Reader’s links, Feb. 7, 2018

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

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

About Eeyore

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

151 Replies to “Reader’s links, Feb. 7, 2018”

  1. China’s Stolen Children

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4WOIRL0RZo

    Taken, bought, and sold like so many bicycles, the burgeoning marketplace for little boys and girls is just one more reason why Communist China is headed for the scrapheap.

    Towards the 80 minute video’s end, one bereaved parent asks the simplest of questions. As in, how is it possible inside such a tightly monitored country like Red China for these (abducted or sold) children to magically appear in local civilian registries and not attract even casual notice from the ever-vigilant officials that enforce this hideous régime’s OFOC (One Family One Child) policy?

  2. From: LIVE launch of Mars rocket from Space X to test launch Tesla roadster for some reason

    This rocket deposited a Tesla Roadster into a particular orbit with a sort of dummy in it just as a cool advert for the car I guess.

    In reality, there are several very important reasons for Elon Musk to have sent up the Tesla car.

    A.) Payload Simulation: Why rocket off lead bars or cinder blocks? Sand bags may suffice for first run in-flight passenger airliner qualifications, but even relative low-cost products like automobiles now involve trials that use incredibly complicated “crash test dummies”. Let’s all take the briefest of moments to thank American personal injury lawyers for this. Back on track, the Mars mission space vehicles will be carrying some serious tonnage. As will be shown below, it was far more productive to pack along a ~2.5 ton Tesla car (at around $10,000 US Dollars per pound) than any traditional inert mass.

    B.) Reliability Study: Tesla already has performed extensive, multi-million dollar studies of its cars regarding their vibration- and shock-resistance—be it through, static dynamometer testing, normal on-road operation or impact (i.e., crash) conditions. The rapid acceleration, high G forces (i.e., multiple gravities) and overall extreme multi-axis mechanical stresses of a rocket launch are easily capable of inducing simple and compound electromechanical failures. In effect, the car was a (splendidly complex) “known good device”. Its most likely purpose was to help model any fast-acting failure modes. (See next item for more in-depth analysis.)

    C.) Practice, Practice, Practice: As in, many moons before any humans actually land on Mars, there will arrive several unmanned provisioning vehicles. Carried onboard two or more of these spacecraft (for redundancy’s sake) will be remote-controlled drone equivalents of combination robotic excavators and 3-D printers. These machines will be similar to those currently envisioned for constructing a long-term lunar habitat. Any remote similarity to a Tesla car’s general appearance is strictly coincidental. In-transit, and while operating on the Martian surface, this high-tech equipment constantly will encounter some serious doses of hard radiation. During the out-bound flight, such bombardments will include intragalactic cosmic rays and solar-generated alpha particles (i.e., “solar wind”), many of which will just-as-likely reach the surface of Mars due to its marginal atmospheric shielding. Again, (even temporarily) exposing the Tesla “payload car” to these more-harsh LEO (Low Earth Orbit) conditions—during an otherwise unavoidable and mandatory test-launch—is a brilliant, cost-effective way of briefly simulating whatever long-term conditions a Mars mission (and its operative tooling) might entail.

    D.) At Day’s End: Would anyone care to guess what the final, winning bid will be on this pre-owned previously orbited high-tech hot rod?!?

    Like Eeyore so cynically guessed, this is a publicity stunt that also managed to create an opportunity for some valuable and rather serious science.

  3. Antifa Disrupts LGBT Parade; Claims Gay People Are Offensive To Muslims

    Whether we agree with their beliefs or not, Gay Pride Parades (for the most part) are well… gay. Happy. Bright. Enthusiastic and peaceful. They march around with rainbow flags, wear really weird clothing, and tell everybody how proud they are to be gay. Annoying? Most certainly, especially if you feel as though they’re shoving an agenda down your throat. But these marches tend to keep it fairly peaceful.

    When you start putting Sweden, Muslims, and Antifa into the mix, however, you have a recipe for disaster. Recently in Stockholm Sweden, a Gay pride event was held that caused a bit of controversy. Everything was going great until someone made a wrong turn. Specifically, those participating in the march entered a predominantly Muslim territory. What happened next is a little confusing, to say the least.

    Antifa (short for Anti-Fascists) hit the scene, and they were not at all pleased with the locations the Gay Pride marchers were choosing. Why? Because it was living proof that Muslims don’t support gays. Instead, in their own countries, they throw them off of bridges and stone them to death. One Sweedish Antifa member (clearly supporting communism) had this to say in an interview promoted by VFN:

    https://squawker.org/culture-wars/antifa-disrupts-lgbt-parade-claims-gay-people-are-offensive-to-muslims/

    NOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • They march around with rainbow flags, wear really weird clothing…

      You omitted the part about “assless chaps” (no image link for obvious reasons).

      My principal issue with gays is how a, “Homosexual Activist Admits True Purpose of Battle is to Destroy Marriage“.

      After all, some 99.999999999999999% of homosexuals originated from within heterosexual “nuclear families”. Yet, the LGBTQA@#$%& community continues to insist that these exact same “nuclear families” are the root and branch of [gasp!] all homophobia.

      To continue: What happens behind closed doors between consenting adults is none of my gøddamned business. Nonetheless, when these carpet-munching, reach-around, circle-jerking a$$holes seek to impose primary-school textbooks like, “Johnny has Two Mommys” and other anti-heterosexual propaganda, I not only draw the line but actively fight such twaddle.

      Then again, maybe that’s just me.

