex problems in a matter of seconds.

      Johnson said: “I’d argue this is a necessity for the future and for our relevance.”

      https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/666908/artificial-intelligence-telepathy-brain-augmentation-ai

      • I get a laugh out of all these “robots will be wiping your ass and reading your future by 2025” stories. AI does what it is programed to do. You can try to fake AI independance with code and that’s about it, it is still a fake. Some dweeb has programmed everything.

        • Yeah but the chips that are to be implanted will also be programed and from what I understand will have some type of wifi to allow communications with computers. That programing and the possibility of hacking is what worries me.

          Who will be doing the programing, who will be watching they to see they don’t do wrong and who will be watching the watchers?

      • Sounds ‘Golem-2’ or ‘Dr. Frankenstein’s Chip Chimp’.
        Not that it’s impossible, but it never comes out right. Chances are the monsters will kill the makers long before they come after us.

  13. What Happened… to your foot? Hillary Clinton spotted wearing surgical boot TWO MONTHS after breaking her toe falling down some stairs

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5178037/Clinton-wears-surgical-boot-MONTHS-breaking-toe.html#ixzz51FKcPQzR
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    Hillary Clinton has been spotted still wearing her surgical boot two months after she fell down some stairs in her heels and broke her toe.

    The former Secretary of State was in Vancouver as part of her global book tour to promote her election memoir What Happened.

    Clinton strode out onto the stage, in a striking monochrome leather ensemble. But what was most noticeable was the bulky post-op shoe on her right foot – which she has been wearing since she took a tumble and broke her toe in October.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5178037/Clinton-wears-surgical-boot-MONTHS-breaking-toe.html#ixzz51FKpdATy
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

  14. KIM PURGES PALS… AGAIN Kim Jong-un’s death squads ‘executed second most powerful man in North Korea General Hwang Pyong-so’ days after leader’s visit to a sacred mountain ‘predicted’ a blood-letting

    He was once described as the ‘second-most powerful man in North Korea’

    A TOP aide of Kim Jong-un, once described as the “second-most powerful man in North Korea”, has disappeared from public life, sparking speculation he may have been executed by death squads.

    General Hwang Pyong-so once held the most senior military position in the hermit state as a Vice-Marshall after the supreme leader.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5136534/kim-jong-uns-death-squads-feared-to-have-executed-top-north-korean-general-hwang-pyong-so-for-taking-bribes/

  15. Richard: Click through and read the entire article, it spells out what is at stake and what the two sides in the Republicans are thinking. This will give you ammo when you fight with the old consensus Repubs or with the Dems.

    The real Alabama post-game wrap-up
    By J.E. Dyer December 13, 2017

    The usual suspects are saying all the usual things about the election in Alabama on Tuesday, and I wouldn’t interfere with anyone’s fun in that regard. More power to them.

    I really only want to say here that the true dynamic of the Republican party conflict can be best expressed in a brief exchange that goes like this:

    Old-consensus leadership to the Deplorables: Don’t fight.

    Deplorables to the old-consensus leadership: We have to fight.

    And by fight, both sides mean fight. They’re speaking in the political sense (not the “hot lead” sense), but it’s fight they mean.

    The Deplorables see what America is currently in as a winnable fight for our country’s future. It’s a defined concept in their minds.

    The old-consensus leadership doesn’t. It has a different concept in its mind. An accurate way of rendering the old-consensus leadership’s view would be as follows: what’s important is a set of conventions for political discourse, which if broken will cut us adrift from the status quo we have known all our lives. That status quo, with its unbreachable things, is associated in the old-consensus mind with righteousness. (And the reasons for that stand up to examination, in many cases.)

    If we can make minor course changes within that framework, that’s great. If we can’t, we need to wait until we can.

    We don’t know for sure, after all, that continuing to wait, no matter how government takes over our lives, will transform what we thought we were, beyond all recognition. If it does, there is no plan for dealing with that. If something lies beyond the end of this road we’re currently on, it’s an abyss we can’t see into.

    It’s noteworthy, in passing, that this is the mindset about the status quo that Saul Alinsky set out to exploit.

    For the Deplorables, meanwhile, the perception of reality is that the country around them is already being transformed beyond all recognition. The emergency is here.

    But there is a foreseeable strategy. A conceivable future. There’s a way to fight, and the time to fight is now.

    This isn’t about race; that political football, as a major social issue, is literally from 50 years ago. The political generation of 1968 that took office with Obama fanned its flames anew, as it did all the other, superannuated flames of 1968. But in terms of racial harmony, America had significantly evolved for the better in the years since.

    It’s about the expectations we’re supposed to have from our government and common institutions. In the schools, for example, do we suffer silently as a radical political agenda is force-fed to America’s children – while true education is shortchanged – and when we occasionally regain the political power to do something about that, look for ways to accommodate it, but maybe just a little less?

    The old consensus says yes. The Deplorables say no.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2017/12/13/real-alabama-post-game-wrap/

    • “Elaph” is a red herring publication.
      Not an Arab world consumable. But anything planted there gives Al-Jaz and Haaretz a story. And these days the “Arab Street” is more frisky in London and Malmo than Cairo and Riyadh.

  16. Anti-Israel students at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada have published multiple social media posts praising Adolf Hitler, demonizing Jews, and glorifying terrorist organizations, The Algemeiner has learned.

    Dozens of individuals affiliated with the campus group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) published incendiary comments on Jews and Israel in recent years — among them the “openly anti-Semitic Mac SPHR students” Rawan Qaddoura, Esra Bengizi and Nadera Masad, the anonymous watchdog group Canary Mission charged in a new report.

    https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/12/12/anti-israel-students-spread-jew-hatred-at-mcmaster-university-hitler-should-have-took-you-all/

    • With their campus allies praising Hitler how long will the antifa BS about the right being fascist hold together?

  17. UK: Britain First leaders arrested after Belfast court appearance

    Deputy leader of far-right group Britain First Jayda Fransen appeared in a Belfast court on Thursday morning as she stands accused of inciting hatred during a speech she gave in the Northern Irish city last summer.

