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Hi Eeyore and readers of Vladtepesblog,
Europe: The Islamization of Christmas
https://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2017/12/25/islamization-of-christmas/
Thank You.
Macron and Trudeau could be sisters:
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11599/france-macron-arab-world
A close Islamist friend told me two days ago that Justin is Sufi Muslim. He is adamant about this, he says many people know. He became Sufi quite some time ago.
A link to some kind of evidence of that would be fantastic. Not that I don’t believe it, it makes more than perfect sense, it makes the jigsaw come together so that you can see what the picture is.
But still, its a claim of a friend of a friend. At some point we need to see him next to Obama praying at a mosque.
Seeing those two praying at a Mosque would be great ammo for out side.
I doubt if we will ever see Obama praying at a Mosque, he will probably search out another Church like the one he went to in Chicago.
VIDEO: Canadian Prime Minister performs Maghrib prayer with Muslims in the mosque https://arclip.net/video/1OMObKOQJAQ/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%88-%D8%B1%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%86%D8%AF%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D8%A4%D8%AF%D9%8A-%D8%B5%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9.html
See same video (with stills and speculation) from Tunisie News, as posted to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=1OMObKOQJAQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-qqruCmyq0
Here is the film, and it is quite clear to me (by his long speech on “working together” in lieu of prayer) that he is more politician than anything else. People see what they want to see. Title as posted: Canadian Prime Minister prays Maghrib prayer with Muslims in the mosque and congratulates them on the coming of Ramadan
Comments on the 2nd video pray that he one day convert. Here’s what looks like a cynical observation (via google translate):
Al-Khawarizmi asked the mathematician about the man, and he answered if the man is a man, he is 1 = and if the man is a beauty, add to one zero = 10 and if he has money, The value of the human zeros remained ????
———
The Arabic text shows the progression: 1, 10, 100, 1000, and nothing remains. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-qqruCmyq0&lc=UghxdtVZ-QJucHgCoAEC
At least someone has a sense of humor!
I was told that Justin converted quite a while ago to Sufi Islam. My close friend who is adamant about this is a Muslim bordering on Islamism. He says quite a few people know.
Sorry for reposting. Delete the above.
Islamic State-affiliated fighters in Somalia release first official video (usatoday, Dec 26, 2017)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/26/islamic-state-affiliated-fighters-somalia-release-first-official-video/981105001/
“The first official propaganda video from Islamic State-affiliated fighters in Somalia was released late Monday, according to a group that monitors extremist organizations.
The SITE Intelligence Group said the inaugural video posted online urged Islamic State group supporters to take advantage of people’s “drunkenness” over the holiday season to “hunt down” and attack what it called nonbelievers.
“#ISIS called on lone wolves to attack during #Christmas and #NewYearsEve, and to hit nightclubs, churches, and markets, regardless of the presence of children,” the SITE Intelligence Group said in a description of the video.
The Horn of Africa nation has a small but growing presence of Islamic State-affiliated fighters. Many of them are defectors from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab extremist group. Last month, the U.S. military for the first time conducted airstrikes against these fighters who are based in northern Somalia’s rural Puntland.”
ISIS threaten terror attacks in western nightclubs, churches and markets over Christmas and New Year in new propaganda video
In the seven-minute clip an English speaking Islamic State fighter calls his ‘brothers’ to ‘hunt down’ non-believers during the festive holidays
ISIS has called on lone wolves to target Christmas and New Years Eve celebrations in western countries and also threatened an attack on the Pope in a disturbing new propaganda video.
In the seven-minute clip an English speaking Islamic State fighter calls his ‘brothers’ to ‘hunt down’ non-believers during the festive holidays.
It features sickening mock-up footage of an explosion on the banks of the River Thames in London during the annual New Year’s Eve party attended by tens of thousands of people.
The opening scenes feature footage of a large train derailing as well as showing a car ploughing through a crowd of people.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/isis-threaten-terror-attacks-western-11754238
===================================
http://thevid.net/v/23jr3hopyuqjvzosfmqgqozj
Egypt executes 15 militants over deadly 2013 Sinai attack (wapo, Dec 26, 2017)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypt-executes-15-militants-over-deadly-2013-sinai-attack/2017/12/26/43415044-ea2c-11e7-956e-baea358f9725_story.html
“Egypt’s Prisons Authority says 15 Islamic militants convicted of staging a deadly attack on an army checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula four years ago have been executed.
Tuesday’s executions in two prisons to the west and northwest of Cairo is the largest known number of executions on a single day since the insurgency began four years ago in the turbulent north of Sinai. The 15 were hanged.
The 15 were tried and convicted by a military tribunal over the 2013 attack that killed an army officer and eight conscripts.
The executions of so many on a single day appears to be a reflection of the government’s recently declared resolve to crush the insurgency following the massacre by militants of more than 300 people in a Sinai mosque last month.”
Saudi Arabia Reveals Iranian Role in Supporting Pro-Terrorist Militias in Qatif (aawsat, Dec 26, 2017)
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1124431/saudi-arabia-reveals-iranian-role-supporting-pro-terrorist-militias-qatif
“Saudi security authorities announced on Monday that Iran is supporting terrorist groups to carry out their attacks on behalf of states that sponsor terrorism.
These terrorist groups include Houthi militias in Yemen, the Lebanese “Hezbollah”, ISIS and the terrorist elements in Qatif province in eastern Saudi Arabia.
This came as authorities officially announced that they have found in Qatif the corpse of Sheikh Mohammed al-Jirani, a judge of the Department of Endowments and Heritage. He was kidnapped from in front of his home last week.
He was buried in a remote farm in Awamiya and was discovered during a security operation in which fugitive Salman al-Faraj was killed.
Spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior Major General Mansour al-Turki said that there is support from outside Saudi Arabia for terrorist militias, especially media support, pointing to the existence of media trumpets acting on behalf of these groups.
“Terrorism sponsors avoid leaving evidence of their involvement to not be condemned internationally however they form proxy groups to carry out terrorist acts that are supported and financed by them, like the Houthi militias in Yemen and ‘Hezbollah’ in Lebanon,” he added.
He also confirmed the death Salman al-Faraj, one of Jirani’s kidnappers, as well as the arrest of his half-brother Zaki al-Faraj.
He said that the Kingdom provides all resources available for the security services to track the terrorists and arrest them…”
Houthis are barely human.
The ones fighting are seasoned Shitte militias and Hezbollah-Yemen. More coming all the time, and equipped with the best and latest. Formidable forces.
Scandinavian Streets Awash With Arms Smuggled From Balkans (sputniknews, Dec 26, 2017)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201712261060324607-scandinavia-balkans-arms-smuggling/
“Scandinavia has seen a dramatic influx of firearms in recent years. The lion’s share of the smuggled arms stems from the war-ravaged Balkans and has been used in a number of attention-grabbing cases.
After the conflicts in the Balkans receded, a large number of weapons flooded Europe’s black market. Today, Scandinavia’s streets are awash with “foreign” and previously unseen gun brands, such as the Serbian Zastava and Czech-Serbian Scorpion machine guns, amid an unparalleled upswing in shooting incidents.
