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Tehran hijab protest: Iranian police arrest 29 women (theguardian, Feb 2, 2018)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/02/tehran-hijab-protest-iranian-police-arrest-29-women
“Police in Iran’s capital have arrested 29 women accused of being “deceived” into joining protests against a law that makes wearing the hijab compulsory.
Women across the country have been protesting by climbing onto telecom boxes, taking off their headscarves and waving them aloft on sticks.
Although women in Iran have fought against the hijab for nearly four decades, the new wave of protests has grabbed more attention and sparked a debate rarely seen before over personal freedoms…”
‘Roaming Freely’: Afghanistan Provides Proof Daesh, Taliban Trained in Pakistan (sputniknews, Feb 2, 2018)
https://sputniknews.com/world/201802021061284453-afghanistan-taliban-daesh-pakistan/
“Afghan Interior Minister Wais Ahmed Barmak has claimed that Kabul had provided Islamabad with “undeniable” proof that Daesh and Taliban militants responsible for a spate of deadly attacks in Afghanistan in January were trained on Pakistani soil, according to AP.
Barmak said that the militants had ostensibly been trained at Islamic seminaries in the Pakistani border town of Chaman.
He also cited confessions by captured militants as saying that Pakistan allegedly allows Taliban leaders to “roam freely” on its territory.
Barmak’s remarks were made during a news conference in Islamabad also attended by senior Pakistani and Afghan military and intelligence officials, including Afghanistan’s spy chief, Masoom Stanekzai who urged Pakistani authorities to do more in order to rein in the Taliban.
“The Taliban, with these actions, cannot call themselves a political organization. They are a terrorist organization. We expect action, not just talk,” he pointed out…”
“Dan Bongino On Mark Levin Show – February 1,2018”
Mark Levin Show Podcast – February 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/GovMikeHuckabee/status/959206449133039616
https://i.redd.it/4mtj102r3pd01.jpg
Inside an Islamic ‘exorcism’: Imam reveals how he casts out evil spirits from a ‘possessed’ woman for £60 by quoting the Quran and spitting holy water in her face (dailymail, Feb 2, 2018)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5343723/Islamic-exorcism-woman-burqa-Sheffield-mosque.html
“A British imam has allowed cameras into his mosque to reveal how he carries out Islamic ‘exorcisms’ – ridding a woman of evil spirits for £60 using just the Quran and holy water.
Footage shows one of thousands of ceremonies carried out every year in the UK, where imams seek to rid people of evil spirits or ‘jinn’ they believe to be inside them.
Imam Ayoub Sayed, 42, charges £60 for his ‘exorcisms’ at his mosque in the Burngreave area of Sheffield.
Footage shows one young Muslim woman dressed in a burqa trying to get rid of evil spirits she believes are caused by black magic.
The 29-year-old woman sought help claiming the curse was causing her a range of medical problems, which she said conventional doctors could not cure…”
BREITBART – WATCH: UK-Based Imam Strikes Burka-Clad Woman with Table During Muslim Exorcism
An imam in Sheffield, Yorkshire, has allowed himself to be filmed performing an Islamic ‘ruqyah’ exorcism at his mosque.
The video published by the Metro shows Imam Ayoub Sayed chanting at a Bradford woman, covered from head to toe, through a microphone, as she screams and writhes hysterically.
At one point she lifts a small coffee table above her head, which the imam wrestles from her before appearing to strike her with it, causing her to slump to the floor.
The Metro notes that Sayed has performs “thousands” of these rituals in Britain every year, with “patients” coming from Germany, Norway, Sweden, and even countries as far afield as the U.S. and Iraq.
more :
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/02/02/watch-uk-based-imam-strikes-burka-clad-woman-table-muslim-exorcism/
Indonesian police investigate detention of transgender women in Aceh (reuters, Feb 2, 2018)
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-indonesia-lgbt/indonesian-police-investigate-detention-of-transgender-women-in-aceh-idUKKBN1FM10X?rpc=401&
“Indonesia’s national police chief has ordered an investigation into the detention of 12 transgender women in the province of Aceh, officials said on Friday, after reports that they were stripped, beaten and forced to cut their hair before being released without charge.
Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population but Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, is the only province that enforces Islamic law and outlaws homosexuality.
Religious police and vigilantes in the ultra-conservative province often raid homes and places of work and detain people on suspicion of engaging in homosexual activity.
Police in North Aceh raided hair salons – where transgender people often work – last weekend and briefly detained 12 individuals. Rights activists and media reports said they were forced to cut their hair and were stripped and beaten…”
Ninety migrants feared drowned off Libya (BBC, Feb 2, 2018)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42915867
“Ninety migrants are feared drowned after a boat capsized off the Libyan coast, says the UN’s migration agency.
Three survivors said most of those who drowned were Pakistan nationals, but this has not been confirmed.
“Ten bodies are reported to have washed up on Libyan shores,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement.
A spokesperson said Pakistanis were increasingly trying to make the perilous crossing to Italy.”
Multi-Night Riots Erupt in Paris Suburb Following Police Shooting (breitbart, Feb 2, 2018)
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/02/02/multi-night-riots-erupt-paris-suburb-following-police-shooting/
“The Paris suburb of Villeneuve-la-Garenne has been rocked by several nights of rioting and violence against police officers following the shooting of a man who attacked motorcycle police on Friday.
The initial incident that sparked the riots involved a man who was detained at a routine traffic stop and attempted to flee, hitting police with his vehicle. The officers then opened fire on the man who was shot in the elbow, leg, and hip before being arrested in neighbouring Gennevilliers, Le Parisien reports.