    Fransen spoke only to confirm that she understood the charges. The judge adjourned the case until later in the day in order to hear more information before imposing any bail conditions. After that, both she and leader of the group Paul Golding were arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

    Fransen faces two charges for a “threatening” speech she made on August 6 during a demonstration alongside the Northern Ireland Against Terrorism organisation, in which she called Northern Ireland “Britain’s last line of defence” telling demonstrators that “Islam posed the biggest threat to civilisation.”

    Fransen was retweeted by US President Donald Trump earlier in the month.

      • Britain is a Dictatorship that is afraid of the people. I am sorry to hear about things like this, I remember learning about the nation that fought alone to prevent Hitler from conquering the world. Now they are reduced to this.

    • DAILY MAIL – Britain First leader Paul Golding and his deputy Jayda Fransen are BOTH arrested after arriving in Belfast for her court hearing over ‘abusive’ speeches

      Deputy Fransen appeared in court accused of using ‘abusive’ words in speech
      She was supported by Britain First leader Paul Golding as she arrived at court
      Golding was later arrested and taken to a Belfast police station for questioning
      Fransen was then re-arrested over a second allegation relating to this week
      Far-Right activist Fransen found notoriety after Donald Trump retweeted her

      Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5178673/Britain-deputy-Jayda-Fransen-court-Belfast.html

      ===================================

      BBC – The deputy leader of far-right group Britain First has been re-arrested after appearing in a Belfast court over a speech she gave in the city.

      Jayda Fransen, 31, of Beeches Close, Anerley, London, was in court over two charges relating to behaviour intended to or likely to stir up hatred.

      Her lawyer told the court that she intended to plead not guilty.

      Britain First leader Paul Golding, 35, was also arrested outside the courtroom before the hearing.

      Mr Golding was accompanying Ms Fransen to the hearing.

      The police confirmed they have arrested a 35-year-old man as part of their investigation into the “Northern Ireland Against Terrorism” rally in August.

      It is believed Ms Fransen has been re-arrested over social media posts she made from a peace wall in Belfast on Wednesday.

      Peace walls are used to separate Catholic and Protestant residents in areas where tension between the two communities can run high.

      http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-42351026

      Britain First Jayda Fransen In Belfast At The ”PEACE WALL”

    • Belfast Telelgraph – Britain First leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen arrested at Belfast court

      The two most senior figures in far-right group Britain First were both arrested at a court in Belfast on Thursday.

      Deputy leader Jayda Fransen was detained for questioning over alleged anti-Islamic comments posted on the organisation’s Facebook page.

      Officers made the arrest immediately after she had signed bail on charges of making a hate speech at a rally in the city this summer.

      Earlier, the group’s leader, Paul Golding, was held in connection with the same incident after he arrived with her at Belfast Magistrates’ Court.

      Police detained him as they approached ground floor elevators and took him for questioning.

      During Fransen’s appearance in the dock it was confirmed that she is to contest the charges against her.

      The 31-year-old faces two counts of behaviour intending or likely to stir up hatred or fear by using words which were “threatening, abusive or insulting”.

      The allegations relate to a speech made at a ‘Northern Ireland Against Terrorism’ rally at City Hall on August 6.

      Demonstrators had gathered on the same day as a republican march organised to mark the use of internment without trial by the British Army at the height of the Troubles in 1971.

      Dressed in a dark coat and skirt, Fransen spoke in court to confirm she understood the charges, replying: “Yes.”

      Up to 10 men and women gathered in the public gallery to support the Britain First deputy leader.

      A detective constable said she could connect her to the alleged offences.

      Defence counsel Richard McConkey confirmed she will be fighting the allegations.

      “I can indicate there will be not guilty pleas to both charges,” he said.

      The barrister added that the evidence against his client relates to video footage.

      Fransen, who was at the centre of a political storm last month when US President Donald Trump retweeted anti-Muslim videos she posted, was bailed to return to court next month.

      As part of those conditions she is banned from being within 500 metres of a public demonstration or rally.

      Police and prosecutors sought the restriction amid public order concerns.

      The detective claimed that a ‘Free Speech for Jayda’ rally was planned to take place in Belfast last weekend – only being postponed due to snow.

      Fransen had been due to get a mid-afternoon flight back to London following her court appearance.

      But the court was told police wanted to speak to her about comments posted on social media earlier this week during her time in Northern Ireland.

      She was allegedly involved in a video recorded outside Belfast’s Islamic Centre which referred to it as a “den of iniquity”.

      Detectives then made the arrest after Fransen completed her formalities.

      A small group of protestors voiced their objections in the court foyer and outside, with one man telling police: “It’s a disgrace what you’re doing.

      https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/britain-first-leaders-paul-golding-and-jayda-fransen-arrested-at-belfast-court-36408454.html

  18. Germany: Police raid suspected IS militants in Berlin

    Berlin police raided several locations and apartments early on Thursday morning in order to apprehend suspected militants from the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL).

    According to German sources, the city-wide operations in Charlottenburg and on Budapest Street were directed against possible supporters and acquaintances of Anis Amri, who was responsible for the attack on a Berlin Christmas market in 2016.

    • Germany: Arrests, raids against suspected IS supporters

      BERLIN (AP) — Authorities in Germany have arrested two suspected Islamic State supporters and conducted raids in the capital in connection with the group.

      Prosecutors said Thursday that police arrested two Palestinian men Tuesday in the central German city of Salzgitter. The two 21-year-old men, who weren’t named, had threatened online to commit attacks and spread jihadi material “in order to create a climate of insecurity and fear.”

      Separately, prosecutors in Berlin said authorities are conducting searches across the city as part of investigations into people traveling from Germany to join IS.

      The Berlin daily B.Z. reported the suspects have been linked Anis Amri, the Tunisian who drove a stolen truck into a Berlin Christmas market last year, killing 12 people and injuring dozens. Amri was shot dead by Italian police days later.

      http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/news/world/germany-arrests-raids-suspected-supporters-article-1.3697744

    • Germany: Berlin police raid arrests alleged IS militants

      Martin Steltner, spokesperson of the German Public Prosecutor spoke about the raid on alleged members of the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) possibly aiming to commit militant acts in Germany, saying that “evidence-based data” was seized during the operation, in Berlin, Thursday.