Although the origin of the arms was not investigated in a number of cases, the Norwegian Dagbladet daily reported that arms of South and East European origin are increasingly used in gang milieus and drug trafficking. This autumn alone, a dozen of men were charged with drug offences and illegal arms procurement as a follow-up to “Operation Hunger,” during which arms sales from the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and the former Soviet Union were revealed.
A 2014 estimate by Europol, which has coordinated several major operations against weapons smugglers with ties to Scandinavia, assessed that about half a million arms were stolen and smuggled into the EU.
Predrag Petrovic, the head of the Security Policy Center in Belgrade, Serbia, concurred that huge amounts of weapons are still available on the Serbian black market.
“An estimated 900,000 firearms are on the way,” Petrovic told Dagbladet. “Many people claimed their weapons to be stolen, but in reality they were sold illegally to Western Europe,” he said.
According to Petrovic, the price of an AK-47 assault rifle in Serbia is around 200 euros. In Western Europe, the very same weapon may be sold for as much as 3,000 euros, 15 times the original bid. The AK-47, which is the world’s most popular firearm and a fixture in civil wars and uprisings on all continents, is not unknown to Norwegian police, as it was used in the notorious robbery against the Sheikh Enterprises goldsmith in 2014.
“The price margin is about the same with smaller arms,” Petrovic argued. According to him, it is much more common to smuggle smaller guns. The smugglers are most often Balkans émigrés now living in the West. Most of the arms are “pre-ordered” and are smuggled in parts to prevent discovery by police. Notably, the arms are often smuggled along the same paths as drugs.
The Security Policy Center reported that arms are smuggled from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Turkey further to Hungary and Austria. From there, arms are smuggled to France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and further to Denmark, which functions as a “distribution hub” for the rest of the Nordics.
“Malmö is a gateway for illegal weapons to Sweden,” Lars Forstell, a police spokesman in Sweden’s southernmost Skåne County, admitted to Dagbladet. Forstell argued that depots abound across the country, where illegal arms are stashed until ordered by clientele. “Most of these arms stem from former warzones in the Balkans,” Forstell said.
In 2017, Sweden saw a dramatic spike in shooting incidents. Forty people were killed and 135 wounded in over 300 shootings, most of which were gang-related.
In late November, a joint operation by 17 European countries stopped a network smuggling arms to Western Europe and Scandinavia. A total of 18 people were detained in the Balkans, where over 135 firearms and 7,000 bullets were seized.”
Nearly Invisible Threat: 3D-Printed Arms Trigger Terrorist Concerns in Sweden
The Swedish customs authorities are concerned about the proliferation of 3D weapons, which may be used to commit terrorist acts. As these weapons are made of individual plastic parts, they are notoriously difficult to detect, which allows their owners to successfully dodge security checks.
Despite the fact that only a handful of arms printed using a 3D printer have so far been seized in Sweden, the customs authorities express their concern that arms made of plastic may be used in terrorist offenses, making them increasingly difficult to prevent, as these arms are next to invisible in security checks, Swedish Radio reported.
Karl Hetting of the Customs Information Service is concerned that this development could lead to 3D weapons becoming progressively more involved in terrorist offenses, as they can be made of separate plastic parts, which specifically allows for their use in various protected areas.
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201711231059357409-sweden-3d-printed-arms/
A few years ago when the first 3D printed gun made the news I predicted that this was going to kill gun control around the world. Many on the blog said I was crazy that the governments would find some way to block the machines from printing firearms. 3D printed firearms are turning up in Europe in the hands of criminals and invaders, it won’t be long before the native Europeans will start turning to 3D printed weapons and firearms made using small computer controlled milling machines for self defense. Gun Control is dead, the left wing governments and the left wing activists will refuse to accept this fact for several years in some cases for many years. They can ignore this all they want but reality is rearing its ugly head and new technology is not only giving the governments the ability to spy on us it is also giving the criminal element the ability to make firearms that the government can’t control.
Is there a 3D printing technology that can produce a hand gun that presents more danger to its target than its user?
I don’t feel good about firing a 9MM out of that spooled yellow plastic.
Maybe if there was a way to easily get the right kind of barrel and chamber material and rifle it somehow, but now we are in way above 3D printing.
The only ones I have see that were safe to fire were 22 long rifles, personally if I were going to go for a non traceable handgun I would buy one of the computer controlled milling machines for hobbyists and find the soft ware for a handgun that I like. As long as you don’t go for the magnum rounds(41, 44) you should be able to use a barbaque grill and a hair dryer to head the parts up to cherry red (when a magnet won’t stick) and use cooking oil to quench it for the heat treat. Either that or find an illegal dealer, but I live in a state that doesn’t require registration so finding at least semi untraceable handguns is much easier then in a state or nation with heavier handed gun control laws.
heat not head
Make sure you sue high carbon steel.
You can check the heat treat by seeing how hard it is for a file to cut into the metal, if it just skates over the metal instead of biting in the heat treat was good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va1xcwbcIVg
“Is there a 3D printing technology that can produce a hand gun that presents more danger to its target than its user?”
Yes, investigate “Direct Metal Laser Sintering” (DMLS).
Laser sintered metal printing involves working with a bed of highly uniform granulated metal (powder). A powerful (~400W) laser is used to selectively scan areas in order to melt and fuse the metal material. Another (controlled thickness) 100µ layer of metal powder is applied to the bed and scanned again by the laser.
Effectively, the part is built bottom-up, layer-by-layer, with each successive scan fusing the new layer into the previously solidified portion.
“Maybe if there was a way to easily get the right kind of barrel and chamber material and rifle it somehow, but now we are in way above 3D printing.”
Not at all. The first link details how (in 2014) Solid Concepts printed a Colt 1911—right down to the barrel’s internal rifling—that has successfully been fired over 1,000 times and withstands internal barrel pressures of 20,000 psi during each discharge. Only some of the screws, screw bushings, and springs were not made with DMLS (although the screws could have been made that way).
Those cost more then the ones that work in plastic but if a resistance group can get their hands on one or more of them to go with the Ghost Gun machine (computer controlled milling machine) you could turn out any type of firearm you want.
Don’t forget that during WWII the British Sten Gun and the US M3 submachine gun (aka the grease gun) were designed to any light machine shop could make them. In Israel before the Brits left the Israeli resistance was building them every place that had any type of auto or farm machinery repair shed.
As Churchill said during WWII, Second Best today. He was talking about radar but the philosophy applies to a lot of things. Use the 3D printer for the barrels and some other things and the milling machine for the frame.
Shin Bet is finding them all over the West Bank.
All of the worlds governments have to understand that gun control is dead, the era of gun control is coming to an end. A violent bloody end because right now the honest people in most Western Nations aren’t armed. This will be corrected over the next few years.
Turkey & Ukraine unlikely to join EU in near future – German FM (RT, Dec 26, 2017)
https://www.rt.com/news/414256-turkey-ukraine-join-eu/
“German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he doesn’t see either Turkey or Ukraine joining the 28-member bloc anytime soon. Gabriel envisages other forms of cooperation instead, modelled on what he called a “smart” Brexit deal.
Speaking to the German press on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gabriel said he cannot imagine Turkey and Ukraine as members of the European Union in the years to come. The bloc may choose instead to invent other forms of cooperation, including those modelled on the EU’s post-Brexit relations with Britain…”
Suspected U.S. drone kills militants on Pakistan-Afghan border (reuters, Dec 26, 2017)
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pakistan-drones/suspected-u-s-drone-kills-militants-on-pakistan-afghan-border-idUKKBN1EK0VD
“A suspected U.S. drone attack along the Pakistani-Afghan border killed an Islamist militant commander and one of his associates on Tuesday, a Pakistani official in the remote area said.