      [/rant]

    • The Koranic orders against homosexuality are starting to be enforced on the non Moslem community. This should upset a lot of people in Europe, especially the politicians who are dependent on the support of the Gay community.

      • The Koranic orders against homosexuality are starting to be enforced on the non Moslem community. This should upset a lot of people in Europe, especially the politicians who are dependent on the support of the Gay community.

        I no longer have the slightest confidence that adequate numbers of European Liberals will ever get up on their collective hind legs and defend the supposedly “tolerant values” they (otherwise) so loudly espouse.

        The modern Liberal community’s ability to “tolerate the intolerable” is one of the most ultimately damning traits imaginable. They smugly extol their “diversity” even as they deliberately poison the well of Freedom and Liberty.

        So-called Feminists and gays ever-so-richly deserve every last iota of oppression that Islam has to offer. When these “rage addicted” buncha crossdressing carpet munching rod-wallopers finally stop pissing and moaning about Trump—go out and purchase some serious firepower—and start blowing away their true persecutors, maybe then I’ll have a shred of sympathy for them.

        Otherwise, they need to piss off further than Niagara Falls.

        • When an obscenity like Federika Mogherini puts a rag on her head to kiss up to an Ayatollah, you know there’s no floor beneath their hypocrisy.

        • The Modern LIberals will never fight for their countries, my hopes/predictions are based on the ordinary Europeans finding strong leaders (who aren’t politicians) and resisting to the point the kick the invaders back into the Med.

          • When they’re not having abortions or being counseled to “die with dignity”.
            Or, worse yet, agreeing to same on behalf of their infirm elders.

            When they’re that far gone morally, no army of man can save them.

            Grab the healthy, run!

  4. A California judge ruled Monday the state couldn’t force a cake shop owner to bake a cake for a gay couple’s wedding, ruling that doing so would constitute a violation of free speech.

    Superior Court Judge David Lampe denied the State of California’s request for a preliminary injunction that sought to force bakeshop owner Cathy Miller to design a wedding cake for a gay couple.

    “For this court to force such compliance would do violence to the essentials of Free Speech guaranteed under the First Amendment,” Lampe ruled, according to a press release sent to The Daily Caller News Foundation. The injunction also posited that if Miller refused to design the cake, the state would force her to close her Tastries Bakery shop altogether.

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/06/cake-shop-owner-wedding-cake-gay-couple/

    Note: the devil is in the details – and they are about as ‘splitting hairs’ as it gets. Refusing to sell an existing cake = discrimination, but if the cake does not exist yet, cannot force the baker to make it… End well, this will not.

  5. SWEDEN APPOINTS PAKISTANI MUSLIM HEAD OF NATIONAL HERITAGE BOARD

    “Qaisar Mahmood, a Muslim born in Pakistan, is the new head of the Swedish National Heritage Board. This is an extremely anomalous appointment, since he readily admits that he has not read anything about Sweden’s cultural heritage. But his new job is not really about preserving and protecting Sweden’s cultural heritage and historical sites at all.”

    • This is truly a display of cultural psychosis. Sweden is determined to commit national suicide and it is disturbing and hard to see for those of us who treasure the variety of other cultures. Islam=mono-culture. Mono-culture in biology=death.

  6. Workers of Germany, Unite: The New Siren Call of the Far Right

    (New York Times Article on Guido Reil and the AfD)

    BOTTROP, Germany — Guido Reil is a coal miner, like his father and grandfather before him. He joined a trade union at 18 and the center-left Social Democratic Party at 20. Fast-talking and loud, he has been an elected union representative for over a decade.

    But two years ago, after the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees in Germany, Mr. Reil switched to the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD. Competing in state legislative elections last May, the party won 20 percent of the vote in his home district with his name on its list — and the Social Democrats slipped 16 percentage points from a previous election.

    “Those are my former comrades,” Mr. Reil said, chuckling. “They came with me.”

    How is a far-right party drawing voters from labor, a traditional bastion of the left? The question is not academic, but goes directly to the heart of the emerging threat the AfD presents to Germany’s political establishment, including Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/world/europe/afd-unions-social-democrats.html

    • Dear Miss Piggy,

      In the most possibly endearing sense, would you please consider making sure that all future references to “far-right” anything contain (at least) obligatory sneer quotes—if not outright and comprehensive dismissal?

      Thanking you in advance,

      NorseRadish

  7. Thousands of African migrants protest Israel deportations (abcnews, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/thousands-african-migrants-protest-israeli-deportations-52899036

    “Thousands of African asylum seekers on Wednesday protested outside the Rwandan Embassy in Israel, calling on the African country not to cooperate with an Israeli plan to deport them.

    Israel has given thousands of migrants in the country until April 1 to accept an offer to leave for an unnamed African destination — widely known to be Rwanda, based on testimonies of people who have already left — in exchange for $3,500 and a plane ticket. Those who don’t leave face indefinite incarceration.

    The protesters said the plan would put them in danger and said the deportations were racist. They urged Rwanda and its president, Paul Kagame, not to cooperate. Rwanda is one of Israel’s closest African allies.

    “Kagame — We are not for sale,” said one banner. “Prison or Deportation? What would you choose?” said another. “Would you deport me if I was white?” said another, held by protesters with faces painted white.

    Israel has 40,000 migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, who say they fled from danger at home. Both countries have poor human rights records…”

  8. Finnish police: Knife attacker identified with IS (abcnews, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/finnish-police-knife-attacker-identified-52899058

    “Finnish police say the Moroccan asylum-seeker who killed two people and injured eight others in last year’s stabbing attack in southwestern Finland identified strongly with the Islamic State group and was motivated largely by hatred after heavy bombardments by the Western alliance in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

    Olli Toyras of the National Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday that Abderrahman Bouanane became radicalized some three months before the Aug. 18 attack and although he acted alone, he thought of himself as an IS fighter.

