Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.
This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.
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This is the new Samizdat. We muse use it while we can.
PREFACE: Due to site security issues, this latest article will be posted in separate installments
Notes from NorseRadish:
Another thundercloud on the horizon of Red China’s perfect storm
NR: This could be a final, lanthanide nail in Red China’s coffin (of rare earthly delights). Once thought to be the arbiter of global supplies for these scarce elements, Bejing may have to reconsider precisely who they’re going to blackmail now that US-friendly (for as far as that goes in Asia) Tokyo has their gotten their hand on the rare earth spigot.
Japan finds a huge cache of scarce rare-earth minerals
Japan looks to replace China as the primary source of critical metals
• Enough rare earth minerals have been found off Japan to last centuries
• Rare earths are important materials for green technology, as well as medicine and manufacturing
• Where would we be without all of our rare-earth magnets?
Rare earth elements are a set of 17 metals that are integral to our modern lifestyle and efforts to produce ever-greener technologies. The “rare” designation is a bit of a misnomer: It’s not that they’re not plentiful, but rather that they’re found in small concentrations, and are especially difficult to successfully extract since they blend in with and resemble other minerals in the ground. China currently produces over 90% of the world’s supply of rare metals, with seven other countries mining the rest. So though they’re not precisely “rare,” they are scarce. In 2010, the U.S. Department of energy issued a report that warned of a critical shortage of five of the elements. Now, however, Japan has found a massive deposit of rare earths sufficient to supply the world’s needs for hundred of years.
The rare earth metals can be mostly found in the second row from the bottom in the Table of Elements. According to the Rare Earth Technology Alliance, due to the “unique magnetic, luminescent, and electrochemical properties, these elements help make many technologies perform with reduced weight, reduced emissions, and energy consumption; or give them greater efficiency, performance, miniaturization, speed, durability, and thermal stability.”
In order of atomic number, the rare earths are:
• Scandium or Sc (21) — This is used in TVs and energy-saving lamps.
• Yttrium or Y (39) — Yttrium is important in the medical world, used in cancer drugs, rheumatoid arthritis medications, and surgical supplies. It’s also used in superconductors and lasers.
• Lanthanum or La (57) — Lanthanum finds use in camera/telescope lenses, special optical glasses, and infrared absorbing glass.
• Cerium or Ce (58) — Cerium is found in catalytic converters, and is used for precision glass-polishing. It’s also found in alloys, magnets, electrodes, and carbon-arc lighting.
• Praseodymium or Pr (59) — This is used in magnets and high-strength metals.
• Neodymium or Nd (60) — Many of the magnets around you have neodymium in them: speakers and headphones, microphones, computer storage, and magnets in your car. It’s also found in high-powered industrial and military lasers. The mineral is especially important for green tech. Each Prius motor, for example, requires 2.2 lbs of neodymium, and its battery another 22-33 lbs. Wind turbine batteries require 450 lbs of neodymium per watt.
• Promethium or Pm (61) — This is used in pacemakers, watches, and research.
• Samarium or Sm (62) — This mineral is used in magnets in addition to intravenous cancer radiation treatments and nuclear reactor control rods.
• Europium or Eu (63) — Europium is used in color displays and compact fluorescent light bulbs.
• Gadolinium or Gd (64) — It’s important for nuclear reactor shielding, cancer radiation treatments, as well as x-ray and bone-density diagnostic equipment.
• Terbium or Tb (65) — Terbium has similar uses to Europium, though it’s also soft and thus possesses unique shaping capabilities .
• Dysprosium or Dy (66) — This is added to other rare-earth magnets to help them work at high temperatures. It’s used for computer storage, in nuclear reactors, and in energy-efficient vehicles.
• Holmium or Ho (67) — Holmium is used in nuclear control rods, microwaves, and magnetic flux concentrators.
• Erbium or Er (68) — This is used in fiber-optic communication networks and lasers.