It was not immediately clear whether the missile struck on the Afghan or Pakistani side or the border.
There have been multiple unverified U.S. drone strikes in the mountainous border region separating Pakistan’s Kurram Agency from Afghanistan since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.
Trump has taken a hardline stance on Pakistan, which he says provides safe haven to terrorists including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network carrying out attacks in Afghanistan…”
United Nations Evil | Steven Crowder and Stefan Molyneux
Britain escorts Russian ship near national waters amid strained relations
LONDON (Reuters) – A British ship escorted a Russian vessel as it passed near UK territorial waters over Christmas, Britain’s defense ministry said on Tuesday, adding that Russian naval activity near Britain had increased in the holiday period.
The frigate HMS St Albans departed on Dec. 23 to track the new Russian warship Admiral Gorshkov as it moved through the North Sea. The Royal Navy vessel monitored the Russian ship over Christmas and will return to dock in Portsmouth later on Tuesday.
UK defense minister Gavin Williamson said in a statement after the incident that he would “not hesitate in defending our waters or tolerate any form of aggression”.
Relations between Britain and Russia are strained, and UK foreign minister Boris Johnson said there was “abundant evidence” of Moscow meddling in foreign elections during a trip to Russia last week. His counterpart Sergei Lavrov said there was no proof for Johnson’s claim.
While Johnson said he wants to normalize relations with Russia, Moscow blames London for the poor state of relations between the countries.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/britain-escorts-russian-ship-near-national-waters-amid-000529324.html
Russia’s Navalny calls for election boycott as officials ban him from running
Russia’s leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny called on Russians to boycott next year’s presidential election, even as he vows to appeal a government ruling barring him from the campaign.
“I assure you, a huge amount of people will not go to this election, would actively boycott this election,” Navalny said Monday.
The Central Election Commission voted unanimously on Monday to ban Navalny from the 2018 campaign because of a criminal conviction in a fraud case, which Navalny considers a politically trumped-up charge to keep him out of politics.
“Navalny’s crime qualifies as ‘serious’ and therefore rids the individual of the right to stand for president,” said commission member Boris Ebzeyev ahead of the vote, urging the body to bar him from running.
The commission’s ruling comes just a day after Navalny applied to run for president, calling on supporters around the country to show their support for his bid.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/25/russias-navalny-calls-election-boycott-officials-ban-him-running/980805001/
Russia’s Putin calls for Web activities of some firms to be monitored
MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Monday the Russian authorities should monitor the activity of “some companies” on social media during next year’s presidential election and assess the extent of their involvement in domestic politics.
He did not name the companies or say if he was concerned about the activities of foreign or local firms, but Russia has been accused by the United States and other Western nations of meddling in their elections.
“We need to look carefully at how some companies work in internet, in social media, and how widely they are involved in our domestic political life,” Putin said, speaking at a meeting with leaders in Russia’s parliament about a new “foreign agents” law.
Putin signed a law last month allowing the authorities to designate foreign media outlets as “foreign agents” in response to what Moscow said was unacceptable U.S. pressure on Russian media. Once designated, such firms need to provide details to the authorities on, for example, their sources of funding.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/russias-putin-calls-activities-firms-monitored-190946807.html
Journalist and judge clash in Turkey opposition newspaper trial
Istanbul (AFP) – A judge ejected one of Turkey’s most respected investigative journalists from court Monday and ruled that he and three other suspects should remain in jail, in the controversial trial of staff from the main opposition newspaper.
It was one of the angriest exchanges so far in the trial on terror charges of 17 current and former writers, cartoonists and executives from Cumhuriyet (“Republic”), which has raised alarm over press freedom under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/journalist-judge-clash-turkey-opposition-newspaper-trial-133254057.html
Obama’s post-presidential life: what does his second act have in store?
There’s the library. There’s the memoir. There might be a foundation. Maybe some paid speeches. Perhaps a new hobby, like oil painting. Maybe, in the case of George HW Bush, accusations of groping by eight women.
The life of a former president has a few set pieces, but still plenty of room for surprise. John Quincy Adams was elected to Congress. “There is nothing more pathetic in life than a former president,” he is said to have concluded
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/25/obama-post-presidential-life-trump
China’s Shanghai to battle ‘big city disease’ by limiting population to 25 mln
SHANGHAI, Dec 26 (Reuters) – China’s financial hub of Shanghai will limit its population to 25 million people by 2035 as part of a quest to manage “big city disease”, the cabinet has said.
The State Council said on its website late on Monday the goal to control the size of the city was part of Shanghai’s masterplan for 2017-2035, which the government body had approved.
“By 2035, the resident population in Shanghai will be controlled at around 25 million and the total amount of land made available for construction will not exceed 3,200 square kilometres,” it said.
Many of China’s biggest cities also face surging house prices, stirring fears of a property bubble
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/chinas-shanghai-to-battle-big-city-disease-by-limiting-population-to-25-mln-20171225-00067
China sentences ‘Vulgar Butcher’ activist to 8 years’ prison
BEIJING (AP) — A prominent activist who called himself the Ultra Vulgar Butcher as he mocked and pressured Chinese officials was given an eight-year prison sentence Tuesday for subversion, the harshest sentence handed down in a sweeping crackdown on rights campaigners.
The Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court handed down the sentence after finding activist Wu Gan guilty of subverting state power. Wu will appeal the sentence, his lawyer Ge Yongxi told The Associated Press.
Wu had become known among rights advocates and lawyers for his attention-grabbing campaigns. In one, he posed for online portraits brandishing knives that he said he would use to “slaughter the pigs” among local officials who’d done wrong.
In court on Tuesday, Wu struck an irreverent note in his remarks following the sentence, saying he was “grateful to the party for granting me this lofty honor,” according to Ge, who was in court.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-sentences-vulgar-butcher-activist-8-years-prison-024632457.html
Bangladesh activist arrested on ‘anti-Islam’ charges
Dhaka (AFP) – Bangladesh police arrested a 25-year-old social media activist as he tried to leave the country on charges that he defamed Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, authorities said Tuesday.
Immigration police detained Asaduzzaman Noor, known as Asad Noor on his Youtube channel, at Dhaka airport on Monday evening, inspector Mohammad Shahidullah told AFP.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bangladesh-activist-arrested-anti-islam-charges-080818215.html
Spinal-Cord Implants to Numb Pain Emerge as Alternative to Pills
By Michelle Cortez
For millions of Americans suffering from debilitating nerve pain, a once-overlooked option has emerged as an alternative to high doses of opioids: implanted medical devices using electricity to counteract pain signals the same way noise-canceling headphones work against sound.
The approach, called neuromodulation, has been a godsend for Linda Landy, who was a 42-year-old runner when a foot surgery went awry in 2008. She was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, a condition dubbed the suicide disease by doctors: The pain is so unrelenting that many people take their own lives.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-26/spinal-cord-implants-to-numb-pain-emerge-as-alternative-to-pills
Richard: This is where the left is forcing us to go, political correctness and modern feminism is destroying the normal relationship between men and women.