    Toyras said Bouanane had followed earlier terror incidents in Belgium and France and was willing to die for “a martyr cause.”

    The suspect earlier saw his asylum in Finland rejected but that was not considered the motive for the stabbing, in which he used two knives.”

  9. Former Afghan leader urges sanctions on Pakistan officials (abcnews, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-leader-urges-sanctions-pakistan-officials-52897762

    “Afghanistan’s former president lashed out at both the United States and Pakistan on Wednesday, accusing them of using the Afghan war to further their own interests and calling on Washington to sanction Pakistani military and intelligence officials.

    In an interview with The Associated Press, Hamid Karzai said his country is in “terrible shape” 16 years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban. Karzai became president shortly after the fall of the Taliban and held office until 2014.

    In recent weeks Kabul has been battered by a wave of attacks claimed alternately by the Taliban and a rival Islamic State affiliate, which killed scores of people and brutally exposed the U.S.-backed government’s failure to secure the capital.

    “The U.S. cannot tell us ‘well if I am not here, you will be worse off.’ We are in a terrible shape right now . . . We want to be better. We want to have peace. We want to have security,” Karzai said.

    Karzai said Washington wants to establish permanent bases in Afghanistan to project power in the region, while Pakistan wants to turn Afghanistan into a client state.

    He said U.S. forces are not in Afghanistan “to stop extremism.”

    “In my view their intention is to keep us divided and weak so they can carry on their objectives in this region,” Karzai said. “They have their global politics and rivalries. They have China as a great rising power. They have Russia as a revitalized, re-energized great power on the world scene and they feel threatened and challenged.”

    Echoing complaints from Afghanistan’s current government, Karzai accused neighboring Pakistan of harboring Taliban militants. He called on the United States to sanction Pakistani military and intelligence officials.

    “We hope the U.S. will now act in Pakistan,” he said. “Act in Pakistan doesn’t mean that the Pakistan people should be hurt or that war should be launched in Pakistan,” he added.

    U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped up pressure on Pakistan since the start of the year, suspending up to $2 billion in military aid after accusing it of failing to crack down on militants who launch cross-border attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces.

    Pakistan denies such allegations, blaming the violence on the Kabul government’s failure to secure the country.

    Karzai’s bleak assessment came a day after U.S. lawmakers questioned the direction of America’s longest war. At a hearing on Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee noted that Washington is spending roughly $45 billion a year in Afghanistan, with the vast majority of the funds going to security. Just $780 million goes toward economic aid.”

  10. Pakistan sentences man to death in student’s lynching (abcnews, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pakistan-sentences-man-death-students-lynching-52897996

    “A Pakistani court on Wednesday sentenced a man to death and convicted 30 others over the lynching of a 23-year-old university student who was falsely accused of blasphemy, officials said.

    Mohammad Mashal Khan was killed by a mob on his university campus in April 2016 over rumors, which later proved to be unfounded, that he had shared blasphemous content on social media.

    Blasphemy against Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan, and mere allegations are often enough to provoke mob violence.

    An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday sentenced the man to death and handed life sentences to five other people in connection to the lynching. Another 25 people were sentenced to four years, and 26 others were acquitted for lack of evidence.

    Shaukat Ali Yusafzai, a government spokesman, said it will challenge the acquittal of the 26. Khan’s brother, Mohammad Aimal, welcomed the verdict.

    The trial was held at a high-security prison in the northwestern town of Haripur, in part due to concerns that radical Islamists might target the hearing or witnesses.”

    • Mohammad Mashal Khan was killed by a mob on his university campus in April 2016 over rumors, which later proved to be unfounded, that he had shared blasphemous content on social media.

      Thank goodness that some Western countries have enough sense to step aside and allow these idiotic Muslim nations to perform their own house-cleaning.

      Innocent, or not, this unfortunate victim should serve as an example of exactly why sharia law must be a “trigger” for massive global upheaval.

    • “Two Afghan generals and five other army officers have been fired and charged with negligence in connection with last week’s deadly assault on a military academy…”

      As all too many of us know, there will NEVER occur any sort of meaningful investigation into precisely WHY these several individuals were even given any meaningful rank like “Generals”, much less “toilet scrubbers”.

      There is absolutely no hope for Islamic militaries to abandon this sort of terrorist-inducing recruitment. Ergo, total annihilation of these supremely malign institutions may well end up being the only alternative there is.

      Please prove me wrong…

  11. Crypto-charity? UNICEF urges gamers to mine Ethereum for Syrian children (RT, Feb 7, 2018)
    https://www.rt.com/news/418066-unicef-humanitarian-cryptocurrency-fundraising/

    “The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund has launched “the first ever blockchain fundraising” project, urging gamers to “turn graphics cards into a humanitarian tool” and mine Ethereum to help Syrian children.

    Over 500 people have already joined the unusual initiative to support Syrian children. UNICEF’s ‘Game Chaingers’ charity project has raised more than 1,500 euros in five days since its launch last Friday.

    In its promotional video UNICEF appealed to video game fans, who have the largest number of graphics cards. The powerful devices are necessary for cryptocurrency mining, which lies at the heart of the project and distinguishes it from other existing initiatives.