      Steltner went on to say that “four suspects are aged between 18 and 21. Three of the men are suspected of travelling from Berlin to Iraq and Syria,” adding that “We will now study the evidence and collect more of course.”

      The Public Prosecutor spokesperson continued, “if those who are under suspicion of carrying out these offences are found guilty, serious punishment will follow.”

  19. P GELLER – Muslim who attacked Jewish restaurant in Amsterdam fought with jihad terrorist groups in Syria, then came to Netherlands as a “refugee”

    Video filmed by a bystander (below) shows this violent Muslim using a piece of wood to attack and smash in the windows of the kosher restaurant in Willemspark, one of Amsterdam’s most affluent neighborhoods this past Thursday. The man was reportedly screaming “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is greater [than your god]) during the attack on the restaurant. The video (below) from AT5 shows the Muslim, who is wearing a black and white keffiyeh scarf, which has become a symbol of jihad, attacking the Jewish restaurant with a club. He was released after only two days.

    And now it has come to light that this Muslim is not just a vandal, but a trained and battle-hardened jihadist who came in to the Netherlands as a “refugee.” This shows the suicidal ridiculousness of Europe’s refugee policies. Do Dutch authorities believe that this man is ever going to be a loyal and productive member of Dutch society? It’s insane. And for the Jews, it’s like pre-Nazi Germany. Europe is finished, and the Jews better run for their lives.

    more:

    https://pamelageller.com/2017/12/restaurant-syria-refugee.html/

  20. FBI Plot Against Trump
    Government skullduggery rears its ugly head at a congressional hearing.
    December 14, 2017
    Matthew Vadum

    Two Trump-hating FBI gumshoes investigating Hillary Clinton’s email treachery and alleged Russian interference in last year’s election traded crude, caustic barbs about President Trump while they plotted to undermine him, congressional overseers heard yesterday.

    This shouldn’t be all that surprising given that Barack Obama gleefully weaponized the FBI, Department of Justice, and various intelligence agencies, and criminalized political differences in the process. A radical zealot with a desire to fundamentally transform the United States, the 44th president had a limited sense of boundaries. Obama was more Third World caudillo than president and he was never troubled by hijacking governmental powers to hurt his opposition, as the conservative groups targeted by his IRS can attest. His race-obsessed first attorney general, Eric Holder, turned the Justice Department into a virtual arm of the Democratic Party, using the agency to punish the Left’s enemies and let allies run wild. His second attorney general, Loretta Lynch, surreptitiously met with Bill Clinton in an airport hangar, presumably to cut a shady deal to let Hillary Clinton escape punishment for the many crimes she committed in office.

    “It’s clear there was a nefarious conspiracy” between federal officials to defeat Trump, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett told Sean Hannity after the hearing. Jarrett added that when the plot didn’t succeed, the conspirators switched to Plan B, which he described as, “Let’s just say there’s a crime and then we’ll just search for a crime.”

    At the House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Rod Rosenstein, the second-highest-ranking official at the Justice Department and the man who appointed Russia probe-leading Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, gave a clean bill of health to Mueller’s ongoing witch hunt aimed at reversing last year’s election result.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268730/fbi-plot-against-trump-matthew-vadum

  21. Pakistan asks 21 foreign aid groups to close shop, leave (abcnews, Dec 14, 2017)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pakistan-asks-21-foreign-aid-groups-close-shop-51789657

    “Two senior Pakistani security officials say that authorities have asked 21 foreign aid groups to wrap up their activities and prepare to leave Pakistan after they failed to re-register under a regulation introduced two years ago.

    The officials say the international non-government organizations in question were told about the decision this week. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorizes to speak to reporters.

    Pakistan unveiled tough registration rules in 2015 amid widespread suspicion that employees of aid groups engaged in spying.

    There was no immediate comment from the aid groups.

    Islamabad had been closely monitoring aid groups after arresting a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who ran a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad as a front for a CIA-led effort to find al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.”

  22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm0soVg15Vw

    ===============================

    Clinton Struck Deal With Obama State Dept. to Keep Records Private

    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton struck a deal with the State Department while serving in the Obama administration that allowed her to take ownership of records she did not want made public, according to recently released reports.

    Clinton and her then-deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin were permitted to remove electronic and physical records under a claim they were “personal” materials and “unclassified, non-record materials.”

    Judicial Watch made the revelation after filing a FOIA request with the State Department and obtaining a record of the agreement.

    The newly released documents show the deal allowed Clinton and Abedin to remove documents related to particular calls and schedules, and the records would not be “released to the general public under FOIA.” Abedin, for instance, was allowed to remove electronic records and five boxes of physical files, including files labeled “Muslim Engagement Documents.”

    The released records included a list of designated materials that “would not be released to the general public under FOIA” and were to be released “to the Secretary with this understanding.”

    Electronic copy of “daily files” – which are word versions of public documents and non-records: speeches/press statements/photos from the website, a non-record copy of the schedule, a non record copy of the call log, press clips, and agenda of daily activities

    Electronic copy of a log of calls the Secretary made since 2004, it is a non-record, since her official calls are logged elsewhere (official schedule and official call log)

    Electronic copy of the Secretary’s “call grid” which is a running list of calls she wants to make (both personal and official)

    16 boxes: Personal Schedules (1993 thru 2008-prior to the Secretary’s tenure at the Department of State.

    29 boxes: Miscellaneous Public Schedules during her tenure as FLOTUS and Senator-prior to the Secretary’s tenure at the Department of State

    1 box: Personal Reimbursable receipts (6/25/2009 thru 1/14/2013)

    1 box: Personal Photos

    1 box: Personal schedule (2009-2013)

    A physical file of “the log of the Secretary’s gifts with pictures of gifts” was also handed over to Clinton. Gifts received by government employees is highly regulated, and often strictly limited. However, gifts that are “motivated by a family relationship or personal friendship” may be accepted without limitation.

    Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton released a statement condemning the agreement between the government and Clinton.

    “We already know the Obama State Department let Hillary Clinton steal and then delete her government emails, which included classified information. But these new records show that was only part of the scandal,” Fitton said. “These new documents show the Obama State Department had a deal with Hillary Clinton to hide her calls logs and schedules, which would be contrary to FOIA and other laws.”