Sign a contract before sex? Political correctness could destroy passion
In the West, at least, everyone has become massively aware of the extent of coercion and exploitation in sexual relations.
However, we should bear in mind also the (no less significant) fact that millions of people on a daily basis flirt and play the game of seduction, with the clear aim of finding a partner for making love. The result of the modern Western culture is that both sexes are expected to play an active role in this game.
When women dress provocatively to attract the male gaze or when they “objectify” themselves to seduce them, they don’t do it offering themselves as passive objects: instead they are the active agents of their own “objectification,” manipulating men, playing ambiguous games, including reserving the full right to step out of the game at any moment even if, to the male gaze, this appears in contradiction with previous “signals.”
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/414219-sex-political-correctness-relations/
Sounds like ancient National Geographic features about coming of age in remote cannibal archipelagos. Alien.
I can think of a few SF or Fantasy books and short stories that have that as one of the aspects of the society. Non of the societies were ones I would want to live in.
Analysis: The quiet probe into Clinton email investigation could be a landmine for Robert Mueller
WASHINGTON — In early January, news that the Justice Department’s inspector general launched an investigation into the government’s disputed handling of the Hillary Clinton email inquiry was quickly overtaken by the chaotic run-up to President Trump’s inauguration.
Nearly a year later, Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s wide-ranging review of the FBI and Justice’s work in the politically-charged Clinton case now looms as a potential landmine for Russia special counsel Robert Mueller.
For months, Horowitz’s investigation — which has amassed interviews with former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former FBI Director James Comey and other key officials — had been grinding on in near anonymity. That is, until earlier this month when the inspector general acknowledged that Mueller was alerted to a cache of text messages exchanged between two FBI officials on his staff that disparaged Trump.
The communications, involving senior counter-intelligence agent Peter Strzok and bureau lawyer Lisa Page, were gathered in the course of Horowitz’s internal review of the Clinton case, which Strzok also helped oversee. Horowitz’s investigation is not examining Mueller’s operation. But the disclosures already have provided a hammer to Trump loyalists who are escalating their criticisms of the legitimacy of the special counsel’s inquiry.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/12/26/analysis-quiet-probe-into-clinton-email-investigation-could-landmine-robert-mueller/965396001/
Richard: Remember IG’s don’t have the power to prosecute, all they can do is refer their findings to the DOJ recommending prosecution. If enough is made public the Sewer Rats in the DOJ may not be able to block prosecution but don’t count on this.
Can Central Banks Keep Control of Interest Rates?
Inflation-adjusted—or ‘real’—rates remain low, lending support to booming prices for stocks, property and other assets. But some worry that could vanish sooner than markets realize
https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-central-bankers-about-to-lose-control-1514292439
nvestors are elated by a booming global economy and the promise of central banks to tighten monetary policy only gradually. But a question haunts them: Will interest rates develop a mind of their own?
While central banks set short-term rates—the 1.5% rate that the Federal Reserve publishes on its website—economists disagree about how much control they have over long-term borrowing costs. These are gauged by government-bond yields, especially those with returns tied to inflation.
Low inflation-indexed—or “real”—rates push money into risky assets, because investors get little extra purchasing power for holding safer securities. According to a new report by BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest asset manager, subdued real rates have been 2017’s main driver of returns in global infrastructure debt and investment-grade corporate debt. They also boost gold and real estate, analysts say, which don’t pay coupons but don’t lose value when inflation rises.
Many markets could climb off record highs if real rates rise. But it is hard to forecast, said Kevin Gardiner, global investment strategist at Rothschild Wealth Management, because “nobody knows exactly what sets interest rates.”
A bitcoin implosion could ‘spill over’ into stock market, warns Wells Fargo’s Chris Harvey
Wells Fargo head of equity strategy on bitcoin’s market impact in 2018
Wells Fargo head of equity strategy on bitcoin’s market impact in 2018
4:58 PM ET Fri, 22 Dec 2017 | 02:16
If the cryptocurrency boom goes bust, stocks could easily be dragged into the chaos, Wells Fargo Securities says.
Christopher Harvey, the firm’s head of equity strategy, is paying close attention to the unprecedented activity in what could be one of the most epic bubbles of all time.
“There is a significant amount of froth in the cryptomarkets. We do think that if that froth comes out, it will start to spillover,” he warned on CNBC’s “Trading Nation.”
Bitcoin and its peers have been seeing wild price swings seen over the past week. Last week, bitcoin lost one-third of its value in a single day before rebounding. That capped days of volatility which saw the digital currency surge to a new record near $20,000. On Tuesday, it was above $15,000, according to CoinDesk.
“What we’re worried about is froth coming out of that market, and that’s starting to affect equities,” said Harvey. “You’re seeing it a little bit, but just not to a large degree. And, it’s something to watch out for 2018
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/23/a-bitcoin-implosion-could-spill-over-into-stocks-warns-wells-fargo.html
Israeli Official Believes 10 More Nations Will Recognize Jerusalem as Capital
After Guatemala declares it’s recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Israeli officials believe 10 more countries could make the same decision.
While Israel’s deputy foreign minister did not name which nations could make the declaration, countries like Honduras, Romania, the Philippines, and the Czech Republic could be on board after they either voted against or abstained from the U.N. vote.
http://www.oann.com/israeli-official-believes-10-more-nations-will-recognize-jerusalem-as-capital/
Looks like the threat to their foreign aid money worked wonders in adjusting their attitude.
As the “Wizard of Id” says those who have the gold make the rules.
Venezuelans scramble to survive as merchants demand dollars
By Eyanir Chinea and Maria Ramirez
CARACAS/CIUDAD GUAYANA, Venezuela (Reuters) – There was no way Jose Ramon Garcia, a food transporter in Venezuela, could afford new tires for his van at $350 each.
Whether he opted to pay in U.S. currency or in the devalued local bolivar currency at the equivalent black market price, Garcia would have had to save up for years.
Though used to expensive repairs, this one was too much and put him out of business. “Repairs cost an arm and a leg in Venezuela,” said the now-unemployed 42-year-old Garcia, who has a wife and two children to support in the southern city of Guayana.
“There’s no point keeping bolivars.”
For a decade and a half, strict exchange controls have severely limited access to dollars. A black market in hard currency has spread in response, and as once-sky-high oil revenue runs dry, Venezuela’s economy is in free-fall.
http://www.oann.com/venezuelans-scramble-to-survive-as-merchants-demand-dollars/
Britain escorts Russian ship near national waters amid strained relations
LONDON (Reuters) – A British ship escorted a Russian vessel as it passed near UK territorial waters over Christmas, Britain’s defense ministry said on Tuesday, adding that Russian naval activity near Britain had increased in the holiday period.
The frigate HMS St Albans departed on Dec. 23 to track the new Russian warship Admiral Gorshkov as it moved through the North Sea. The Royal Navy vessel monitored the Russian ship over Christmas and will return to dock in Portsmouth later on Tuesday.
UK defense minister Gavin Williamson said in a statement after the incident that he would “not hesitate in defending our waters or tolerate any form of aggression”.
Relations between Britain and Russia are strained, and UK foreign minister Boris Johnson said there was “abundant evidence” of Moscow meddling in foreign elections during a trip to Russia last week. His counterpart Sergei Lavrov said there was no proof for Johnson’s claim.