    “Through the use of mining we create an opportunity for those who cannot give or have never had the opportunity to do so,” UNICEF said…”

    • If their countries weren’t shitholes, then they wouldn’t want to leave in the first place. Maybe the pope should find an answer to that – why do countries turn into shitholes?

      • Dear MissPiggy,

        Has anyone previously extolled your plain-spokenness?

        Just sayin’,

        NorseRadish

      • Corruption among their high officials, people with high IQs leaving to nations that offer them better chances, modern liberals continually screaming that everything bad is the Europeans fault.

    • If you read the article you will discover the police are very upset over the idea of the public being 1) armed and 2) protecting themselves. Germany is by definition a police state since the government has a monopoly on the use of force, the higher ups are worried about losing that monopoly and having the people turn their newly acquired weapon on the people who for so long denied them the protection that everyone is entitled to.

          • You are both right.

            For everyone jumping through the hoops to get a gun legally a lot (probably) have turned to the black market to acquire the tools they think they need to protect their families.

            The Europeans (and Canadians and various Americans) continuing to cling to the idea of gun control shows their inability to live in the real world and accept facts. The 3D printers (metal and plastic) along with the ghost gun machines (small computer controlled milling machines) have killed gun control. The left is just too stupid arrogant to accept the above facts. During the British occupation of Israel after WWII, every farm machine shop that had the equipment was turning out boot leg copies of the Sten Gun (a British 9mm submachine gun made during WWII). This should have been evidence enough to tell people that gun control as a dead issue. The wanna be dictators refused to accept this and now a lot of people are going to die so the Europeans can regain control of their nations.

  12. Nusra Front Became Tool of Sides Unhappy With Russia Liberating Syria – MoD (sputniknews, Feb 7,2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802071061436590-nusra-front-tool-destabilization-syria-russia/

    “The Syrian militants from Jabhat al-Sham, also known as the Nusra Front, are attempting to derail the peace process in Syria’s de-escalation zones by squeezing the moderate opposition from there, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

    The Nusra Front militants remain the major source of instability not only in Syria’s Idlib de-escalation zone but in the entire country, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday.

    Konashenkov explained that the Nusra militants are receiving the arms supplies from the third parties and are trying to derail “the peace process in the de-escalation zones, ousting the moderate opposition from there.”

    “This confirms our fears that the terrorists of Al-Qaeda’s offshoot have become an obedient tool in the hands of one or a number of technologically advanced countries that are dissatisfied with Russia’s key role in liberation of Syria from Daesh,” — Konashenkov stressed, recalling Nusra’s latest actions in Syria, including the attack on Russian airbases in Tartus and Hmeimim that was launched by the Nusra militants with the use of the sophisticated armed umanned aerial vehicles…”

  13. ‘Incompatible with Danish values’: Denmark plans face veil ban with hefty fines for offenders (RT, Feb 7, 2018)
    https://www.rt.com/news/418064-danmark-face-veil-ban-fines/

    “Denmark’s government has announced it plans to fine people for covering their face in public, while the left-wing opposition wants a cap on ‘non-Western foreigners’ entering the country.

    The center-right government announced on Tuesday that it plans to bring forth legislation making it illegal for people to cover their faces in public. The proposals include fines of up to 10,000 Danish kroner ($1,660) for repeat offenders, Reuters reports.

    The move echoes other European nations, such as France, which restricts the wearing of Muslim garments like the burqa and the niqab. Opponents say the wearing of such clothing is oppressive to women and/or incompatible with so-called ‘Western values.’

    “It is incompatible with the values ??of the Danish society or the respect for the community to keep the face hidden when meeting each other in the public space,” Justice Minister, and Danish Conservative Party leader, Soren Pape Poulsen said.

    “With a ban, we draw a line in the sand and establish that here in Denmark we show each other trust and respect by meeting each other face to face,” he added.

    The proposed ban is backed by parties from across the political spectrum, including the far-right Danish People’s Party (DPP/Dansk Folkeparti), and the country’s largest opposition party, the centre-left Social Democrats (Socialdemokratiet)…”

  14. Richard: For a long time I have been saying their is/was a stock bubble, the roller coaster ride stocks are now on are (hopefully) just the much needed correction in pricing as the market wakes up. This won’t stop some people from panicking. This explanation before the following article on crypto currencies is so people won’t confuse the stocks with the crypto currencies.

    Get Ready for Most Cryptocurrencies to Hit Zero, Goldman Says

    The tumble in cryptocurrencies that erased nearly $500 billion of market value over the past month could get a lot worse, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s global head of investment research.

    Most digital currencies are unlikely to survive in their current form, and investors should prepare for coins to lose all their value as they’re replaced by a small set of future competitors, Goldman’s Steve Strongin said in a report dated Feb. 5. While he didn’t posit a timeframe for losses in existing coins, he said recent price swings indicated a bubble and that the tendency for different tokens to move in lockstep wasn’t rational for a “few-winners-take-most” market.

    “The high correlation between the different cryptocurrencies worries me,” Strongin said. “Because of the lack of intrinsic value, the currencies that don’t survive will most likely trade to zero.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-07/get-ready-for-most-cryptocurrencies-to-hit-zero-goldman-says

  15. Trump: ‘I’d love to see a shutdown’ unless Dems fix immigration

    President Trump said Tuesday that he would “love to see a shutdown” over immigration if Democrats don’t come to the table to negotiate on border security and other stiff enforcement measures, escalating the stakes with less than four weeks to go before a deadline for action.