• Thulium or Tm (69) — Thulium is another laser rare earth.
• Ytterbium or Yb (70) — This mineral is used in cancer treatments, in stainless steel, and in seismic detection devices.
• Lutetium or Lu (71) — Lutetium can target certain cancers, and is used in petroleum refining and positron emission tomography.
Where Japan found i[t]s rare earths
Japan located the rare earths about 1,850 kilometers off the shore of Minamitori Island. Engineers located the minerals in 10-meter-deep cores taken from sea floor sediment. Mapping the cores revealed and area of approximately 2,500 square kilometers containing rare earths.
Japan’s engineers estimate there’s 16 million tons of rare earths down there. That’s five times the amount of the rare earth elements ever mined since 1900. According to Business Insider, there’s “enough yttrium to meet the global demand for 780 years, dysprosium for 730 years, europium for 620 years, and terbium for 420 years.”
The bad news, of course, is that Japan has to figure out how to extract the minerals from 6-12 feet under the seabed four miles beneath the ocean surface — that’s the next step for the country’s engineers. The good news is that the location sits squarely within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, so their rights to the lucrative discovery will be undisputed.
Here is a similar-but-different link that provided the following details:
How Are Rare Earths Used?
Rare earths elements are also being used for a growing number of applications. At the forefront of this wave of discovery are new technologies being developed for computer science uses, industrial engineering, renewable energy sciences and military applications.
Here are a few examples of how rare earth elements are being utilized in the world today:
Electronics:
• Television screens, computers, cell phones, silicon chips, monitor displays, long-life rechargeable batteries, camera lenses, light emitting diodes (LEDs), compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), baggage scanners, marine propulsion systems.
Manufacturing:
• High strength magnets, metal alloys, stress gauges, ceramic pigments, colorants in glassware, chemical oxidizing agent, polishing powders, plastics creation, as additives for strengthening other metals, automotive catalytic converters.
Medical Science:
• Portable x-ray machines, x-ray tubes, magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) contrast agents, nuclear medicine imaging, cancer treatment applications, and for genetic screening tests, medical and dental lasers.
Technology:
• Lasers, optical glass, fiber optics, masers, radar detection devices, nuclear fuel rods, mercury-vapor lamps, highly reflective glass, computer memory, nuclear batteries, high temperature superconductors.
Renewable Energy:
• Hybrid automobiles, wind turbines, next generation rechargeable batteries, biofuel catalysts.
Other interesting facts about uses for rare earths:
• The rare earth element europium is being used as a way to identify legitimate bills for the Euro bill supply and to dissuade counterfeiting.
• An estimated 1 kg of rare earth elements can be found inside a typical hybrid automobile.
• Holmium has the highest magnetic strength of any element and is used to create extremely powerful magnets. This application can reduce the weight of many motors.
NR: Communist China’s already fragile (and still-weakening economy) easily could be shaken to its core by Japan’s announcement. Beijing had thought itself positioned to place international high technology markets in a natural resource choke hold. Without even checking, it’s a dead cert that once-rising commodity futures pricing for these minerals (both ore-grade and refined) are
making a sharp u-turncorrecting themselves.This has happened before. Such as in the late 1980’s when related futures markets took a nose dive after Australia announced that prospectors had found a gigantic lode of capacitor-grade (i.e., electronic component quality) tantalum. That it would take years to get the pipeline filled and flowing from this Australian find made not a whit of difference to speculators. For better or worse, their long-term investment profiles very quickly reflected these forecasting changes.
Keeping this in mind, there’s no way the ChiComs can consume these rare earths at the same rate that they had hoped overseas shipments could account for. It would require a several-fold increase in domestic consumption of these materials (and the products that use them) to take up any substantial portion of this looming slack.