While Johnson said he wants to normalize relations with Russia, Moscow blames London for the poor state of relations between the countries.
Britain’s defense ministry said another ship, HMS Tyne, was called to escort a Russian intelligence-gathering ship through the North Sea and the English Channel on Christmas Eve. A helicopter was subsequently dispatched to monitor two other Russian vessels.
http://www.oann.com/britain-escorts-russian-ship-near-national-waters-amid-strained-relations/
Brexit deal could be template for EU ties to Ukraine, Turkey, Germany’s Gabriel says
BERLIN (Reuters) – An EU agreement with Britain on relations after Brexit could serve as a model for ties with other countries that want to be as close as possible to the bloc but are not yet ready to join, such as Ukraine and Turkey, Germany’s foreign minister said.
Britain secured the go-ahead from Brussels to start talks on its future relationship with the EU earlier this month, with London saying it aspires to a closer relationship as a former member than that of any other third country.
In an interview with the Funke newspaper group published on Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said such a deal could offer a solution to the puzzle of how the bloc of 27 can manage its ties with two other large non-members.
“I can’t imagine Turkey or Ukraine becoming EU members in the next few years,” he said. “If we get a smart agreement with Britain regulating relations with Europe after Brexit, that could be a model for other countries – Ukraine and also Turkey.”
http://www.oann.com/brexit-deal-could-be-template-for-eu-ties-to-ukraine-turkey-germanys-gabriel-says/
Amazon, Microsoft staff busted buying sex workers trapped in trafficking industry (RT, Dec 26, 2017)
https://www.rt.com/usa/414266-amazon-microsoft-staff-sex-trafficking/
Amb. Haley announces $285 million cut to UN budget
Mark Steyn Reacts to Trump Decision to Cut UN Funding
Guatemala to move embassy to Jerusalem
Netherlands: Party ends in clashes as police evacuate Eritrean concert in Zaandam
Three people were arrested as Dutch police clashed with Eritrean visitors at a concert in Zaandam, after shutting down the conference centre for overcrowding and violent behaviour on Tuesday.
Police demanded the evacuation of the centre after an estimated 350 visitors turned up, instead of the expected 150, and after a series of fights had broken out between revellers.
Police were seen hitting and prodding several visitors with over 40 police units brought in to assist the evacuation.
Russia: ‘Just a normal guy’ – neighbours comment on Moscow bus driver
Neighbours of the bus driver, Viktor Tikhonov, who drove his bus into pedestrians near Moscow’s Slavyanskii Bulvar metro station killing four and injuring 15, described their impressions of the man from their residence in Moscow, Monday.
“He is very calm, like a tank. He’s just a normal guy,” said neighbour Yuri continuing, “He has been working for 30 years. He is a very good driver. I never saw him drunk at the wheel.”
Another neighbour Olga shed a light on a recent tragedy that has struck Tikhonov’s family. “His wife recently died. We were worried about him,” she said, adding that Tikhonov has a daughter and son.
Tikhonov reportedly lost control of the vehicle as it plowed into a crowded underground passage. The injured were rushed to nearby hospitals, while a tow truck was brought to the scene to remove the bus from the passage.
The deadly collision is being treated as an accident. There has been no official confirmation on the number of injured people or the exact cause of the crash.
SOT, Olga, neighbour of bus driver (Russian): “He abstained from drinking. His wife recently died. We were worried about him. He has a daughter and a son. There is nothing wrong with him.”
SOT, Yuri, neighbour of bus driver (Russian): “Are you talking about Vitya? He’s a normal guy.”
SOT, Yuri, neighbour of bus driver (Russian): “He is very calm, like a tank. He’s just a normal guy. I’m a driver myself.”
SOT, Olga, neighbour of bus driver (Russian): “I can say nothing bad about him.”
SOT, Yuri, neighbour (Russian): “Yes! I have been working as a driver for more than 30 years, and he has been working for 30 years. He is a very good driver. I never saw him drunk at the wheel.”
SOT, journalist (Russian): “Were there any accidents?”
SOT, Yuri, neighbour of bus driver (Russian): “No, no.”
SOT, Olga, neighbour of bus driver (Russian): “No, he had his car stolen then.”
SOT, Yuri, neighbour of bus driver (Russian): “No, I can’t say anything bad about him.”
Russia: Bus removed after ploughing into pedestrians in Moscow
Yemen: ‘We wear, eat, drink garbage’ – Families search for food in rubbish dump to survive
Severe food shortages mean some have turned to rummaging through rubbish dumps and eating what they find to survive, as footage filmed on Tuesday from the port city of al-Hudaydah show.
With the ongoing civil war and Saudi-led blockade leaving many people unable to receive aid, the UN has reported that more than 8 people in Yemen are on the brink of famine.
One citizen, Yahya Hassan, explained, “We are here looking for food, we have no work.”
Yemen is also suffering a cholera outbreak due to a lack of medical supplies. According to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) the number of cholera cases has reached one million.
Last Wednesday, the Saudi-led military coalition announced earlier via its state news agency that the Red Sea port of Hudaydah would be reopened to allow for the arrival of food, aid and commercial fuel. The decision followed an attack made by Houthi rebels on Riyadh, when they reportedly planned to hit the Royal Palace with a ballistic missile. The missile was reportedly intercepted by Saudi Arabia.
Holy See: ‘God is Woman’ – Topless FEMEN activist makes a scene on Christmas Day *EXPLICIT*
A topless FEMEN activist tried to take away a baby Jesus statue in the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square on Monday.
She swiftly detained by police and taken away from Nativity Scene.
FEMEN, a so-called ‘sextremist’ group famed for their topless protests, according to their website the protest was directed against the Catholic Church, condemning its stance on abortion, LGBT community and violence towards women.
Vatican’s ‘sexually suggestive’ nativity has troubling ties to Italy’s LGBT activists
The Vatican Nativity scene featuring a naked man, a corpse, and no sheep or oxen is the artistic offering of an abbey which is the focus of Italian LGBT activists, it has emerged.
Enquiries by LifeSiteNews have revealed that the Abbey of Montevergine, which donated the innovative ‘Nativity of Mercy,’ houses the Marian image that has been adopted as patroness by LGBT activists in Italy. The abbey shrine is the annual destination of a sort of sacred and profane “ancestral gay pride” pilgrimage which, according to one LGBT activist, in recent years has gained the “active, political participation of the LGBT community.”
An official of the Vatican’s Governorate has told LifeSiteNews that the abbey of Montevergine initially proposed the original idea for the ‘Nativity of Mercy.’ The Vatican discussed and developed a more detailed design with the abbey, then submitted final plans to the Secretary of State AND Pope Francis for approval, which was duly granted.
“The presence of the Vatican Nativity Scene for us is a reason to be even happier this year,” Antonello Sannini, president of homosexual activist group Arcigay Naples, told LifeSiteNews on Tuesday. “For the homosexual and transsexual community in Naples, it is an important symbol of inclusion and integration.”
Fury over the Christmas crèche
The Christmas crèche fury blew up on Twitter last week, when photos of a virtually nude male figure representing the corporal work of mercy ‘to clothe the naked’ made the rounds on social media, sparking sharp criticism and debate.
Viewers lamented the figure’s “prominent placement and languid pose,” according to Breitbart, which reported that the figure’s pose “led many on social media to suggest that there is a vaguely homoerotic tone to the scene.”