    “If we have to shut it down because the Democrats don’t want safety … let’s shut it down,” the president said at a White House roundtable discussion on MS-13 gang violence and illegal immigration.

    The tough talk seemed to upend congressional Republicans’ carefully crafted strategy of avoiding shutdown threats, hoping to pin blame on Democrats if the government did tumble into another stoppage.

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/6/trump-love-see-shutdown-unless-fixes-immigration/

  16. Illegal immigrant deported 44 times in 15 years tops feds’ list

    He is the world’s most persistent illegal immigrant: One Mexican managed to get deported 44 times in 15 years — which means he also managed to sneak back across the border at least that many times.

    The runner-up was ousted 40 times from 2001 to 2015. No. 3, 4 and 5 on the list were deported 35, 34 and 31 times, respectively, according to data provided to The Washington Times by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    While those are the most extreme cases, repeat-illegal immigrants were back in the news this week after police said a twice-deported man was driving drunk in Indiana on Sunday morning when he plowed into pro football player Edwin Jackson and his Uber driver, killing them both.

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/6/illegal-immigrant-deported-44-times-15-years-tops-/

  17. Police: Man tells undocumented immigrant to stop peeing at bus stop, gets stabbed in neck

    WHEATON, Md. (WJLA) – An undocumented immigrant urinating in public used a box cutter to repeatedly stab a man who had merely suggested he pull up his trousers and use a proper restroom, police say.

    On Nov. 30, around 11 p.m., Montgomery County Police were dispatched to the Wheaton Metro bus turnaround along Georgia Avenue. Upon stepping out of their cruisers, officers saw a man with stab wounds and bloody slashes to his neck, face and stomach.

    That victim, plus an uninjured eyewitness, pointed officers toward Salvador Gomez-Lopez, 46, who was allegedly drunk and belligerent. The two men explained that Gomez-Lopez was relieving himself in plain view of fellow bus passengers. When the victim questioned his actions, Gomez-Lopez reportedly reached into his backpack and grabbed hold of a razor-sharp box cutter.

    http://wjla.com/news/crime/police-man-tells-undocumented-immigrant-to-stop-urinating-at-bus-stop-gets-stabbed-in-ne

  18. Blackout hits parts of Venezuelan capital

    CARACAS (Reuters) – A power outage hit parts of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, on Tuesday, according to witnesses and subway authorities, forcing at least 10 subway stations to close while traffic signals and phone lines were also down at rush-hour.

    Critics of the socialist government running the OPEC-member country pointed to the outage as another sign of economic meltdown, as prices soar amid hyperinflation, millions suffer food and medicine shortages, and oil production falls to its lowest levels in years.

    “How much more do we have to endure? We have become so primitive in this country,” said Alejandra Arcia, 46, a shop-assistant trying to figure out how to get her two children home.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/blackout-hits-parts-venezuelan-capital-witnesses-subway-authorities-213256698.html

  19. Kenyon College Cancels Play About Immigration; Starts ‘Whiteness Group’
    Students protest the production of a ‘racist’ play and start a ‘Whiteness Group’ where no white students are allowed to ask minorities questions.

    “Today is the end of [liberal education at Kenyon College],” Fred Baumann, a professor of political science at Kenyon, proclaimed last week to a panel and its audience. The panel had been convened to discuss the retraction of professor and playwright Wendy MacLeod’s latest play, The Good Samaritan.

    MacLeod’s work had been circulated to the students and community, with the intention of production in early April. The show centers on the experiences of Guatemalan illegal immigrants working only a few dozen miles away from Kenyon on an egg farm. As MacLeod explained in an email to the campus about the play, these characters “had been working without pay and living in dire conditions.” The Good Samaritan is based on a true story and MacLeod attempted to unearth it in her work, to, with humor, in her words, “[bring] the repressed to light.” Her play posits, satirically, what might happen if one of these illegal immigrants escaped from the egg farm and found their way to a school like Kenyon.

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/kenyon-college-cancels-play-about-immigration-starts-whiteness-group/article/2011470

  20. Chinese Police Add Facial-Recognition Glasses to Surveillance Arsenal
    Police are donning the devices as hundreds of millions of Chinese begin traveling for the Lunar New Year holiday

    BEIJING—As hundreds of millions of Chinese begin traveling for the Lunar New Year holiday, police are showing off a new addition to their crowd-surveillance toolbox: mobile facial-recognition units mounted on eyeglasses.

    China is already a global leader in deploying cutting-edge surveillance technologies based on artificial intelligence. The mobile devices could expand the reach of that surveillance, allowing authorities to peer into places that fixed cameras aren’t scanning, and to respond more quickly.

    The devices, released late last year, were touted in state media this week as a means to help authorities during times such as the annual Lunar New Year migration that begins next week, when Chinese travelers flood train stations and airports.

    The eyeglass-mounted camera is equipped with facial-recognition technology capable of “highly effective screening” of crowds for fugitives traveling under false pretenses, the official People’s Daily newspaper reported Monday. Its story included images of a policewoman wearing a sunglasses version of the device at a railway station in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan province.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-police-go-robocop-with-facial-recognition-glasses-1518004353?mod=searchresults&page=2&pos=7

  21. Are robot cops the future of efficient, bias-free policing?

    The era of police hiding behind bushes and catching drivers who exceed 30 miles per hour may be coming to an end. In years, maybe decades, the young officer with a quota could be replaced by a robotic cop car.

    Unsympathetic to excuses and invulnerable to flirtation, the robot will flash its lights to pull you over. It will scan your driver’s license, decide whether to issue a warning or ticket, and inform you of its decision before letting you drive off.