    “When are the American people going to get an honest investigation of the Clinton crimes?” he added.

    http://freebeacon.com/national-security/clinton-struck-deal-obama-state-dept-keep-records-private/

  23. CBC – Montreal mosque members dispute claim they wanted women barred from construction site on Fridays

    Women who attend mosque say it’s a welcoming, open faith community, contrary to TVA Nouvelles report

    With doubts being cast on a news story that a Montreal mosque asked that female workers not be visible at a nearby construction site on Fridays, those who attend the mosque say the damage has already been done.

    Shahad Salman, a lawyer who has attended the Ahl-Ill Bait Mosque on de Courtrai Avenue in Côte-des-Neiges for several years, said the claims reported by TVA Nouvelles on Tuesday and the backlash are “beyond harmful.”

    “We’re demonized,” she said.

    The news report, published Tuesday, originally said a clause in the contract supported the claim that two directors of two mosques on the street contacted the contractor on a construction site near the mosque and asked that female workers stay off the site on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer.

    TVA Nouvelles has since amended its online report to say the clause in the contract focused on keeping noise down on Fridays, not barring women — but its revised report does not acknowledge the changes to the story or why they were made.

    The mosque has categorically denied making any request to keep women off the site on Fridays, and Quebec’s construction commission is looking into the allegations.

    But as a result of the TVA report, the community has been attacked online, and the mosque’s board of directors have been bombarded by hateful messages, said Salman.

    “The damage is done, especially outside of Montreal,” said Salman

    Zahra Al Mawlawi, who has been attending the Ahl-Ill Bait Mosque for more than three years, said she was disheartened and shocked when she read the claims.

    She said she immediately doubted that anyone from the mosque had made such a request.

    “It was really upsetting,” she said. “I just felt like there’s already so much backlash and hatred … and this, on top of that, OK, well, where did this come from? Out of nowhere.”

    The Ahl-Ill Bait Mosque has been in regular contact with Montreal police since the deadly Quebec City mosque shooting last January, said Al Mawlawi.

    Officers are stationed nearby during Friday prayers/strong>, and leaders from the mosque let police know when there is a big event coming up, she said.

    “They are there to monitor and make sure everything is okay, especially after the mosque attack last year,” she said.

    In light of the allegations, Al Mawlawi said she’s concerned the mosque may be targeted and questions if it will still be a safe space for everyone.

    “There’s many different generations that attend that mosque, from the elderly all the way to infants,” she said.

    “And with that story out there, what if there are people who do want to do some kind of harm or graffiti? They are going to come in the area.”

    ‘One of the most open mosques’

    Both women said the Ahl-Ill Bait Mosque welcomes everyone, regardless of their faith.

    “They are one of the most open mosques in Montreal,” said Salman. “They always get candidates and officials, and they never ask anyone, even women, to wear the hijab when they come in.”

    While there are separate entrances for men and women, Al Mawlawi said the mosque is far from segregated. There are often mixed events and youth-based activities are open to both girls and boys.

    She said it’s hard to witness the backlash from the news report and claims that Muslims are anti-feminist or anti-women.

    “I never ever felt that I was inferior to a man, whether religiously or not,” she said.

    “We’re trying to come back and say that ‘I’m a female, I’m Muslim, I go to the mosque, and I do not feel this way.'”

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-mosque-members-respond-allegations-construction-site-women-1.4447532

    ==================================================

    CBC – As allegation of unreasonable accommodation crumbles under scrutiny, a sense of déjà vu emerges in Quebec

    Why do we keep forgetting the lessons of the Bouchard-Taylor report?

    The findings of the Bouchard-Taylor commission, Quebec’s 2008 study into its so-called reasonable accommodation crisis, have had a rough-and-tumble afterlife.

    Some have become official policy; others are trotted out occasionally by politicians to justify contentious proposals. But most have been forgotten, especially the finding that the crisis itself was largely based on “striking distortions” of fact.

    The commission, named after co-chairs Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor, reviewed 21 of the most public cases of unreasonable accommodation, such as the pea soup at the sugarshack or the men banned from a prenatal class.

    In 15 of the cases there were wild discrepancies between what was reported and what actually happened.

    That raised the question, what if accuracy had ruled the day?

    “The most likely hypothesis is that an accommodation crisis would not have arisen,” the report concluded.

    But that was 10 years ago. On Tuesday, a number of Quebec politicians waded into another purported case of an unreasonable accommodation, equipped again with an incomplete version of the facts.

    History repeating

    A media report began circulating late in the afternoon claiming a Montreal mosque had signed a contract with a construction company stipulating that no women could be on the site on Fridays, the Muslim holy day.

    Catherine Fournier, the Parti Québécois’s critic for the condition of women, was quick to criticize the mosque based on the media report.

    “I was so scandalized by this,” she told Radio-Canada. “Religion for me should never be a pretext for violating the equality between men and women.”

    Quebec’s labour minister, Dominique Vien, considered the allegations to have enough merit that she asked the provincial construction commission (CCQ) to examine the contract.

    “Faced with what is, if true, a completely unacceptable gesture, the verification asked of the CCQ will give me the liberty to chose the best avenue to take,” Vien said in a statement late Tuesday night.

    On Wednesday, Premier Philippe Couillard, while also holding out the need to double-check facts, nevertheless suggested the incident illustrated the utility of his controversial religious neutrality law.

    “Actually, in the bill that was adopted … the section on accommodation indicates very clearly that no accommodation can go against the principle of equality between men and women.”

    That section of the law, though, is the subject of a court-ordered stay, the product of a lawsuit launched by civil rights groups challenging its constitutionality.

    As it turns out, that initial media report about the mosque’s contract with the construction company was inaccurate. The contract contained no anti-women stipulation, according to both the contractor and the mosque.

    A missing critical instinct?

    Ten years ago, Bouchard and Taylor warned Quebecers of the consequences of debating accommodating issues in a haze of misperception: a wholly unnecessary collective anxiety attack.

    But the consequences may be more dire now. Political movements built on intolerance have in recent years come to thrive in ecosystems cultured by fake news and knee-jerk reactions.