On Saturday night, the neighbourhood of Caravelle erupted into violence as police and firefighters were attacked with projectiles after being dispatched to deal with fires in the area. The riots came largely in response to a video of Friday’s incident circulated on social media, which shows police firing their firearms at the fleeing car.
On Monday night, the rioting continued with more fires being lit and a bus attacked with projectiles. The rioters managed to smash the windshield of the bus during the violence.
Several videos of the rioting were also circulated on Twitter, showing rioters shooting off fireworks.
Deputy mayor of Villeneuve-la-Garenne Abdel Ait Omar released a statement on Tuesday saying that he had visited the man who had been shot and claimed that he had come from a good family and is not known to have a criminal past.
Omar identified the man shot as “young Boubacar”, a name originating from West Africa and believed to be an adaption of the Arabic name Abu Bakr.
The deputy mayor said Boubacar was shot 10 times by the officer and called for an investigation, saying: “One thing is certain: self-defence, which is not proven in this case, rings in the head of some officials like the freedom to kill.”…”
Silenced: Outdoor Muslim Call to Prayer Banned by German Court (breitbart, Feb 2, 2018)
http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2018/02/02/silenced-muslim-call-prayer-banned-german-court/
“The announcement of the traditional Muslim call to prayer via public outdoor loudspeakers has been banned by a German court.
The Gelsenkirchen Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia issued the ban on Friday Muezzin calls, endorsing the local municipality’s withdrawl of the mosque’s original permit for gathering Muslims over loudspeakers, the local Westfalen Post reports.
The city of Oer-Erkenschwick first gave permission for the loudspeaker calls – also known as adzhan – by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (Ditib) in 2013. Every Friday afternoon since the local imam issued two-hour public prayer calls until a local couple complained to the city over its permit to the mosque.
The complainants – who live just 900 metres from the mosque – said they felt affected by the muezzin’s reputation for being against religious freedom. Their legal counsel stated: “This lawsuit is not only about the loudspeaker permit, but in particular about the inherent messages that are publicly distributed in the muezzin call.”
“It’s a chant in a key that’s disturbing to us, but it’s all about the content of the call, which sets Allah above our God as a Christian, and I as a Christian who grew up in a Christian environment do not accept it,” the newspaper quoted the 69-year-old plaintiff.
According to the Westfalen Post, a Christian Syrian neighbor of the mosque also complained about the Muezzin calls, but was “massively threatened” by his Muslim neighbors and withdrew his complaint.
The muezzin call violates the permit’s mandated prohibition on disseminating “negative religious liberties,” the attorney argued, meaning that no one should be coerced into any particular faith – which the attorney argued is the case with the muezzin call, asserting an Islamic call to public prayer is made at the expense of other religions.
Israel has approached the same problem by the simple measure of limiting calls to prayers from mosques, including one restriction prohibiting the use of loudspeakers at all hours.
Supporters say the restriction is needed to prevent daily disturbance to the lives of hundreds of thousands Israelis.”
Surely, not the first time the call to prey has bothered neighbors.
MOVIE
Bab el-Oued City
Merzak Allouache, Algeria, 1994
ORDER DVD
Bab El-Oued, a popular district of Algier, in 1989, a few months after the riots. Young Boualem works six nights a week in a French bakery. On the rooftop of his apartment building the fundamentalists have installed a loudspeaker which is now broadcasting the Imam’s word and the fundamentalist’s hateful propaganda and therefore preventing Boualem from sleeping. Unable to stand the noise any longer, in a fit of madness, he destroys the loudspeaker and throws it into the sea. But he’s quickly filled with guilt and apprehension for what he has done. Desecrating the property of the mosque is a sin, and now he finds himself in a relentless pursuit. The blunder is taken as a pretext by the Islamists to put the district under their control…
https://www.trigon-film.org/en/movies/Bab_el_Oued_City
Can you tell me please what country this video does play in? It says no play in Canada, US, and UK so far.
Kurdish Forces Use NATO Weapons Against Turkey – Military Analysts (sputniknews, Feb 2, 2018)
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201802021061298505-kurds-nato-weapons-turkey-afrin/
“The Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) launched a big counter-assault in the northwestern countryside of the Afrin region against the Turkish backed rebels in the Bulbul District on Thursday, but where is the YPG getting it’s weapons from? Sputnik spoke to Turkish military analysts to find the answer.
Pentagon spokesman Major Adrian Rankin-Galloway responding to a question from a Hürriyet correspondent, on whether the armed forces of Turkey and the United States will clash in Manbij, and commenting on the situation around Afrin, said, “Those armed forces now in Afrin are not groups with which we cooperate in the fight against Daesh. We do not provide them with support in the form of weapons and do not engage in their training.”
Speaking to Sputnik Turkey about the possibility that the weapons in possession of the YPG can’t be purchased on the black market, security expert Mete Yarar said, “Is it possible to find in the world’s black market such anti-tank missile systems as Milan, TOW and AT4? Of course not. In recent days, the YPG from time to time publish images of weapons that are used in the Afrin area against Turkish tanks and military. We know that these weapons weren’t previously supplied by the US to the Kurdish forces to fight against Daesh. If these weapons are in the Afrin area, then the US statements that the “Democratic Union Party (PYD) uses these weapons only in the territories east of the Euphrates ceases to be valid.”…”
strong>SYRIA – AFRIN – Islamic jihadists join force with Turkish soldiers
Afrin – völkerrechtswidriger türkischer Angriffskrieg zusammen mit djihadistischen Milizen
At Least 11 People Injured in Turkey in Rocket Attack From Afrin – Reports (sputniknews, Feb 2, 2018)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802021061296173-turkey-rocket-afrin-injured/
“At least 11 people were wounded after six rockets launched from Syria’s northern Afrin district hit Turkey’s southern provinces of Kilis and Hatay, the Daily Sabah newspaper reported Friday.