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/are-robot-cops-the-future-of-efficient-bias-free-policing/article/2647771

    Richard: I don’t doubt that this will be tried, just as I don’t doubt it will fail. Even the smart computer systems now under development as well as those already in use aren’t capable of using critical thought to make their decisions. Any decision made will be based on their programing which will based on the biases of the programmer.

    Hint the best way to avoid a ticket (it doesn’t always work) is admit you were speeding, you will probably be the first person who did that on any given day and the cop may let you loose with a warning in reward for you honesty.

  22. Dams that supply Cape Town fall further as water crisis looms

    CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Water levels at dams supplying South Africa’s Cape Town fell further this week, data showed on Wednesday, the latest sign of a deepening crisis that could soon see taps in the tourist hub run dry by May.

    Dam levels in the Western Cape province fell to 23.7 percent this week from 24.5 percent the previous week, and from 36.5 percent a year ago, according to a weekly update from the department of water affairs.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/dams-supply-cape-town-fall-further-water-crisis-111312123.html

    • Dam levels in the Western Cape province fell to 23.7 percent this week from 24.5 percent the previous week, and from 36.5 percent a year ago, according to a weekly update from the department of water affairs.

      Is there any slight degree of irony that Cape Town—home to some of the most violent racism and corrupt mismanagement ON EARTH—is running out of water?!?

      My own response is—”Let them eat shit cake

  23. Oil World Turns Upside Down as U.S. Sells Oil in Middle East

    The United Arab Emirates, a model Persian Gulf petro-state where endless billions from crude exports feed a giant sovereign wealth fund, isn’t the most obvious customer for Texan oil.

    Yet, in a trade that illustrates how the rise of the American shale industry is upending energy markets across the globe, the U.A.E. bought oil directly from the U.S. in December, according to data from the federal government. A tanker sailed from Houston and arrived in the Persian Gulf last month.

    The cargo of American condensate, a type of very light crude oil, was preferred to regional grades because its superior quality made more suitable for the U.A.E’s processing plants, a person with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing a commercially sensitive matter.

    video at site

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-06/u-s-oil-heads-to-middle-east-in-latest-sign-of-shale-s-spread

  24. U.N. chief plans major disarmament push but U.S. skeptical

    GENEVA (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is to launch a major push for disarmament talks covering everything from nuclear and cyber war to small arms, braving certain U.S. resistance to such bold initiatives, officials and experts told Reuters.

    Guterres aims to forestall a new nuclear arms race and get the big powers back into negotiations after two decades of stalemate, according to a Geneva-based expert familiar with the plans, who requested anonymity.

    The expert said Guterres also wants to end “state-led paralysis” in talks on cyberwarfare and robotics by getting the private sector involved, and to start talks on use of explosives in urban areas and curbing access to conventional weapons, the biggest killer.

    Chances of success are uncertain at best. But with nuclear tensions rising, Guterres may be uniquely placed to oil the wheels of negotiations given a 2009 U.N. Security Council pledge to “create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons”.

    http://www.oann.com/exclusive-u-n-chief-plans-major-disarmament-push-but-u-s-skeptical/

    • Guterres also wants to end “state-led paralysis”

      gotta chuckle when a diehard commie talks about "state-led paralysis"

  25. Terror-Linked Radical Sect Ordered to Demolish Illegal London Mega-Mosque (breitbart, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/02/07/terror-linked-radical-sect-ordered-demolish-london-mega-mosque/

    “An East London mega-mosque built and run by a radical, anti-Western Islamic sect is illegal and must be demolished, a High Court judge has ordered.

    Abbey Mills Mosque near the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford can be used by some 2,500 people, but never received planning permission, Dawn reports.

    Member of the Tablighi Jamaat group constructed it in 1996 as a supposedly temporary Islamic centre on the site of an old factory.

    Tablighi Jamaat preaches a supremacist, anti-Western form of Islam and has been linked to the 7/7 terrorists, a San Bernardino shooter, and more recently the London Bridge attack.

    Part of the Deobandi movement, founded in British colonial India specifically to oppose Western influence, the more hardline Tablighi Jamaat offshoot has been labelled the ‘army of darkness.’

    They dominate Muslim schools in the UK, controlling 600 of Britain’s nearly 1,500 mosques and produce 80 per cent of all domestically trained Islamic ‘scholars’.

    The group had initially wanted to turn the East London site into their national headquarters with the capacity to host tens of thousands of worshippers. It would have been Europe’s largest mosque and the UK’s largest religious building – three times the size of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

    At the time, Christian opponents of the mega-mosque argued that “rejection of British values, the lack of any female participation, and a refusal to integrate with other local communities are key issues for the Planning Inspector to consider.”

    Tablighi Jamaat subsequently scaled back their ambitions to a capacity of around 9,000, but the plans were rejected in 2012 as the council had intended to use the land for mixed housing and business.

    The government then backed the refusal to grant planning permission in 2015 and the owners were given just three months to cease using the site as a mosque. However, they appealed the decision, delaying the progress by another two years.

    The High Court has now ruled in the council’s favour and ordered the mosque’s owners to pay £22,207 in costs to the council, Dawn reports. Only a restraining order from the European Court of Human Rights, where an application has been filed, can reportedly save the illegal mosque.

    The council is thought to have the power to bulldoze the buildings if the owners refuse, The Times reports. Tablighi Jamaat has until the 16th of February to bring the case to the Court of Appeal.