NOTE: As mentioned in both articles: Rare earths are not particularly hard to find. It isn’t as if they comprise only microscopic fractions of the Earth’s lithosphere. The word “rare” refers more to how these elements typically are found with vastly larger quantities of companion ores. These minerological associates have similar electrochemical characteristics (e.g., eutectic transition, melt temperature, density, surface tension, reactivity, etc.). The isolation of lanthanides (plus their equally valuable sister elements, scandium and yttrium) entails unforgiving, low-yield chemistries that involve capital-intensive hardware operated with tight process controls—each and all of which pose serious challenges for Communist Chinese metallurgical expertise.
To continue:
MonopolisticallyEconomically providing its own industry with these critical-path materials would mean an astronomically expensive expansion of domestic refining infrastructure. There is certainly no way on this (rare) Earth [giggle] that Red China could afford to export its raw lanthanide ores overseas and then repurchase the subsequently purified product. Prohibitive price increases would tend to make these enabling compounds affordable only for internal military and laboratory applications.In a perverse turn of affairs, persistently sluggish economics means that the
recently fleecedcash-strapped Chinese people can ill afford all of the pricey, high tech gadgetry and thingamabobs that use these rare earths (e.g., an iPhone uses eight different elements from this family). As a consequence, Beijing has just spent a few years (and how many bazillions of yuan?) acting as though it had the corner on this lucrative market.Now, waking up from their boom-time hangover (ghost cities included), what will become of those investments made in the costly extraction and refining equipment? All of which has to be in place before it’s even worthwhile to turn a single new shovelful of ore? One video about Red China’s notorious “ghost cities” mentioned how the metropolis was specially built to house mining labor destined to work a large nearby ore deposit—one that lost its value well before this latest debacle and .
The outlook already is very precarious for the Politburo’s latest Five-Year-Plan. This latest upset of their centrally planned economic applecart will likely be greeted with the same exuberance that spontaneously erupted after Canada’s arrest of Huawei CFO, Wanzhou Meng.
With Trump at America’s helm, setbacks and reversals will become the new “one from column A and one from column B” for the Middle Kingdom. Much like how the Oval Office has given Mexico its own guided tour of the immigration woodshed, Western nations will be treated to the hilarious spectacle of Maotown’s Mandarins wrinkling up their noses at the odoriferous alternatives that confront them. Hard choices and, quite possibly, even harder times—curiously similar to those that they’ve inflicted upon others so thoughtlessly over the past several decades—may well await the Mainland.
This goes double in that Communist China had hoped to export the refined products at premium prices but, instead, now finds itself being herded into (for them) the nauseatingly open and highly competitive international marketplace.
CODA: Buried deep in the second citation is passing reference to a world-changing technology (enabled by rare earth elements).
Anyone who has followed johnnyu’s concerned posts and exchanges with me about driverless cars probaby know by now that autonomous vehicles are just the camel’s nose in terms of cyberspace’s mushrooming intrusion into daily life. The IoT (AKA the Internet of Things or “Big Brother’s wet dream”) presents some of the most immediate and ominous prospects on the digital horizon.
Doing my usual thinking-while-typing, it just occurred to me that even the incredible world-changing technology I’m about to report on has (as usual) an incredibly dark side to it.
This juvenile field is that of high temperature superconductors. Usually operational only at near-absolute zero conditions, even reliably obtaining this electrical effect with liquid nitrogen’s magmatic 77° K (-321 F or -196 C) at STP (Standard conditions for Temperature and Pressure)—as opposed to astronomically expensive near-zero K He2 or H2—would hit a significant break-even point for economy of scale.
The Holy Grail of this super-science is a room temperature superconductor. Imagine having a rotary electrical generator the size of an automobile’s alternator—attached to a low-speed vertical wind turbine or 12″ to 24″ diameter paddle wheel dipped into a fast-running nearby stream—that powers your entire off-grid family sized, two bathroom cabin.
Running the refrigerator, stove, heater, laundry, and microwave [gasp!] all at the same time? Why not flip on the hair dryer or flash water heater while you’re at it? You might still end up charging your batteries with some of the excess current.