Three rockets launched from Afrin reportedly hit Hatay’s Reyhanli district injuring six people.
The media outlet added, citing the Kilis governor, that one of those injured in his province was in a serious condition…”
China Reportedly Negotiating Creation of Military Base With Afghanistan (sputniknews, Feb 2, 2018)
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201802021061295128-beijing-afghanistan-base/
“The military base will be reportedly constructed in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Badakhshan that borders China’s Xinjiang – a restive region with a Muslim Uighur minority that Beijing views as a potential source of instability.
The Chinese and Afghan officials are discussing the construction of a base in Wakhan Corridor, a remote mountainous strip that is isolated from the rest territory of Afghanistan, according to Afghan Defense Ministry deputy spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh.
“We are going to build it (the base) but the Chinese government has committed to help the division financially, provide equipment and train the Afghan soldiers,” he said.
However, a Chinese embassy official in Kabul was scarce on providing details on the project, saying only that Beijing was engaged in “capacity-building” in Afghanistan…”
China Reportedly Negotiating Creation of Military Base With Afghanistan
If anyone on earth should know better about allowing a camel’s nose into the tent, it’s Muslims. Islamic fanaticism is so blinding that these idiots willingly let themselves be invaded by a wannabe superpower that will, one day, likely nuke some or all of them out of existence (if the West doesn’t do it first).
Don’t forget the Naval base they are building in Pakistan, looks like there will be some interesting times in both nations.
Egypt bulldozes zone by Sinai airport, displacing thousands (abcnews, Feb 2, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-bulldozes-zone-sinai-airport-displacing-thousands-52791516
“The Egyptian army is bulldozing homes and olive groves to build a buffer zone around the airport in its troubled North Sinai Province, where Islamic State group militants targeted the defense and interior ministers in December.
The operation will displace thousands, according to local residents who have been told they will be removed from at least a dozen hamlets around el-Arish airport. They say they are being moved to nearby cities where the government has promised them compensation.
The main airport in the region, the el-Arish facility has been closed to the public for more than three years, but is used when high ranking officials travel to North Sinai. The new fortifications underline how the army is digging in for a longer-term insurgency that shows no sign of abating, despite years of fighting in which hundreds of soldiers have been killed. They will stretch 5 kilometers (3 miles) around three sides and 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) to the north, Egypt’s state news agency quoted North Sinai Gov. Abdel-Fatah Harhour as saying.
In what amounts to the latest escalation, Defense Minister Sedki Sobhy and Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar, who is in charge of police, were in el-Arish on an unannounced visit Dec. 19 when a missile struck their helicopter. Although they were not in the aircraft, the missile killed an officer and wounded two others.
President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi ordered the creation of the zone outside the airport walls two weeks ago, and it is unclear if it will eventually contain fences or other obstacles…”
Still a trickle, but refugees sick of exile return to Syria (abcnews, Feb 2, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/trickle-refugees-sick-exile-return-syria-52785444
“Desperate to escape Syria’s terrors, Ammar Maarawi bolted. In early 2016, he paid smugglers and endured a dangerous sea crossing to Greece and an exhausting journey by train, bus and foot through Europe.
Two years later, the 36-year-old is back home in Aleppo. He returned last summer — depressed, homesick and dreading another winter, he couldn’t bear life in the German city of Suhl.
Germany, he said, “was boring, boring, boring.”
Maarawi is among a small number of refugees who have come back to Syria from among the more than 5.4 million who fled their homeland since the civil war erupted in 2011. So far, they are just a trickle, numbering in the tens of thousands. The United Nations and host governments in Europe are not encouraging returns, saying the country is not safe…”
France sends more police to Calais after migrant gunfight (abcnews, Feb 2, 2018)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/france-sends-police-calais-migrant-gunfight-52787850
“Police reinforcements arrived Friday in the French port city of Calais after clashes among migrants left 22 people injured, with the interior minister warning of more potential violence among those seeking to cross into Britain.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told reporters in Calais on Friday that five of the victims were injured by gunfire in Thursday’s fighting, blaming migrant traffickers and “totally organized” gangs. Police were seeking a shooting suspect but have made no arrests, he said.
Firearms are rare among migrants, and the shootings were the most serious clash in recent times among migrants around Calais.
Two extra police units were arriving Friday, Collomb said. He said that while in the past such violence was spontaneous, he said it appears to be growing more organized. He said local authorities have dismantled six migrant trafficking networks already this year, compared to 20 in all of 2017…”
CALAIS – JAN 25 2018
Deep State “Release The Memo” Damage Control | True News
Hannity: Dems & Media Breathlessly Trying to Discredit FISA Memo
Kissinger: ‘Temptation to Deal’ with North Korea ‘with a Pre-emptive Attack is Strong’
WASHINGTON – While he said he agrees with the aggressive statements President Trump has fired at North Korea, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned Congress last week against potential military intervention near Russian and Chinese borders without the world’s support.
The Trump administration has signaled that North Korea would be crossing a red line if it developed nuclear capability for its intercontinental ballistic missile program. Yet some policy officials and military experts claim that North Korea has already crossed that line, or is at least very close to attaching nuclear warheads to its missiles.
Kissinger offered his thoughts on the impending “fork in the road,” in which the administration may consider pre-emptive military action or increasingly tighter sanctions against the regime.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kissinger-temptation-deal-north-korea-pre-emptive-attack-strong/
Trump to meet with North Korean defectors in Oval Office in bid to raise pressure on Kim Jong Un
President Trump will meet North Korean defectors in the Oval Office on Friday, a provocative action meant to highlight human rights violations and one that could raise alarms in Pyongyang.