    “Tablighi Jamaat has procrastinated and delayed, has ridden roughshod over planning regulations and regularly broken the law,” Alan Craig, campaign director of Newham Concern, told Dawn.

    “Their plans have been rejected by every level of authority from Newham Council to the High Court, their latest appeal has been thrown out of court,” he said.

    Adding: “It is now time for Newham Council to send in the bulldozers and knock down the illegal temporary mosque on the site and liberate the land for a mixed-use development that will benefit the whole community.””

    • CNN – Biden: Trump’s attacks on FBI are what Putin wants

      ( 26 mn 08 )

      In a wide ranging interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, former Vice President Joe Biden says that President Trump’s attacks on the FBI is casting doubt on the US justice system and is achieving exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin wants.

    • Pay close attention to what is being said, this is why another Civil War is now being fought, and why the civil service act must be reformed.

      • Banana Republic? The ABSOLUTE STATE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

        BRILLIANT!

        Thank you, Richard. Some of the best damned ten lousy minutes I’ve ever spent in my entire life. Again, thank you so very much!

        NorseRadish

        • It is a very damning indictment of the Dems and their efforts to destroy the Constitution and the rule of law.

  26. Note: the devil is in the details – and they are about as ‘splitting hairs’ as it gets. Refusing to sell an existing cake = discrimination, but if the cake does not exist yet, cannot force the baker to make it… End well, this will not.

    All objections to your Yoda-like phrasing temporarily cast aside (where they so deservedly are meant to be), my sole niggle would be about ‘splitting “pubic” hairs’. Other than that, please (so admirably) carry on.

  27. DAILY MAIL – Saudi father PUNISHES his son for being sexually assaulted by ‘ironing’ the child’s genitals

    Saudi Arabian psychologist shared information about one of his patients
    Young boy had been sexually assaulted by a group of teenagers
    The boy’s father had responded to the incident by ‘ironing his private parts’

    A Saudi Arabian man who punished his own son for being sexually assaulted is being used to highlight issues with attitudes to sex abuse victims in the country.

    The boy had reportedly been sexually abused by a group of teenagers at an unknown location in Saudi Arabia, and told his father.

    The father then took to ‘punishing’ his son for the assault, by ‘ironing his genitals’, local media reports.

    The disturbing tale emerged after a Saudi psychologist shared details of the case on social media.

    Dr. Hussain Al Shamarani had been approached by the father after the assault and his own ‘punishment’, looking for help.

    Dr Al Shamarani took to Twitter to reveal the father had genuinely believed that he had done the right thing when he used a hot iron on his son’s genitals.

    ‘This man came to ask for my advice, not knowing that his action had already done more damage to the child’s health and mental well-being,’ he said according to Stepfeed.com.

    ‘There are so many similar cases, where parents resort to punishing a child after an assault or simply choose not to come forward to get them help they truly need in the wake of such incidents.’

    The case was reported in Saudi Arabian media, and a tweet by the original source went viral, Stepfeed reports.

    One Twitter user wrote: ‘This is how their brains are programmed, to blame the victim for being harassed.’

    Another added: ‘Some people are not fit for parenthood’.

    One social media user raised the issue of a lack of hotlines in Saudi Arabia where victims would be able to anonymously report abuse.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5362813/Saudi-father-PUNISHES-son-sexually-assaulted.html

    https://stepfeed.com/saudi-father-punishes-sexually-assaulted-child-by-ironing-his-private-parts-7369

  28. “If the Enemy Takes Action, We Will Shatter Its Teeth to Smithereens”

    In a Friday sermon, Iranian Assembly of Experts Member Ahmad Khatami hinted at the Saudi Crown Prince, labeling him an “immature child.” Khatami said: “If the enemy tries to cause even the slightest harm to the great Iranian nation, [the masses] will shatter the enemy’s teeth to smithereens inside its mouth.”

    In the sermon, delivered in Tehran on November 10 to mark the Arba’een, the anniversary of the 40th day to Imam Hussein’s death, Khatami spoke about the Yemen crisis, saying that the enemies “feed on the murder of people.”

  29. At US outpost in Syria, US general backs Kurdish fighters (abcnews, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-outpost-syria-us-general-backs-kurdish-fighters-52906343

    “On the ground in Syria, the top U.S. general in the coalition fighting the Islamic State group pledged on Wednesday that American troops would remain in the northern Syrian town of Manbij despite Ankara’s demands for a U.S. pullout.

    “We’re here to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS is maintained in this area,” Lt. Gen. Paul E. Funk said during a visit to U.S. forces in Manbij. ISIS is an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.

    The U.S.-backed opposition Syrian Democratic Forces, led mainly by a Syrian Kurdish militia which Turkey is now fighting in Syria, liberated the town of Manbij from the Islamic State group in 2016.

    Manbij was hailed as an early success story in the American-backed fight against IS, but is now the scene of escalating regional tensions on the heels of military victories against the extremists…”

  30. Boko Haram leader calls himself ‘invincible’ but also tired (acnews, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/boko-haram-leader-calls-invincible-tired-52911348

    “The leader of Boko Haram says he’s still in control of an important territory that the Nigerian military says it has seized back from the extremist group.

    In the 10-minute video released Wednesday, Abubakar Shekau says his militants weren’t defeated in the Sambisa forest of northeastern Nigeria.

    Shekau tells the camera “if you have killed us, why are we still alive?”

    At one point the head of Boko Haram calls himself “invincible” and vows to continue his fight to establish an Islamic caliphate. At the very end though, he also makes clear: “I am tired of this calamity; it is better I die and go to rest in paradise.”