Facebook, adding to the fury, rejected the photo referencing its policy against “sexually suggestive or provocative” images.
One observer remarked, regarding the poor man in need of clothes: “I’ve worked with a personal trainer. That guy’s been in the gym two hours a day, six days a week.”
“This horrendous exhibit, a sacrilegious, highly deceitful and malevolent attempt to turn the holy innocence of the manger in St. Peter’s Square into a lobbying tool for the homosexual rights movement, is just the latest fiendish act, but one that’s symptomatic of this entire pontificate,” one source close to the Vatican told LifeSiteNews.
Meanwhile, the Neapolitan artist who crafted the crèche, Antonio Cantone, appeared to suggest that he intended it to be provocative.
“It is not a camp nativity; it is particular and makes you think,” he said. “It leaves no one indifferent; there are provocations.”
Enter a Marian Icon
This year’s Christmas crèche also features a reproduction of the ancient and beautiful icon of Our Lady of Montevergine. The original icon, housed in a chapel of the mountain shrine, measures 12 feet high and six feet wide, and depicts the Blessed Virgin seated on a throne with the divine Infant Jesus seated on her lap.
The Marian image is dark, and so the icon is often referred to as one of the “Black Madonnas.” Among local Italians, her dark complexion made them believe she was part of the serving class and so she came to be affectionately known by the faithful as “Mamma Schiavano” or “Slave Mama.”
Each year, Our Lady of Montevergine is honored through two pilgrimages to her mountain shrine: one on February 2, the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Candlemas; and the second on September 12, the feast of the Holy Name of Mary, which is preceded by a three-day festival.
On the night before the feast pilgrims are hosted by Ospedaletto d’Alpinolo, the nearest town to the abbey, before making the “sagliuta” or “juta” (from the Italian “salire,” i.e. ascent) on foot to the shrine of Our Lady of Montevergine early the next morning. The three-day celebration is a mix of sacred and profane, and features dances and songs accompanied by large tambourines.
The “juta dei femminielli”
Our Lady of Montevergine has a particular significance for homosexuals and transgenders in Italy. According to a legend, Our Lady of Montevergine saved two homosexuals from death in the winter of 1256. The couple had been beaten and driven by night from their city and brought to the mountain where they were tied to a tree and left to die of the cold or be eaten by wolves. According to the legend, Our Lady of Montevergine had pity on them and ‘miraculously’ freed them. In 2017,[ Leftist newspaper ] La Repubblica called it “the progressive miracle of a gay friendly Madonna.”
More commonly, she is known as the mother “who grants everything and forgives everything.”
The “juta dei femminielli” [ ascent of the femminielli ] is therefore held each year on Candlemas Day to recall the legend through song and dance. Femminielli is a term used to refer to a population of homosexual males with markedly feminine gender expression in traditional Neapolitan culture.
The LGBT community also looks to Our Lady of Montevergine because she sits on the ancient temple site where the pagan goddess Cybele was once worshiped. In a 2014 article entitled “the procession of the femminielli,” La Repubblica noted that the eunuch priests of Cybele ritually castrated themselves “to offer their sex as a gift to their goddess in order to be reborn with a new identity.”
Antonello Sannino, the president of Arcigay Naples, told LifeSite that the “juta dei femminielli” involves a “mix of the sacred and profane.” Admitting his own distance from the Church, Sannino said “there is a strong popular devotion among believers” but for others represents entrusting oneself to a non-Christian divinity.
The annual Candlemas pilgrimage is a kind of “ancestral gay pride,” he said, and has been a “way to welcome into the culture of the city [of Naples], the figure of the femminiello which is disruptive in a binary ‘masculine-feminine’ society.”
Montevergine politicized
In 2002, the pilgrimage made the papers when the then abbot of Montevergine, Tarcisio Nazzaro, expressed his displeasure at the presence of the Neapolitan ‘femminielli.’
According to La Repubblica, during Holy Mass, Nazzaro told them: “Your prayers aren’t prayers but a clamor that Our Lady is not pleased with and so does not welcome. You are like the merchants that filled the temple until Jesus threw them out.” Allegedly, he later confided to the Sacristan: “I don’t have anything against anyone and I didn’t wish to offend anyone, much less these individual faithful. But what’s too much is too much. We need a little respect for the sacred place, and the dignity of the shrine has to be preserved.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraphs 2358-2359, that although homosexual inclinations are “objectively disordered,” men and women who suffer this trial “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided” but like all Christians they are “called to chastity” and to Christian perfection.
Sannino didn’t berate the abbot but thought the presence at the abbey in 2002 of Vladimir Luxuria, Italy’s first transsexual parliamentarian, precipitated the dispute. “It was too political in 2002,” he said.
That incident galvanized the LGBT movement, Ottavia Voza, president of Arcigay Salerno, told LifeSite. Another minor incident followed in 2010, but the “active, political participation of the LGBT community” began after the dispute in 2002.
A new abbot and a new approach
In September 2014 under Pope Francis, a new abbot of Montevergine was elected, Dom Riccardo Luca Guariglia. Earlier that year, Luxuria wrote a letter to Pope Francis on behalf of the LGBT community, and publicly presented it at the Candlemas pilgrimage at the Shrine of Montevergine. No one is aware of a response to that letter. An English translation can be read here.
In 2017, leaders of the LGBT community met Abbot Guariglia. Voza said the relations are now “excellent” and this year they “had an opportunity for dialogue with the abbot.” Voza told LifeSite that Vladimir Luxuria was there and the abbot “stopped to speak with us.” It wasn’t a private meeting but “in essence, he gave us his blessing,” Voza continued, adding that the incident in 2002 “was completely overcome.”
“He welcomed us,” Voza said, “and understood the importance of the presence of the community.”
Matters also intensified politically in 2017 when LGBT activists inaugurated Italy’s first ever “no gender” bathroom in Ospedaletto d’Alpinolo during the February 2 pilgrimage, and a civilly ‘married’ homosexual couple was given honorary citizenship by Ospedaletto d’Alpinolo’s civic authorities. Together with the LGBT activists, the civil authorities also unveiled a plaque at the entrance of the town, reading “Ospedaletto d’Alpinolo is against homotransphobia and gender violence.”
At the ceremony, Vladimir Luxuria said the small town of Ospedaletto d’Alpinolo should serve as a model for the rest of Italy.
Abbot Guariglia was interviewed about the ‘juta dei femminielli’ in 2017, saying: “St. Benedict tells us that guests are to be welcomed as Christ himself” and the abbey has “this peculiarity, that of being welcoming every type of pilgrim who comes to the shrine, first, to give homage or to entrust themselves to the Mother of God, and then also to celebrate the Sacraments.”
Descent into neo-paganism
Sannino welcomed the Vatican Nativity Scene, saying he believes it is an “important symbol of inclusion and integration,” but whether it signifies greater openness by the Church depends on “how conscious” Vatican officials were of the connection with LGBT activists in making the decision. “We hope that the Church will finally develop a real sense of openness in the wake of the Pope’s words,” he said, referring to Francis’ “Who am I to judge?” comment. “The Church is extremely slow in its transformations,” he believes, and is fairly confident “this will also happen.”