Trump is expected to meet with eight defectors — six who live in South Korea and two who live in the United States — two days after he punctuated his State of the Union address by praising Ji Seong-ho, a defector from North Korea who had been invited to watch the address from the first lady’s box. Ji will be among the group at the White House on Friday.
The visit will offer the president a chance to shine a spotlight on human rights abuses in North Korea at a time of growing tensions over Pyongyang’s ongoing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2018/02/01/trump-to-meet-with-north-korean-defectors-in-oval-office-in-bid-to-raise-pressure-on-kim-jong-un/?utm_term=.c3531891dd27
Airbus tests self-flying taxi
Airbus said Friday that it had successfully held the first test flights of the Vahana, an electric, pilotless flying vehicle that it hopes will be able to ferry people around cities.
The Wednesday flight at a test range in the US state of Oregon lasted just under one minute, with the aircraft lifting up five metres (16 feet) from the ground and landing without control from a pilot, the European aerospace firm said in statement.
Propelled by eight rotors that allow it to take off and land vertically, Vahana completed a second test flight on Thursday, and additional testing is slated including forward flight.
The aircraft, which Airbus has been developing for less than two years, is designed to carry one passenger and fly autonomously, according to its website.
“Vahana aims to democratise personal flight and answer the growing need for urban mobility by leveraging the latest technologies in electric propulsion, energy storage, and machine vision,” Airbus said in its statement.
Autonomous driving technology has made considerable progress in recent years with high-tech firms and established automakers putting test vehicles on the roads, while a handful of inventors and start-ups have developed flying cars.
https://www.afp.com/en/news/2265/airbus-tests-self-flying-taxi-doc-yk9on4
Bitcoin Is Falling Fast, Losing More Than Half Its Value in Six Weeks
Selloff triggered by expanding regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrencies
itcoin plunged below $8,000 on Friday, extending its sharp rout since the start of the year in a selloff triggered by a widening regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
Around midday in Europe, Bitcoin was down nearly 12% on the day at around $8,070, after touching $7,995.61, the lowest level seen since November.
The digital currency has now fallen by nearly 60% from a record high of close to $20,000 in December, according to research site CoinDesk Inc. That marks bitcoin’s third biggest drop over the past five years: It fell 76% in the spring of 2013, and 85% from November 2013 to January 2015.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoin-is-falling-fast-losing-more-than-half-its-value-in-six-weeks-1517556514
Bitcoin biggest bubble in history, says economist who predicted 2008 crash
Nouriel Roubini calls cryptocurrency the ‘mother of all bubbles’ as it falls below $8,000
The economist credited with predicting the 2008 global financial crisis said a 12% fall in the value of bitcoin on Friday was the latest proof that the cryptocurrency was the biggest bubble in history and destined for a crash.
Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University, said bitcoin was “the mother of all bubbles” favoured by “charlatans and swindlers” as it fell below $8,000 (£5,600), marking a 30% drop since the beginning of the week as investors became increasingly twitchy about a clampdown on cryptocurrencies by regulators.
Bitcoin has lost more than half its value since hitting a peak of near $20,000 in the week before Christmas. Roubini said the sharp fall was the beginning of a crash that would see the value of the digital currency plummet “all the way down to zero”.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/02/bitcoin-biggest-bubble-in-history-says-economist-who-predicted-2008-crash
Bitcoin biggest bubble in history, says economist who predicted 2008 crash
Without wishing to argue about the fragility of cryptocurrencies, Nouriel Roubini’s labeling of Bitcoin as the “mother of all bubbles”, is just plain wrong.
Even Bitcoin’s estimated value of $100 billion (visit link for superb infographic) is a tiny pimple on the @ss of Communist China’s multi-trillion dollar economic and real estate bubbles. Bitcoin could crash and burn without more than a hiccup in global finances.
When Red China eventually tanks, the resulting financial undertow will likely crash more than a few African and other satellite economies. Even if Beijing miraculously were able to avoid the imminent financial collapse headed its way, the advent of full scale high-performance automation will render obsolete The Mainland’s single greatest resource; manual labor.
From: The Dark Side of Labor in China
Communist ideology and decentralized economic power has contributed to the use of both state-sanctioned and unsanctioned forced labor, the latter of which is perpetuated through ineffective policies, corruption, and a lack of legal enforcement. Systematic statistics on the extent of forced labor are not available due to China’s repressive political system. However, news articles, reports,
research, and the testimonies of past forced laborers attest to the severity of the situation.
State-sanctioned forced labor is widely promoted and justified by the government through the Communist doctrine of “reform through labor.” The philosophy extols the virtues of labor as a way to transform dissidents into new socialist men an
d women; however, in practice it has led to the creation of a vast network of prison labor camps known as Laogai across the country.
“[R]eform through labor”? Ain’t much more room for lipstick on that pig.
What happens when unlettered and non-innovative human capital becomes redundant is anyone’s guess. However, reading from history’s playbook, the outlook for underskilled Chinese workers will be particularly grim. As in, Europe’s delusional fantasy of “guaranteed minimum income” doesn’t appear anywhere within the Politburo’s vocabulary (much less social benefits in general)
From: How China Stays Stable Despite 500 Protests Every Day.
Corrupt local officials had siphoned small fortunes out of the town’s factories, forcing many of them to shut down and send their workers home without their pensions, which the officials had also plundered. Liaoyang’s problems then, like Wukan’s today, were not atypical: the national movement toward privatization had given party officials special access, allowing them to get rich overnight as part of a new and burgeoning crony capitalist class while powerless workers went hungry.