    In the absence of political leadership in Quebec encouraging pause, encouraging Quebecers to look at the other side of the issue, the bogus elements of the mosque story spread like wildfire on far-right social media pages.

    Members of the far-right group Storm Alliance have been posting videos on Facebook decrying the non-existent clause in the contract. One of these video has been viewed more than 200,000 times, another more than 100,000 times.

    In La Meute’s “secret” Facebook group, the incident is being cited as evidence that Shariah law is on the rise in Quebec, which is demonstrably untrue.

    The mosque says it has been the target of a steady stream of hateful comments since the report was first broadcast. A lawyer representing the institution said members haven’t ruled out filing a lawsuit against the broadcaster.

    But just as worrying for members of the mosque is that a basic critical impulse failed to kick in when the story first began to circulate.

    “For people to not even second-guess the article or the allegation is deeply saddening,” said Mostafa El-Diwany, who has been praying at the Ahl-Ill Bait Mosque since 1998.

    “People take the article as fact and basically draw conclusions on the values and principles that the people who go to that mosque allegedly hold: intolerance, discrimination between men and women — the usual hate speech against Muslims.”

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/as-allegation-of-unreasonable-accommodation-crumbles-under-scrutiny-a-sense-of-d%C3%A9j%C3%A0-vu-emerges-in-quebec-1.4446638

    • the rebel – Ezra Levant: Montreal Mosque orders women to “clear” the area

      Ezra Levant of TheRebel.media reports on a Montreal Mosque pressuring a construction company to remove female employees from the area, and the mainstream media ignoring the issue.

    • Manifestation de La Meute «très préoccupante»

      La manifestation que le groupe La Meute prévoit effectuer demain devant deux mosquées de Côte-des-Neiges est «très préoccupante», estime le conseiller du secteur Lionel Perez, qui souligne que le reportage de TVA qui a mis le feu aux poudres est «potentiellement erroné». Celui-ci estime que cette controverse devrait servir de rappel à la prudence pour les médias et les élus.

      «C’est très préoccupant que, à cause d’une information potentiellement erronée, on vienne manifester pour quelque chose qui n’est peut-être pas [arrivé]», s’est désolé Lionel Perez, conseiller municipal du district Darlington et chef de l’opposition à l’hôtel de ville.

      Mardi, le réseau TVA diffusait un reportage affirmant que les dirigeants de deux mosquées de l’avenue de Courtrai avaient exigé de déplacer les femmes travaillant sur un chantier voisin durant la prière du vendredi. Lionel Perez dit avoir été choqué en entendant le reportage mardi soir. Il a aussitôt pris le téléphone pour appeler les dirigeants, qu’il dit bien connaître depuis huit ans. Ceux-ci l’ont assuré n’avoir jamais fait une telle demande. Il dit avoir eu le même son de cloche en appelant à la Commission des services électriques de Montréal (CSEM), qui gère le chantier.

      La CSEM et les deux mosquées lui ont indiqué que la seule demande effectuée visait à réduire le bruit des travaux pendant l’heure de la prière. «Je pense que c’est une demande tout à fait raisonnable quand on utilise leur terrain privé», a indiqué Lionel Perez.

      L’élu, qui avait un rendez-vous de prévu ce vendredi à l’une des deux mosquées, entend maintenir sa présence, malgré la manifestation prévue par La Meute.

      Lionel Perez estime que la controverse devrait servir d’appel à la prudence sur la question des accommodements religieux. «Ça devrait nous rappeler à quel point c’est un enjeu sensible. Et quand c’est un enjeu aussi sensible, on a tous collectivement une obligation de faire très attention de la façon dont on relate l’information, qu’on doit s’assurer d’avoir une vision complète» […] En tant qu’élus, médias et administration, on a une obligation de faire attention de relater la bonne information.»

      http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/201712/14/01-5147183-manifestation-de-la-meute-tres-preoccupante.php

    • RADIO-CANADA – ( CBC ) Aucune demande de mosquées pour exclure des femmes d’un chantier, conclut la CCQ

      À l’issue d’une enquête, la Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) conclut qu’aucune demande d’exclure des femmes d’un chantier de construction n’a été formulée par des mosquées de l’arrondissement de Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, contrairement à ce qu’a affirmé le réseau TVA, plus tôt cette semaine.

      La PDG de la CCQ, Diane Lemieux, a précisé que des problèmes de communication et des « incompréhensions » quant à la gestion du chantier étaient plutôt à l’origine du déplacement d’employées chargées de la signalisation.

      http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1073217/enquete-ccq-commission-construction-mosquees-aucune-demande-exclusion-femmes-chantier-ccq
      ==========================================
      National Observer – Questionable TVA story a reminder of media’s responsibility to report carefully

      […]

      Unverified reporting

      Mere hours after the TVA report, one of the mosques in question issued this statement:

      “The Ahl-ill Bait Mosque vigorously denies all that has been alleged in the video report made by journalist Marie-Pier Cloutier on TVA Nouvelles. There have never been such requests for accommodation from the mosque’s management.

      “We do not understand why national media did not carry out a full investigation. The mosque has never been contacted. These allegations are prejudicial to us and we are extremely saddened that such a report was broadcast.”

      […]Mosque administrators followed up with an official press release the following morning, where they reiterated that “they had never demanded the exclusion of anyone, and if any such demand had been made, it never came from their organization.” They questioned again why such a report had been published by an important media outlet without “verification or confirmation.”

      But why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

      The truth is out, but the lies still spread

      […]The TVA story was still online almost a full day later. No correction or other kind of statement has been added to the original story. In fact, a second TVA story reported, once again, that “women had been excluded from the construction site” and that QCC wanted to shed light on this “extremely sensitive file.”

      […]Did an overzealous member of the mosque take it upon themselves to urge the contractors to remove the women? Was there a misunderstanding? Is it a concerted ploy by someone to make the mosque look bad and stir up negative publicity?

      We don’t know, and all we can do is wait for the results of the investigation while an endless game of “he said/he said” plays out.

      […]Unsurprisingly, extreme far-right group La Meute has already stated they’re planning a protest in front of the mosque, to indicate to its members that they are “denouncing this revolting act against women,” and to “show these people that here in Quebec men and women have the same rights and we won’t tolerate such disrespect towards Quebec women.”