    It wasn’t immediately clear when or where the video was made.”

  31. UN experts: Al-Qaida greater threat than IS in some places (abcnews, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/experts-al-qaida-greater-threat-places-52907584

    “U.N. experts say al-Qaida’s global network remains “remarkably resilient” and poses a greater threat than the Islamic State extremist group in several regions, including Yemen and Somalia.

    The report by experts monitoring sanctions against both groups, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, said al-Qaida affiliates “remain a threat at least as serious” as IS in West Africa and South Asia.

    In a separate report circulated Tuesday, U.N. experts said IS still poses “a significant and evolving threat around the world” despite recent setbacks in Iraq, Syria and the southern Philippines that forced the militants to relinquish strongholds.

    The new report said unnamed countries highlight the support between some al-Qaida and IS members in the preparation of attacks, which poses “a potential new threat” in some regions.”

  32. Myanmar army ‘continuing to force Rohingya out of the country’ through rape and starvation says Amnesty (telegraph, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/07/rohingya-continue-forced-homes-tactical-starvation-claims-amnesty/

    “The Burmese military is still pushing the Rohingya minority out of their homes through forced starvation, the fear of abduction, and the looting of their property, according to new evidence from Amnesty International.

    The tactics of ethnic cleansing are still widespread, despite Burma signing a recent repatriation deal with Bangladesh, where close to 700,000 Rohingya refugees have sheltered since the start of a brutal military crackdown in August, the human rights group said.

    Aid agencies documented thousands of refugees crossing over the border during December and January, squeezing into the already overcrowded, dusty Kutupalong camp near Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.

    Interviews conducted by Amnesty with new arrivals from Buthidaung township revealed that most had fled their homes out of hunger, after being denied access to their rice fields and markets.

    As one of the poorest states in Burma, Rakhine was already suffering from high malnutrition rates even before the military launched a savage campaign of arson, rape and killing.

    While the acute violence has subsided, widespread hunger has been stoked by an apartheid system that restricts villagers’ movements…”

  33. HRW: Iran Executes Three Child Offenders, Tramples International Law (sputniknews, Feb 7, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802071061449856-iran-executes-child-offenders-illegal/

    “Human Rights Watch has accused Iran of executing at least three child offenders in January 2018. Iran is a signatory of an international treaty that prohibits the use of the death penalty on offenders under 18, and HRW has called for them to put a stop to such executions.

    The three offenders, according to HRW, had all previously been convicted of murder. On January 4, Amirhossein Pourjafar was executed in a prison near the large city of Karaj for the rape and murder of a three-year-old-girl when he was 16.

    On January 30, two executions were carried out. The first was of Mahboubeh Mofidi at Nowshahr prison in northern Iran. Mofidi had been convicted of murdering her husband when she was 17. The second was of Ali Kazemi at Bushehr prison in southern Iran for a killing an opponent in a street fight when he was just 15…”

  34. Danish Left Unveils ‘Ambitious Plan’ to Slash Third World Migration (breitbart, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/02/07/danish-left-slash-migration/

    “Presenting an ambitious plan to slash migration from non-Western nations, Denmark’s Social Democrats said the country lacks the capacity to integrate further flows of third world migrants.

    The largest party in Denmark, where it is part of the left-wing opposition, the Social Democrats on Monday unveiled a 44-page migration policy document pledging “to introduce a cap on the number of non-Western foreigners who can [enter]”.

    “We want to reform our asylum system, among other things, by setting up reception centres outside Europe, and in the future it will not be possible for refugees to obtain asylum in Denmark outside quotas set by the United Nations,” said Social Democrats head Mette Frederiksen.

    Under the proposals, immigrants would no longer be able to turn up “spontaneously” at Denmark’s border or migrant centres to file asylum claims, and would instead be sent to a Danish-run reception centre in North Africa while their case is examined.

    If granted asylum by authorities, the refugees would remain in the yet unspecified transit country and living under the protection of the UN’s refugee agency while Copenhagen pays to cover their living expenses.

    Frederiksen, who holds a degree in African Studies, said the country of 5.7 million people lacks the capacity to integrate people from the third world, having had to absorb almost 30,000 people as a result of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open the border in 2015.

    “The population in Denmark has changed rapidly in a short time: in 1980, one percent of the Danish population was not of Western origin, today it is eight percent,” she said.

    Analysing the party’s “ambitious asylum plan” in a piece for political news site Altinget, Erik Holstein writes: “Above all, the Social Democrats leadership sees the large influx of non-Western migrants and refugees as a threat to the nation’s welfare society.

    “That non-European migrants cost the treasury 33 billion Danish krone annually emphasises this, along with the incontestable fact that a welfare society relies on the existence of common norms and solidarity.”

    Breitbart London reported Wednesday that Denmark’s centre-right coalition government, which has taken a consistently much tougher line on both migration and integration compared to its European neighbours, issued a press release indicating it is seeking to outlaw Islamic face coverings.”

  35. Far-Left Trinity Mirror Group Closes on Deal to Buy Right-Wing Daily Express (breitbart, Feb 7, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/02/07/richard-desmond-sell-right-wing-daily-express-far-left-trinity-mirror-group/

    “One of Britain’s last right-wing newspapers is to be bought up by the hard-left Trinity Mirror group, an organisation which helped found groups like the radical left ‘Hope not Hate’ and has provided a platform for some of the most heinous attacks on conservatism and Brexit.

    The shock news comes after months of deliberation between the prospective buyers and Daily Express group owner Richard Desmond…”