So much for the utopian Communist, “worker’s paradise”. [giggle]
“Mass starvation”, nonetheless, remains a rather persistent feature of the Chinese landscape and there is little reason to doubt the possibility of its reappearance. At least, not so long as Beijing’s Mandarins continue to maintain the absurd pretense of a centrally planned economy.
Should anyone require an object lesson, look no further than the Soviet Union’s spontaneous combustion and meltdown into modern Russia’s gigantic mafia-run thugocracy.
When Red China eventually tanks, the resulting financial undertow will likely crash more than a few African and other satellite economies. Even if Beijing miraculously were able to avoid the imminent financial collapse headed its way, the advent of full scale high-performance automation will render obsolete The Mainland’s single greatest resource; manual labor.
The Chinese collapse will take down the Greek economy and this will probably spill over into some of the other European nations. This isn’t being talked about or possibly isn’t being thought about because to do so would mean the economic theories they were taught in school are wrong. You know how the left will go deep into denial to avoid having to admit their theories are wrong.
Drought deepens dramatically in Southern California
California is rapidly plunging back into drought, with severe conditions now existing in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties—home to one-fourth of the state’s population, a national drought monitor said Thursday.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-drought-deepens-southern-california.html#jCp
Drought deepens dramatically in Southern California
I guess they’ll just have to stop filling their swimming pools, eh?
Anyone care to speculate what happens if the Peripheral Canal gets shut down by thirsty Northern Californians. After all, the Los Angeles basin never could have grown to its current size without basically stealing the entire Owens River from Lucerne Valley, near Bishop, California.
For some truly interesting insights into this entire madness, read “Cadillac Desert” by author Marc Reisner.
L.A.’s homelessness surged 75% in six years. Here’s why the crisis has been decades in the making
Some of the poorest people in the city spend their days in the shadow of Los Angeles City Hall, napping on flattened cardboard boxes.
On any given day, as many as 20 people take to the City Hall lawn, across the street from LAPD headquarters. They’re there to “escape the madness” in downtown streets, a 53-year-old homeless man named Lazarus said last week. At night, they fan out to doorways or deserted plazas to wait for daybreak.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-homeless-how-we-got-here-20180201-story.html
Outrage erupts over video of sheriff’s deputy dropping off apparent homeless man in San Pedro
A video showing a disheveled and apparently homeless man dropped off in San Pedro by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has sparked outrage from residents and a Los Angeles city councilman’s demand for an investigation into allegations of homeless “dumping.”
Sheriff’s Lt. Tony Del Pinto of the Lomita sheriff’s station said the department is conducting an internal investigation into the incident, which occurred about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. He said he was not aware of the arrest warrant that had been issued for the transient.
https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/01/31/outrage-erupts-over-video-of-sheriffs-deputy-dropping-off-apparent-homeless-man-in-san-pedro/
FYI: Pruerto Rico has a Democrat Governor who has been withholding supplies to rebuild the Island from the people.
Puerto Rico reports 78 killings in one of deadliest months
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — One of Puerto Rico’s deadliest months in recent years has closed, with 78 killings reported in January as the U.S. territory struggles with a surge in violent crime and growing discontent among thousands of police officers.
The killings included a 20-year-old woman found kneeling and burned to death inside a car in the upscale city of Guaynabo and a triple homicide reported in the eastern mountain town of San Lorenzo.
Puerto Rico’s homicide rate is roughly 20 killings per 100,000 residents, compared with 3.7 per 100,000 residents on the U.S. mainland.
“I’m gravely concerned about these violent incidents reported in recent days,” said Sen. Miguel Laureano. “It’s a dramatic situation that requires immediate attention.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/puerto-rico-reports-78-killings-one-deadliest-months-192005511.html
The Many Faces of Five Star Are Winning Votes All Over Italy
Some supporters expect tax cuts, others want more spending
By Gregory Viscusi
In Daniele Abate’s Sicilian home town, many people don’t even have running water, and he blames the politicians. So the former cook will be voting for Five Star on March 4.
At the other end of the country, across the economic divide that runs through Italy, a third of small company owners in Vicenza plan to do the same, according to Luigino Bari, who runs a local business association. They want tax cuts and deregulation, he says.
As an uncertain country gears up for a crucial election, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement is demonstrating a rare ability to appeal to disaffected voters across geography and social strata. Its eclectic mix of environmentalism, euro-skepticism and widely questioned promises on taxes and benefits offers something for anyone with an ax to grind about the way Italy has been run.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/the-many-faces-of-five-star-are-winning-votes-all-over-italy
INTERVIEW-Talk or risk violence, Corsican nationalist tells Macron
AJACCIO, France, Feb 2 (Reuters) – France is playing with fire by rejecting Corsican demands for autonomy, the island’s chief told Reuters, urging President Emmanuel Macron to be open to dialogue when he visits next week.
Before laying down arms in 2014, groups backing Corsican independence had carried out more than 10,000 attacks over four decades, blowing up police stations and holiday homes.
These clandestine groups were linked to at least 40 deaths, either in attacks on government officials or as a result of infighting among rival factions.
“In the 1980s and 1990s, when the nationalist movement only represented a minority and was violent, governments of the left and right held talks with men in balaclavas … but today, when we represent a majority and say there is no other path than democracy, the government does not want to budge on anything,” said regional council chief Gilles Simeoni.
http://news.trust.org/item/20180202070012-4a3x5
How fall of the Berlin Wall paved way for Germany’s populists
KÖTHEN, Germany — In a quiet and somewhat-dated restaurant in the eastern German countryside, an animated Daniel Roi is trying to explain an earthquake.