      What’s particularly egregious about the grandstanding that La Meute and other xenophobes are engaging in, is that they are using the pretext of defending women’s rights to spread their distasteful and dangerous brand of fear-mongering and intolerance. There is no reason to believe that La Meute will cancel its protest, even if between now and Friday the TVA report is declared to be erroneous. Any feeble and tenuous reason is good enough to promote their hate.

      This is where the danger of erroneous reporting lies: it can so easily be used by those who want to profit off people’s prejudice and ignorance, to advance their dubious causes.

      […]Time to be twice as vigilant

      In this present climate, politicians and news outlets should be twice as vigilant and twice as reticent to repeat information or propagate a story without due diligence. Politicians eager to jump on the public outrage bandwagon for short-term political gain are also just as guilty.

      Religious intolerance often takes on additional layers here in Quebec

      […]But because this is an easy button to push, intolerance and xenophobia have permeated the political rhetoric with an ease and a frequency that should be alarming to those who believe in human rights and religious freedom.

      […]I’ve never seen any real interest in the working conditions of Quebec female construction workers by the general public. Not until the possibility of hypothetical Muslim men denying them equal rights came up, that is.

      […]Sensational media and tabloid-style reporting sometimes make the problem seem bigger than it really is, which in turn fuels cultural insecurity.

      […]Perception is reality, and journalism that easily and irresponsibly reinforces stereotypes and false perceptions only causes harm and societal strife. In a time when far-right xenophobia is gaining ground, and where Quebec provincial elections are looming in the not-too-distant future, it’s imperative that reporters investigate sensational and sensitive stories with the diligence that is necessary.

      […]Stories that serve to marginalize and vilify communities that are already facing the brunt of prejudice and racism should be fact-checked with prudence before being published and used as a pretext to rally for human rights.

      The women’s movement already has its share of challenges and barriers to overcome — it doesn’t need racist neo-Nazi groups coming to their aid, thanks to careless news reports trying to profit off sensationalism. We owe all Quebecers due diligence when reporting the news. That also includes Muslim Quebecers.

      https://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/12/14/opinion/questionable-tva-story-reminder-medias-responsibility-report-carefully

  24. MEMRI TV – Tariq Ramadan: “Female Circumcision Not in the Quran, but Part of Our Tradition”

    Oxford University Professor Tariq Ramadan said that while he did not support FGM, one could not deny that it was part of the Prophetic tradition

    . Responding to the recent controversy surrounding Virginia-based Imam Shaker Elsayed’s endorsement of female circumcision , Ramadan said that people should not be fired “just to be on the safe side,” on the basis of clips by MEMRI, which, he alleged, “distorts, and covers in ways that are very specific.” The discussion of the topic should be internal, he said. His statements were posted on Facebook on June 14.

    • ‘Tariq Ramadan’s victims could be in their hundreds’ – new exposé

      The prominent Islamic scholar is facing a string of accusations of rape and sexual assault

      The victims of Oxford professor Tariq Ramadan are in the tens, if not hundreds, stretching back over more than two decades, according to a new exposé.

      Majda Bernoussi, a woman of Moroccan origin, kept a daily journal throughout her tumultuous relationship with the prominent Islamic scholar, extracts of which have been unveiled in French magazine Le Point.

      While Ms Bernoussi was herself not raped or beaten in the five year relationship, which lasted from 2009 to 2014, she claims to have been threatened by his fans when she tried to denounce him for his “predatory” behaviour towards women.

      She is now planning to publish her journal, entitled: A voyage into troubled waters with Tariq Ramadan.

      The latest development follows a string of damning allegations about Mr Ramadan, who is a professor at Oxford University and the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

      Three women have accused him of rape or sexual assault in the past month, providing graphic details in interviews and on social media. Four of his former students also claimed he seduced them when they were just teenagers.

      After the first accusation, Mr Ramadan issued a strong denial and filed counter-charges for libel.

      Ms Bernoussi made contact with Mr Ramadan on the internet after returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, attracted by his reputation as a holy man. 🙂 🙂 🙂 “He was very cooperative during this first exchange,” she said, adding that she was not in the least concerned. “How could this emblematic figure of Islam, respected worldwide, hurt me?”

      They started to exchange text messages, “at first very modest”. But soon, “his fake neutrality gave way to tender words, then love,” she said. Lingering doubts over his marital status plagued her, and she asked him to clarify his position several times, but without success.

      His messages became more and more daring, she said, including statements such as: “I want you, you are mine”, despite having still not met in person.

      “I felt less and less peaceful,” Ms Bernoussi said. Still, a date was set to meet, in Lille in July 2009.

      “That’s when a friend advised me to go on the Internet. I then fell on a site that chilled me with dread. There, before my eyes, dozens of girls screamed their dismay anonymously. They revealed what happened during their meetings with Ramadan…. They depicted a monster without faith or law, who took advantage of everything, their souls and their bodies.”

      As Ms Bernoussi’s doubts mounted, she says Mr Ramadan started getting angry. “He called me a tease. He wrote to me, saying: ‘That’s it?’ …I felt the evil in him, the fake, the deceived makeup man of Islam.”

      A relationship nevertheless developed, and according to Ms Bernoussi, Mr Ramadan asked her to be his wife. “He told me he was divorced… He never answered the most basic questions about his family and private life,” she said. “He spent his time telling me he loved me. An inner voice screamed at me that he was only a manipulator, who was only trying to destroy me, while he promised me the light.”

      Ms Bernoussi grew rebellious, telling him “truths he hated, which he categorically refused to hear”.

      “I used to send him text messages, asking: ‘Would people would continue to come and listen to your sermons if they knew what you were doing to their daughters?'”

      Eventually, she says, she realised she was “just an object” for him. “I exceeded my rights by daring to ask him what he had promised me, respect and love.

      “I was sincere, not him, never him. For him, it’s only a game.”

      The relationship came to an end when, according to Ms Bernoussi, Mr Ramadan realised he could not control her like he could the other women.

      “After a multitude of lies, and my rebellion, Ramadan let go of me. He was disappearing because he told me I was not who he had believed I was, I had not done what he expected of me. Namely, let him trample and abuse me.”