But people in Rome are wondering how Pope Francis will respond. As in past years, Pope Francis is expected to spend time before the crèche in silent prayer on December 31 after Vespers and the chanting of the Te Deum prayer of thanksgiving in St. Peter’s Basilica. The concern is that the optics of his silent prayer before the icon of Montevergine and the naked man, positioned on either side of the Nativity Scene, will send a signal, or be used by the more politically motivated in the LGBT community, to push their agenda.
Officially, the Vatican isn’t commenting on the Nativity scene, so it’s unclear how aware those who made the decisions are of its connections to Montevergine abbey and its associations with Italy’s LGBT activists. LifeSite contacted Vatican spokesman Greg Burke but he declined to answer.
Italian Church historian Roberto de Mattei of the Lepanto Foundation sees this as the latest attempt to “paganize Italy and Europe” through indirect means, in what he calls “soft neo-paganization.”
This involves choosing places of Christian worship “to return them to their pagan origins,” De Mattei explained, sending Christianity back into the age of catacombs where it was persecuted by the pagans. The LGBT movement is not only political or cultural but a “religious movement” with pagan characteristics, he added. “This should not surprise us, because sex was also at the center of many pagan cults,” De Mattei said. “This therefore portends a new neo-pagan persecution of those who remain faithful to Catholicism.”
De Mattei noted that next year marks 50 years since the cultural, or sexual, revolution of 1968, and he believes it is now being “transformed into a religious revolution” where sex is still at the center, but being “transformed into a divinity intended to replace Christianity.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vaticans-sexually-suggestive-nativity-has-troubling-ties-to-italys-lgbt-act
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ITALY 2014 – Montevergine pilgrimage ( Candelora )
ITALY -2014 – Montevergine – Candelora – Vladimir Luxuria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HJw1FjnM1s
FEB 2017 – Candelora, Luxuria è tornata a Montevergine
ITALY 2013 – Montevergine –
Perversion, pure and simple.
UK: Going about Our “Normal” Lives?
by Douglas Murray
December 26, 2017 at 5:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11567/britain-terrorism-normal-lives
Whenever Britain suffers a terrorist attack — and it has suffered four Islamist attacks this year alone — the British public responds the same way.
Twelve years ago, when four suicide bombers detonated homemade bombs on the London underground and on a red-top bus in central London, there was much talk of “Blitz spirit”. After 7/7, the media erupted with boasts of wartime echoes. Some people who lived in London noticed a rather different atmosphere. Of course people “got on with their lives” (what else could they do?) but in the days and weeks after the attacks it was not really “business as usual”. Especially not after another four suicide bombers went onto the tube a fortnight later, on July 21, and attempted to repeat the exercise. Fortunately, on that occasion the bombs failed to detonate. But during the period that ensued, it was certainly easier than usual to get a seat on the London Underground.
Of course, political leaders relish the opportunity to accentuate and exaggerate these echoes. If the British public are the citizens of London in the Blitz, then the politicians are Winston Churchill. After attacks like the 2013 daytime slaughter of Drummer Lee Rigby on the streets of London, then-Prime Minister David Cameron stressed from the steps of Downing Street that “One of the best ways of defeating terrorism is to go about our normal lives. And that is what we shall all do.” These themes are thought to play deep to the spirit of the British people.
But the more this conspicuous, self-conscious egging-on of such attitudes is stressed, the thinner it seems to get. In March, after Khalid Masood ploughed a car across Westminster Bridge, mowing down locals and tourists, and crashed the car and stabbed policeman Keith Palmer to death inside the gates of the Palace of Westminster, one prominent British journalist took to the pages of the New York Times to pour out the clichés.
Turkey Temporarily Granted Ancient Ottoman Red Sea Port in Sudan for Rebuilding (sputniknews, Dec 26, 2017)
https://sputniknews.com/africa/201712261060333479-erdogan-red-sea-port-sudan-restoration-ottoman-empire/
“The Red Sea Suakin port used to be Sudan’s major harbor when it was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, but during the last century came into disuse after Port Sudan had been constructed 35 miles (60 km) to the north.
According to Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour, Turkey will reconstruct a ruined Suakin port city on Sudan’s Red Sea coast, which has been temporarily handed over to Ankara so that the country could restore it as a tourist attraction and a transit point for pilgrims traveling to Mecca as announced by President Tayyip Erdogan earlier.
“Imagine, people from Turkey wishing to go on pilgrimage will come and visit the historical areas on Suakin Island,” Erdogan said in Khartoum during his first trip to Sudan. “From there … they will cross to Jeddah by boat.”
The ancient Red Sea Suakin port was Sudan’s major harbor when it was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, but over the last century, it went out of operation after Port Sudan had been constructed 35 miles (60 km) to the north…”
Czech President Miloš Zeman: Warrior for Truth
by Josef Zbo?il
December 26, 2017 at 4:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11604/milos-zeman
Czech President Miloš Zeman, it was recently said, is “a world leader guided by principles, a man not only knows right from wrong, but has never been afraid to voice it. ” Known for his longstanding support for the US, Israel and the Jews, he was the only European president publicly to support then-candidate Donald Trump before the US presidential election.
The historical relationship of Czechoslovakia, later the Czech Republic, towards Israel is most likely based on when the Czechs were overrun by Hitler in 1938, and learned the hard way that “appeasement never works”. Zeman defends the Czech presidents’ motto: “Truth prevails”.
A Euro-federalist and leftist, Zeman became known to the public in August 1989, three months before the Velvet Revolution, thanks to an article, “Prognostics and Perestroika.” In it, he criticized the totalitarian Czechoslovak régime at that time:
Dutch Police Arrest 4 Terror Suspects in Rotterdam – Reports (sputniknews, Dec 26, 2017)
https://sputniknews.com/world/201712261060335307-netherlands-arrest-suspects/
“The Netherlands’ police arrested three Dutch individuals and one Swedish national, suspected of involvement in terrorism, in the city of Rotterdam, local media reported on Tuesday.
The Dutch suspects are a 21-year-old man from Vlaardingen, a 30-year-old man from Delft, and a 23-year-old man from Gouda, NL Times newspaper reported, citing the public prosecutor’s statement.
Another individual, a Swedish man, 29, arrived in the Netherlands on a plane from Stockholm on Sunday. The Dutch authorities were informed about his possible involvement in terrorism by a foreign police service, the outlet added. The individual and three Dutch suspects were arrested on Sunday after the Swedish suspect’s arrival.
All four individuals are currently in custody for questioning and further investigation, the publication added…”
A bit of humour:
https://imgur.com/wrGXro2
Ten year-end facts Canadians need to know (Fraser Institute)
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/blogs/ten-year-end-facts-canadians-need-to-know
Switzerland: 94.9 per cent of asylum seekers in the city of Basel are on benefits
https://voiceofeurope.com/2017/12/switzerland-94-9-per-cent-of-asylum-seekers-in-the-city-of-basel-are-on-benefits/#.WkJnE_jYuY0.reddit
Democrat running for Congress indicted in $803G fraud, embezzlement case
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/25/democrat-running-for-congress-indicted-in-803g-fraud-embezzlement-case.html
Bernia’acs get burned by Republican Tax Plan
Trump Takes a Lesson from Winston Churchill
Why POTUS 44 would not have screened Darkest Hour at the White House.
December 26, 2017
Lloyd Billingsley
On December 18, President Trump invited lawmakers to the White House for a screening of Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill. Such a screening would never have happened under the previous president.