With his imposing frame, trimmed beard and blue blazer, the 30-year-old is part of a far-right, populist uprising that has left his country’s political elite in disarray and wounded its once all-powerful leader, Angela Merkel.
Many of Roi’s concerns echo those of the supporters of President Donald Trump. Fears about Muslims, immigrants and their perceived impact on jobs and national identity are common topics of conversation in this part of the world.
Roi is a local lawmaker for Alternative for Germany, or AfD, a political party described by the World Jewish Congress as “a disgraceful reactionary movement which recalls the worst of Germany’s past” after it won more than 5.8 million votes in a general election last autumn.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/how-fall-berlin-wall-paved-way-germany-s-populists-n840921
Leaks, feasts and sex parties: How ‘Fat Leonard’ infiltrated the Navy’s floating headquarters in Asia
As the flagship for the Navy’s 7th Fleet, the USS Blue Ridge plays a critical role in national security by overseeing all U.S. maritime operations in Asia and the western Pacific. The venerable warship is the Navy’s second-oldest active-duty vessel and has survived the Vietnam War, the Cold War and tensions with China and North Korea.
But there is one foreign threat against which the Blue Ridge proved utterly defenseless for many years: a 6-foot-3, 350-pound tugboat owner known as “Fat Leonard.”
In a case that ranks as the worst corruption scandal in Navy history, the Justice Department has charged 15 officers and one enlisted sailor who served on the Blue Ridge with taking bribes from or lying about their ties to Leonard Glenn Francis, a Singapore-based tycoon who held lucrative contracts to service Navy ships and submarines in Asian ports.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/leaks-feasts-and-sex-parties-how-fat-leonard-infiltrated-the-navys-floating-headquarters-in-asia/2018/01/23/4d31555c-efdd-11e7-97bf-bba379b809ab_story.html?utm_term=.d7d338a9aa56
President Trump Renews Temporary Protection Status for Syria Amid Ongoing Conflict
President Trump is extending protection to nearly 7,000 Syrians as civil war ravages their country.
On Wednesday, the administration announced it would be extending temporary protection status, keeping immigrants who have lived in the U.S. prior to August 2016 safe from deportation.
Though the president has taken a hard-line stance on immigration, the administration considers the conflict in Syria a dire humanitarian crisis.
The temporary work and protection permits have been renewed for another 18 months.
Meanwhile, five people are recovering from their injuries after rockets fired from Northwest Syria landed into a Turkish border town.
A local governor verified the attack Thursday, saying two rockets hit the town of Kilis.
The missiles are believed to have been launched by members of a rebel group — The Kurdistan Workers Party — with help from Syrian Kurdish fighters.
http://www.oann.com/president-trump-renews-temporary-protection-status-for-syria/
Mattis says not seen evidence of sarin gas used in Syria, but concerned
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that while he had not yet seen evidence of the nerve agent sarin used by the Syrian government, the United States was looking into reports about its use and was concerned.
Mattis, speaking with reporters, said the Syrian government had repeatedly used chlorine as a weapon.
“We are even more concerned about the possibility of sarin use… I don’t have the evidence, what I am saying is, that other groups on the ground, NGOs, fighters on the ground, have said that sarin has been used, so we are looking for evidence,” Mattis said.
http://www.oann.com/mattis-says-not-seen-evidence-of-sarin-gas-used-in-syria-but-concerned/
France sends police as migrant gangs clash in Calais
PARIS (Reuters) – The French government will send more police to Calais to crack down on migrant gangs, the interior minister said on Friday, after gang rivalries erupted into a brawl that left five migrants suffering serious gunshot injuries
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said he was sending more riot police to the northern port, where asylum seekers and economic migrants hoping to reach Britain continue to fall prey to smugglers undaunted by a long-running security operation.
Thursday’s explosion of violence was a stark reminder that the dismantling of a sprawling camp in late 2016 had failed to halt the arrival of migrants in Calais. It came weeks after Britain promised millions of pounds in extra border control support.
Eritreans and Afghans fought running battles in broad daylight, some armed with rods and metal poles, television pictures showed. It was not clear who was armed with firearms.
http://www.oann.com/france-sends-police-as-migrant-gangs-clash-in-calais/
North Korea warns against U.S.-South Korea military drills after Olympics
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has warned if the United States goes ahead with delayed military exercises with South Korea after the Winter Olympics it will not “sit idle”, the North’s foreign minister said in a letter to the United Nations.
North Korea has not tested a missile since late November 2017 and entered into inter-Korean dialogue in January, the first talks in two years which have eased tensions after a year of escalating rhetoric between the Pyongyang and Washington.
Whenever joint military exercises took place “the peace and security of the Korean peninsula were gravely threatened and the inter-Korean mistrust and confrontation reached the top, thus creating great difficulties and obstacles ahead of hard-won dialogues,” said the letter from North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho.
“We will make every effort to improve inter-Korean relations in future, too, but never sit idle with regard to sinister act of throwing a wet blanket over our efforts.”
http://www.oann.com/north-korea-warns-against-u-s-south-korea-military-drills-after-olympics/
Russia approves warplane deployment on disputed island near Japan
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved the deployment of Russian warplanes on a disputed island near Japan, accelerating the area’s militarization at a time when Moscow’s ties with Tokyo are strained over the roll-out of a U.S. missile system.
In a decree published late on Thursday, Medvedev allowed the Russian Defence Ministry to use a civilian airport on the island of Iturup, as it is known by Russia, or Etorofu, as it is called in Japan, for its warplanes.
The island was one of four seized by Soviet forces at the end of World War Two and is located off the north-east coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s biggest prefecture. The dispute over the islands, known as the Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, is so acrimonious that Moscow and Tokyo have not yet signed a peace treaty to mark the end of the war.