      “And with the back of his hand, he swept everything away.”

      Ms Bernoussi first gave an interview about her relationship with Mr Ramadan to Le Point three years ago, in which she claimed the number of his victims stretched into double, if not triple digits.

      The comments provoked abuse and insults from his fans, she said. “His fans refused to accept that their pseudo-prophet was a usurper and a hypocrite. Eloquent and brilliant, certainly, but an usurper nevertheless.”

      She added: “Tariq’s love is pitiful and boring. I know terrible things about him today. I am so often riddled with rage and pain.”

      https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/tariq-ramadan-s-victims-could-be-in-their-hundreds-new-expos%C3%A9-1.677455

      • I’m certain this animal is at least as vile as described…
        but this was written by professionals and vetted by lawyers.

        It’s generic Teen Vogue or Cosmopolitan, soft-porn with all the clichés. These magazines are mostly dead, free-lancing editors a dime a dozen..

  25. Regulators abolish ‘net neutrality’ rules in heated hearing that was stopped because of a BOMB threat as protesters rallied outside

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5180015/Protesters-gather-U-S-regulators-meet-end-net-neutrality.html#ixzz51GY4AYEl
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines on Thursday to repeal landmark 2015 rules that intended to ensure a free and open Internet, as protesters gather to oppose the change.

    The 3-2 ruling sets up a court fight over a move that opponents fear will recast the digital landscape.

    The meeting was evacuated before the vote for about 10 minutes on the basis of what Commission Chairman Ajit Pai called ‘advice from security,’ and resumed after sniffer dogs checked the building.

    An FCC official told DailyMail.com that police had concerns after a bomb threat was phoned in.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5180015/Protesters-gather-U-S-regulators-meet-end-net-neutrality.html#ixzz51GYLCJwv
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5180015/Protesters-gather-U-S-regulators-meet-end-net-neutrality.html

  26. Lindsey Graham: There’s a 30 Percent Chance Trump Attacks North Korea

    “I don’t know how to say it any more direct: If nothing changes, Trump’s gonna have to use the military option, because time is running out.”

    “I would say there’s a three in 10 chance we use the military option,” Graham predicted in an interview. If the North Koreans conduct an additional test of a nuclear bomb—their seventh—“I would say 70 percent.”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/12/lindsey-graham-war-north-korea-trump/548381/

      • He is probably sending a warning to Kim, a warning that will be ignored. Note that he also said that the nuke program was so embedded and dispursed that we will have to go for regime change. This is warning China to rein in Kim or have South Korean Troops and US advisors on their border.

  27. GAZA – Hamas celebrates 30th anniversary with massive rally in Gaza

    The Hamas resistance movement celebrated the 30th anniversary of its founding with a massive rally and celebrations in Gaza City, Thursday.

    Thousands of Palestinians gathered in Gaza City’s al-Katiba Square, waving green Hamas flags and displaying green scarves.

    In a speech delivered to rally participants, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh condemned last week’s decision by US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Hamas’ first objective would be “to force the American administration to reverse its unjust decision,” Haniyeh stated, adding that Hamas would “continue to enhance strong alliances in the region to confront the American- Zionist project on Palestinian soil.”

  28. KNIFE ATTACK Maastricht stabbing – two dead and several injured after Netherlands knife rampage

    Cops have rushed to the scene of the “stabbing incident” in the southern Dutch city tonight.

    TWO people have been killed and several injured in a knife attack in Maastricht.

    Cops have rushed to the scene of the “stabbing incident” in the southern Dutch city tonight.

    The knifing took place at Botsaartstraat 32, with police and ambulances reported to be on the scene.

    The attacker is believed to have escaped, according to local media, and a manhunt underway.

    A police spokesman confirmed: “One person died and at a second spot close by one or more people were stabbed.”

    The force later confirmed a second person had died in hospital.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5142541/maastricht-knife-one-dead-injured-latest/

    ===================================

    Two dead and several injured after two knife attacks in Maastricht

    TWO PEOPLE have died and several people have been injured after two separate stabbings in the Dutch city of Maastricht.

    One person died after a stabbing in the neighbourhood of Buitenwijk West while others were injured several hundred metres away at Joseph Postmesstraat.

    Another person was later confirmed dead by police, albeit without confirming the specific location.

    Witnesses reported hearing loud shouts during the incident.

    Emergency services have rushed to the second location to help the injured.

    Local police tweeted: “Two dead and several injured in incidents.

    “Police are doing research on site. More information will follow.”

    Photos taken at the scene show police officers sealing off an are with a red and white tarp.

    Police are investigating whether the two incidents in the Dutch city are related.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/892520/maastricht-stabbing-attack-netherlands-stabbings

    • Netherlands: Man arrested following multiple-fatality knife attack in Maastricht

      Netherlands police have arrested a man in connection with a knife in the residential area of Maastricht on Thursday, which left two people dead and three injured.

  29. Illegal Alien Criminals AGAIN Protected by Sanctuary NY City

    (Brendan Clarey, Liberty Headlines) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently arrested four men in two days after they were released from New York Police Department custody, despite detainers on them from the agency.

    The NYPD released the prisoners from four separate locations within the last week notifying federal authorities, despite the agency’s regulations, according to a release from the agency.

    The agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers removed the men under Field Director for ERO New York Thomas Decker, who said the arrests protect the people who live in the city.

    “The release of criminal aliens back on New York City streets continues to pose a dangerous risk to our communities,” Decker said. “ICE remains committed to arresting and removing criminal aliens in the interest of public safety and national security, despite the city’s decision to not honor detainers and jeopardize the safety of its citizens.”

    ERO deportation officers on Tuesday arrested a 45-year-old Dominican man who was ordered to leave the country in 2003.

    http://www.libertyheadlines.com/illegal-alien-criminals-protected-sanctuary-ny-city/?AID=7236

  30. NBC10 reporter disputes former Miss USA contestant’s recollections of Trump
    2006 contestant accused the president of ogling her and others

    A woman who has accused President Donald Trump of ogling her and other contestants in a private dressing room before the 2006 Miss USA Pageant recalled her story Monday on Megyn Kelly’s NBC morning show.