On his first day in office, POTUS 44 removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and returned it to Britain. When the eviction made news, White House mouthpiece Dan Pfeiffer said the story was “100 per cent false.” But as the Telegraph reported, long after the denial, “Barack Obama’s White House has been forced to admit that it did return a bust of Sir Winston Churchill to British diplomats.” This move has roots in the president’s mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, who shows up as the beloved “Frank” in Dreams from My Father.
As professor Paul Kengor showed in The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis – the Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor, the African American Davis was a faithful Stalinist who spent a great deal of his life supporting the all-white Communist dictatorships of the Soviet Union.
On August 23, 1939, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin signed a pact with Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler. The Hitler-Stalin Pact divided up Europe and gave the Baltic states to Stalin. The USSR and Nazi Germany invaded Poland, effectively starting World War II.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268786/trump-takes-lesson-winston-churchill-lloyd-billingsley
Fired for Writing for Jihad Watch
Christine Douglass-Williams terminated at Canadian Race Relations Foundation for calling attention to Jihad and Sharia.
I have been terminated from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, four months after a threatening letter by Heritage Minister Melanie Joly about my writings on Islam at Jihad Watch.Joly made good on her threats. The Privy Council has terminated my appointment, despite my years of dedicated commitment to the Foundation, on which I also served as Chair of the Investment Committee, and as a member of the Human Resource and Executive Committees. Why? Because I dared to criticize political Islam on Jihad Watch, and because of My Personal Warning to Icelanders, in which I warned about the deceptive works of Muslim Brotherhood operatives in their infiltration of the West. Their tactics are well documented.
I personally make a distinction between those who choose to practice Islam in peace and harmony with others, and those with an agenda to subvert democratic constitutions, demand special privileges over other creeds, and attack innocent people as a supremacist entitlement. It is odd to be removed from a race relations foundation for my private work in criticizing Islam, which is not a race.
This is the message I received from the Liberal government:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268797/fired-writing-jihad-watch-christine-williams
“I personally make a distinction between those who choose to practice Islam in peace and harmony with others, and those with an agenda to subvert democratic constitutions, demand special privileges over other creeds, and attack innocent people as a supremacist entitlement. It is odd to be removed from a race relations foundation for my private work in criticizing Islam, which is not a race.”
This is a classic example of a “no win” situation that permeates modern politics, media, and sociocultural structures in general.
Any attempt to moderate one’s criticism of Islam (in general) by singling out “radicals” or “Islamists” merely identifies someone as attempting to assuage Political Correctness, even as the truth about Islam is buried in such misleading verbiage.
Of course, actually identifying all Muslims as participants (inadvertent or intentional) in jihad only intensifies most external criticism, despite being a more accurate appraisal of the reality involved.
So, whether you are mealy-mouthed or truthful, there is little in the way of any positive outcome. This is the “no-win” situation that has become commonplace throughout the West. It is a primary driver of sociopolitical polarization and will continue to serve as such while Liberal elements (especially) continue to smear the Right and mislead everyone even slightly inclined towards Leftist thought.
When it’s time to pay the piper, Liberals are going to find that they’ve run up a rather steep tab. This is a direct byproduct of their willingness to sacrifice fact-based rationalism for an appeal to emotion (argumentum ad passiones) and other manipulative strategies that abound on the Left.
Such reliance upon logical fallacy has numerous roots in Postmodernism (an understatement, at best) that would require a few pages of further elaboration.
TRUMP’S PRINCIPLED MOVE vs. EU’S COWARDICE
Why the president’s Jerusalem decision was the right thing to do.
December 26, 2017
Joseph Puder
The Trump administration vetoed a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution last week that called on the U.S. to rescind its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and ultimately move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the seat of Israel’s parliament (Knesset), the Supreme Court, and where the Prime Minister and President of the Jewish State reside. The UNSC resolution drafted by Egypt and backed by 13 other members of the Security Council affirms that “any decision and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”
The obvious cave-in to Arab and Muslim demands by presumed allies of the U.S. such as Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Ukraine, and Uruguay, who sought to force the U.S. to back down on its decision to comply with the U.S. Congress recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, amounted to nothing less than chutzpa. U.S. ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, shot back that the U.S. would take names of the countries that sought to negate U.S. sovereign decisions. She also praised President Trump’s decision on Jerusalem as “The just and right thing to do.”
President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has caused an uproar in the Arab and Muslim world, which was more or less expected. Anti-Semites such as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s dictatorial president, has summoned together the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul for a special emergency meeting. The Arab League meeting in Cairo on December 9, 2017, “demanded” that President Trump “reverse” his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Palestinians, on their part, asked for a UN emergency meeting on Jerusalem, and got it, a privilege reserved only for Palestinians and denied to the 40 million Kurdish people. Both Erdogan and Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, emphasized after the summit that there is no future role for the U.S. in the peace process because it lost neutrality by “siding with Israel.” Both leaders threatened violence. For Mahmoud Abbas, this is another opportunity to incite the Palestinian street to violence just as he did last year when he allege
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268822/trumps-principled-move-vs-eus-cowardice-joseph-puder
I know this video has been posted before but this can’t be told to many times, the truth about Fascism needs to be out there for people to see.
Is Fascism Right Or Left?
The Mnuchin Story is Why No One Takes the Media Seriously
The media inhabits an imaginary world in which it practices serious journalism. And the only people who question that are right wingers (and according to polls the vast majority of Americans.)
The Mnuchin story is Exhibit 349 in why the media is a joke.
The story is simple. Somebody sent a box of horse manure to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. The media responded with undisguised glee and snickering. Here’s the Washington Post’s Democracy Dies in Darkness take on it.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/268836/mnuchin-story-why-no-one-takes-media-seriously-daniel-greenfield
Why Did America Fight the Vietnam War?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hqYGHZCJwk
You now know why I loath the American peace protesters, the murdered 2 million Cambodians, a minimum of a million Vietnamese in the re-education camps and well over a million people drowned trying to escape from the Communists.
This was one of the things that led to the election of President Reagan but he was forced to put a liberal Republican on the ticket to “balance the ticket”. This liberal didn’t continue the conservative revolution and instead drove the conservatives away from the ballot box, thus Bill Clinton was elected.
Now when the world is in much worse shape we have elected Donald Trump and he is trying to do all he promised to. We are praying that Pence is the conservative that he is suppose to be so he can continue restoring the US to the nation the founders dreamed about. Three times the Dems have betrayed the US 1) after we pulled out of Nam and they refused to support the people who wanted freedom. 2) Bill Clinton who betrayed our allies but did it in a time when his betrayal wasn’t as noticeable. 3) Obama who we all know better then we ever wanted to. These people have brought the world to the brink of the destruction of freedom in the world. As President Trump put it when talking about North Korea there is no more road to kick the can down, we either fight and win or our descendants will live in a world without freedom.
Are we less brave then our forefathers? Are we so craven that we will allow freedom to die on our watch? We have to make a decision and make it now, will we fight and possibly die for freedom or are we willing to become slaves and condemn the coming generations into slavery? Are we going to let the internal and external barbarians destroy not just civilization and freedom but also bring on a Dark Age that will be much worse then the last one? How say you, will you stand for freedom of set back and become slaves?
The Truth about the Vietnam War
Why Did America Fight the Korean War?