Medvedev’s decree is the latest step in a Russian military build-up that has seen Moscow deploy some of its newest missile defense systems to the islands and plan to build a naval base there even as it continues talks about the territorial dispute.
The decree was published days before deputy foreign ministers from the two countries are due to hold talks about co-operation on the disputed islands and at a time when Russia is concerned that Japan is allowing Washington to use its territory as a base for a U.S. military build-up in north Asia under the pretext of countering North Korea.
http://www.oann.com/russia-approves-warplane-deployment-on-disputed-island-near-japan/
Oops: CA cities suing oil companies over ‘climate change’ may be revealing their own bond fraud
By LU Staff February 1, 2018
A libertarian think tank has notified the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) that California cities and counties may have inadvertently admitted to securities fraud in their global warming lawsuits against oil companies.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) attorneys pointed out that localities’ suing a group of oil companies for current and future damages allegedly caused by global warming may have misled municipal bond investors.
“A number of California cities and counties have recently filed lawsuits against several oil and gas companies, claiming that these companies failed to disclose the alleged risks of climate change,” CEI attorneys Sam Kazman and Devin Watkins wrote to the SEC.
“However, in these lawsuits the plaintiff cities and counties apparently describe these climate risks in ways that are far different than how they described them in their own bond offerings. In our view, this inconsistency raises serious questions of municipal bond fraud,” the attorneys added.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/02/01/oops-ca-cities-suing-oil-companies-climate-change-may-revealing-bond-fraud/
A story about Syrian refugees in Canada:
https://www.reddit.com/r/metacanada/comments/7ulcla/my_wife_works_for_a_hotel_that_houses_syrian/
Tom Fitton talks impending release of FISA memo
twitter @realDonaldTrump
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans – something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/959389424806191104
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“You had Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party try to hide the fact that they gave money to GPS Fusion to create a Dossier which was used by their allies in the Obama Administration to convince a Court misleadingly, by all accounts, to spy on the Trump Team.” Tom Fitton, JW
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/959393270144086016
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CNN – James Clapper responds to Trump’s tweet on Nunes Memo
CNN- James Comey: Weasels and liars never hold the field
SKY NEWS: Headteacher Warns of ‘Rotherham-style’ Scandal in Thanet, Kent
An executive headteacher for five Kent schools believes a “Rotherham-style” abuse scandal could be in the offing in Thanet.
Paul Luxmoore, executive headteacher of the Coastal Academies Trust, says he will resist taking young people in care from outside Thanet’s home county, because the practice of dumping children and teenagers on what is already a deprived area is exacerbating a growing gang problem and creating the circumstances for youngsters to fall prey to groomers.
“London boroughs don’t have nearly enough foster carers in their area, so children are sent to places like Thanet, which is a poor area with high unemployment and so has far more foster carers,” he told Sky News.
zero hedge –FISA Memo Released: Here’s What It Says
Moments ago, the House Intel “FISA” memo authored by Devin Nunes was officially declassified, and according to the Washington Examiner’s Byron York who has access to an early released version, a key point is that the salacious and still unproven Steele dossier formed the essential part of the initial and all three renewal applications against Carter Page, in line with what as previously leaked.
As York also explicitly highlights, “The FBI’s Andrew McCabe confirmed to the committee that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information.”
This, as Fox News confirms, means that absent the dossier, at least one of the surveillance warrants in the case would not have been obtained, and – by implication – the entire Mueller probe is thus on shaky legal ground.
Back to the memo, which as York adds, “the political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications.”
As Dow Jones confirms, DOJ officials knew Steele was being paid by democrats, and that officials at the DOJ and FBI signed one warrant, and three renewals against Carter Page.
York also notes that DOJ official Bruce Ohr was relayed information about Christopher Steele’s bias. Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president.
All else equal, sounds like a clear case of bias, and when extended, it would imply that the entire Mueller probe is base on grounds that could be overturned in court.
* *
To recap, here are the key points disclosed in the memo, as summarized by the Washington Exmainer which has an early unclassified version of the memo:
The Steele dossier formed an essential part of the intial and all three renewal FISA applications against Carter Page.
Andrew McCabe confirmed that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information.
The political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications.
DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with Steele beginning in the summer of 2016 and relayed to DOJ information about Steele’s bias. Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president.
As a reminder, the FBI and Justice Department mounted a months-long effort to keep the information outlined in the memo out of the House Intelligence Committee’s hands. Only the threat of contempt charges and other forms of pressure forced the FBI and Justice to give up the material.
Once Intelligence Committee leaders and staff compiled some of that information into the memo, the FBI and Justice Department, supported by Capitol Hill Democrats, mounted a ferocious campaign of opposition, saying release of the memo would endanger national security and the rule of law.
But Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes never wavered in his determination to make the information available to the public. President Trump agreed, and, as required by House rules, gave his approval for release.
Finally, the memo released today does not represent the sum total of what House investigators have learned in their review of the FBI and Justice Department Trump-Russia investigation. That means the fight over the memo could be replayed in the future when the Intelligence Committee decides to release more information.
Once the memo is fully released we will publish it here.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-02/fisa-memo-released-heres-what-it-says
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/house-intel-memo-released-what-it-says/article/2647937
MEMO FULL TEXT ( PDF )
http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG00/20180129/106822/HMTG-115-IG00-20180129-SD001.pdf
THE MEMO IS HERE:
https://www.scribd.com/document/370599381/Nunes-Memo#from_embed
Can be read at the above link, since the gov site has crashed…
Another backup link is here:
https://imgur.com/a/7XT5b
Calais migrants: Five shot in mass brawl
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42912670?ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook
At least five migrants have been shot during a mass brawl between Afghans and Eritreans in the French port city of Calais, local officials say.