    But NBC10 traffic reporter Jessica Boyington disputed Samantha Holvey’s version of Trump’s interactions with the contestants in a segment aired on the station Tuesday.

    “He comes in like he owns the place. And like he owns you,” Holvey, who was Miss North Carolina USA that year, said on Megyn Kelly Today, adding that contestants were wearing robes with nothing on underneath. “He’s just looking at us, eyeing us up and down, and then walked into the dressing room where we have two big security guards to make sure nobody but the girls and our female chaperones can get into the dressing room, and he just walks right in.”

    But Boyington, who represented New Jersey in the competition, told NBC10 that Trump and now-First Lady Melania Trump were due to enter the dressing room about one hour in advance, saying they were given plenty of notice.

    http://www.phillyvoice.com/nbc10-reporter-disputes-miss-usa-contestants-trump-allegations/

  31. Black Lives Matter Chapter Wants Boycott of White-Owned Businesses

    Part of the BLM chapter’s #BlackXmas campaign…

    That motley collection of social media demagogues known as Black Lives Matter (BLM) has come up with a new idea for this Christmas season: a nationwide boycott of all white-owned corporations. As they tell the story, running a business constitutes complicity in the murder of blacks. Ironically, their intended targets might their most generous friends.

    The brainchild of this initiative is one Melina Abdullah, a leader of BLM’s Los Angeles chapter and a professor at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA). She’s urging shoppers, as part of the chapter’s #BlackXmas campaign, not to shop or otherwise do business with companies owned by whites. On a recent broadcast of her weekly radio program, “Beautiful Struggle,” she proclaimed: “We say ‘white capitalism’ because it’s important that we understand that the economic system and the racial structures are connected. We have to not only disrupt the systems of policing that literally kill our people, but we have to disrupt the white supremacist, capitalistic, patriarchal, heteronormative that is really the root of these police killings.”

    http://nlpc.org/2017/12/14/black-lives-matter-chapter-calls-boycott-white-owned-businesses/

    • For those who don’t know how the US government works, Congress doesn’t have the authority to porsecute anyone. All they can do is investigate and refer the matter to the Department of Justice for prosecution. The reason Gowdy hasn’t gotten anyone prosecuted is that the Department of Justice has refused to prosecute.

    • Could staffers on Robert Mueller’s team receive prison time?

      House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) wants a special counsel to probe Robert Mueller’s team amid the leaking of perceived biased text messages from an FBI agent on the investigation.

      • If they can get a special prosecutor the odds are that several of them will be convicted. If they can get a special prosecutor if they don’t nothing will happen.

      • They need to remove smething like the first 5 layers of bosses at the FBI and bring in someone who isn’t part of the DC establishment to take over and clean up the Bureau. After that they need to do the same thing at the Department of Justice.

  32. Al Franken’s Replacement Is A Throwback From Planned Parenthood

    We already know that Al Franken is OUT! Of course, during his speech announcing this he focused more on being anti-Trump than admitting guilt but I digress…

    So who exactly is going to replace him? Maybe a conservative, someone level-headed, with appreciate the life of an unborn child? See what I did there? The answer is NOPE!

    Tina Smith will be replacing disgraced former senator Franken announced today by Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton. Smith is a former Planned Parenthood executive.

    https://steadfastandloyal.com/government-gone-wild/al-frankens-replacement-real-winner-will-great-things/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:965585&utm_campaign=Joe%20Biden%20Unleashes%20Baseless%20Attack%20Against%20President%20Trump

  33. We Can’t Take That Risk’ — FBI Officials Discussed ‘Insurance Policy’ Against Trump Presidency
    Photo of Chuck Ross
    Chuck Ross

    Two FBI officials who worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation exchanged text messages last year in which they appear to have discussed ways to prevent Donald Trump from being elected president.

    “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok wrote in a cryptic text message to Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer and his mistress.

    “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40,” Strzok wrote in the text, dated Aug. 15, 2016.

    Andy is likely Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.

    http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/13/fbi-officials-discussed-insurance-policy-against-trump-presidency/

  34. How Many Muslims in Europe? Pew’s Projections Fall Short

    by Soeren Kern
    December 14, 2017 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11545/how-many-muslims-in-europe
    How Many Muslims in Europe? Pew’s Projections Fall Short

    by Soeren Kern
    December 14, 2017 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11545/how-many-muslims-in-europe

    Europe’s Muslim population is set to double — and possibly triple — between now and 2050, according to new projections by the Pew Research Center.

    The projections, contained in a report, “Europe’s Growing Muslim Population,” confirm what has long been common knowledge: decades of declining European birthrates, coupled with mass migration from the Muslim world, are fast-tracking the Islamization of Europe.

    The demographic calamity facing Europe, however, is even worse than the Pew report lets on. A critical analysis of the data shows that Pew’s calculations of the current Muslim population in key European countries are partial and incomplete — and in some instances inaccurate. As a result, Pew’s baseline estimate of the number of Muslims currently in Europe — the estimate upon which its future projections are calculated — has been undercounted by at least five million Muslims, whose presence in Europe will significantly increase the future size of the continent’s Muslim population.

    The Pew report offers three projections based on three different scenarios involving migration during the next three decades. The baseline for all three scenarios is the Muslim population in Europe (defined by Pew as the 28 countries presently in the European Union, plus Norway and Switzerland), estimated at 25.8 million (4.9% of the overall population) as of mid-2016 — up from 19.5 million (3.8%) in 2010.

  35. Palestinians: Arab Rulers are Traitors, Cowards

    by Khaled Abu Toameh
    December 14, 2017 at 4:30 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11546/palestinians-arab-rulers

    Once again, the Palestinians are disappointed with their Arab brothers.

    A declaration of war on the US, in the Palestinians’ view, would have been the appropriate response to US President Donald Trump’s December 6 announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

    For the Palestinians, the anti-US demonstrations that took place in some Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Iraq and Lebanon were a welcome development.

    But the protests have evidently failed to satisfy the appetite of the Palestinians, who were banking on the Arab heads of state and governments to take more drastic measures against the US.

    The Palestinians are not expecting the Arab and Islamic armies to march on the White House or bomb New York and Los Angeles.