A 37-year-old Afghan man is suspected of firing shots at a queue for food handouts. Four Eritreans aged between 16 to 18 are in a critical condition.
Hundreds of migrants have converged on the area in an attempt to cross the Channel to the UK.
A sprawling camp known as the “Jungle” was dismantled near Calais in 2016.
Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said the violence had reached a new level and accused gangs that try to smuggle migrants to the UK of instigating the violence.
This is the worst outbreak of violence between migrants in Calais for months, and the use of firearms is a worrying escalation of the tensions, the BBC’s Hugh Schofield in Paris reports.
Lives Destroyed by Virginity Tests
Home > World > Afghanistan > Lives Destroyed by Virginity Tests
Trauma from invasive and so-called “virginity tests” can last a lifetime. This unscientific test is used in Afghanistan and other countries that enforce an honor-based culture to the extreme detriment of women.
Get educated with this infographic from Clarion:
https://clarionproject.org/lies-destroyed-virginity-tests/
U.S. Tightens Screws on Iran After American Imprisoned
Home > World > Iran > U.S. Tightens Screws on Iran After American Imprisoned
The Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Iran’s terrorist activities as the Islamic Republic doubled down on its strategy of arrest and imprisonment of American citizens.
During the Obama years, that strategy proved fruitful to Iran. Shortly after the Iran deal was signed, the Obama administration paid Iran $400 million in cash when Iran released four Americans (some dual-nationals) they had arrested and imprisoned on spurious charges.
Although the administration denied that the money was a payoff for the prisoners’ release, U.S. officials admitted that the Iranians had demanded the payment. Within a few short months, Iran had arrested more dual Iranian-Americans as well as dual-nationals from France, Canada and the UK.
The latest injustice done to an American citizen in Iran is the sentencing of international art dealer and dual national Karan Vafadari to 27 years in prison. The charges were the standard: spying, “conspiring against national security” and “attempting to over throw the regime.”
Vafadari and his Iranian wife Afarin Neyssari, a permanent resident of the U.S. who was sentenced to 16 years in prison, returned to Iran to invest in the homeland they loved, Vafadari said in a letter from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. The couple ended up opening an art gallery.
https://clarionproject.org/u-s-tightens-screws-iran-american-imprisoned/
CHINA – BBC – ‘Just shoot my wife and mother’ –
As Theresa May visits China, the UK government has raised concerns over religious freedom in the country’s mainly Muslim province of Xinjiang. One man, who fled the country for Turkey, has told the BBC he’ll “pay for the bullet” to kill his family to save them from a detention camp.
This report is from Xinjiang, where all filming and reporting by foreign media is tightly controlled.
VICE – This Immigrant Left the U.S. To Seek Asylum In Canada And Regrets It
Jose Castillo is an undocumented immigrant, who after 15 years in the U.S. uprooted his family, hid them in the basement of a church in Buffalo, and snuck them across the border to Canada to seek asylum.
Ammo dealer says Las Vegas gunman raised no suspicions
CHANDLER, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona man who sold ammunition to the gunman who carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history said Friday that his one-time customer was well-dressed, polite and didn’t raise suspicions that he was planning any crimes.
Douglas Haig, a 55-year-old aerospace engineer who sold ammunition as a hobby for about 25 years, said he met Stephen Paddock at a Phoenix gun show in the weeks before the Oct. 1 shooting in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and injured hundreds more.
He didn’t have the quantity of tracer ammunition on hand that Paddock was seeking, so Paddock contacted him a few days later and lined up a sale at Haig’s home in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. Tracer bullets contain a pyrotechnic charge that illuminates the path of fired bullets so shooters can see whether their aim is correct.
Haig said he was shocked and sickened when a federal agent informed him of the massacre 11 hours after it unfolded. It’s unknown whether the ammunition he sold to Paddock was used in the attack.
“I had no contribution to what Paddock did,” Haig said, adding that there was nothing unusual about the type or quantity of ammunition Paddock bought. “I had no way to see into his mind.”
Haig held a news conference Friday in what his lawyer said was a bid to protect his reputation after he was revealed earlier this week to be a “person of interest” in the investigation. Haig’s identity emerged by mistake after his name was not redacted in court documents.
But a law enforcement official has since told The Associated Press that investigators don’t believe Haig committed a federal crime or had any involvement or knowledge of the planned attack when he sold ammunition to Paddock. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Haig arose in the investigation when a box with his name and address was found in the Mandalay Bay hotel suite where Paddock launched the attack on a music festival below.
He gave the box to Paddock to carry the 720 rounds of tracer ammunition from the sale.
Haig said Paddock told him that “he was going to go out to the desert to put on a light show, either with or for his friends. I can’t remember whether he used the word ‘with’ or ‘for.’ But he said that he was going out at night to shoot it with friends.”
He said he has received unwanted media attention and death threats since his name was released. Still, Haig, who has closed his ammunition business, said he doesn’t expect to take any legal action as a result of his name being publicly revealed.
https://apnews.com/20f5c52194b249dc8e5bebf17d69f649/Ammo-dealer-says-Las-Vegas-gunman-raised-no-suspicions
Douglas Haig Press Conference 1/2
Douglas Haig Press Conference 2/2
“MAXINE WATERS: Russia is out to get me! (VIDEO)”
by True Pundit Staff – February 2, 2018
https://truepundit.com/maxine-waters-russia-get-video/
China More Dangerous Than Islamic Terrorism?China More Dangerous Than Islamic Terrorism?
Yaeh, I know, enough about the memo, but this is Thomas Wictor:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/959171613424955392.html
Interesting theory, probably wrong but interesting.