The dark side? Almost any generator can become a motor. As in: Extremely powerful, high-torque, subminiature linear and rotary drivers are just the ticket for exceptionally compact, lightweight, power efficient, dexterous, agile, and strong combat ruggedized robots. Like, maybe, the ones military planners are salivating over in their
sleepfuturistic war gaming analyses.The advent of room temperature superconducting devices could enable distributed electrical generation (via wind turbine, tidal or hydro flow, and animal or pedal-powered variants) in the world’s most remote and inaccessible areas. A feature that not even future payback models of fusion-based electrical generation can provide. Deep cycling power supplies for disaster relief and emergency lighting would be child’s play.
Oh, and those electric driverless cars? They’d lose almost half-or-more of their battery and motor weights. Again, this is one of those, “she’s gotta have it” solutions that cannot be prevented from reaching the marketplace. Solar powered electric passenger planes, anyone?
This is good news for us, it means that China knows we are now free to do what we want knowing we will still get the mineral resources we need to keep growing.
As you pointed out it will damage China’s economy and long term plans, Xi needs to start rethinking his plans for the South China Sea and the neighboring countries. The US and Japan are now in the position of not needing much of what China has to sell and we can safely ignore China and cut off all purchases and sales to China. The threats of military action were suppose to scare the US manufactures because of the strangle hold on the rare earths that China held. Now China is in the position of knowing that unless they start tossing nukes they will last 6 months at most fighting the US and our Oriental allies. They also know that if they start throwing nukes at us we will throw them at China and that 90% of China’s population is in 6 big cities. This means that if they start throwing nukes China will lose 90% of its population (about 1/7th of the worlds population) I don’t know how many of the Chinese missiles would get through our missile defense but at a rough guess we would lose one quarter of our population or less. We would be hurt but survive, China would be fatally wounded.
Communist China’s over-concentrated population centers are a major liability. They cannot even be evacuated in an orderly fashion.
I guess all of the soldiers were undergoing political reeducation when their regular class went through the chapter on clustering up.
Maybe this is a bit off-topic. Personally I think it’s a sign of the times, fits the whole outrage culture, “healthy at any size” delusions and trans-(gender, race, age) mania.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/08/french-author-defends-remarks-about-women-over-50-yann-moix
The French author and television presenter who claimed he could not love any woman over the age of 50 has said he has no regrets over his remarks that caused widespread outrage.
[..]
In the radio interview, he suggested it was important to face up to certain truths even if they caused offence. “We’re living in a society where it’s hard to be an individual. We have to always represent the universal citizen … someone who displeases nobody,” he said.
Why be offended by his personal taste?
When his mother was fifty – dad had her replaced.
And now he’s his mother and can’t face the disgrace.
No women at fifty, for the whole human race.
The book, The Moral Animal, is in its entirety about this issue.
As time goes by the Western, Judeo-Christian model for the family is clearly seems to be the most compassionate. Ultimately it boils down to loss of immediate gratification for long term personal and societal benefit.
Leftism promises immediate gratification and gives death instead. Islam promises death then makes you glad for it.
The Moral Animal though, quite the interesting read. Some chapters worth multiple reads. (I use Audible audio books so easier to repeat chapters) and whether you agree with it or not, or its approach, its excellent food for thought on many levels.
Much like The Blank Slate by Pinker.
This is where, why and how Islam MURDERED my mate
Uproar as Islamists Reportedly Spotted at Muslim Meeting in Cologne, Germany (sptuniknews, Jan 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201901081071298986-germany-muslim-islamists-uproar/
“Leading representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood, regarded as an Islamist and even terrorist organization in some countries, have reportedly attended a recent conference in Cologne, dedicated to the future of European Muslims. The event’s organisers have insisted it is important to stay in contact with all “socially relevant groups”.
The Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), that organised the II Meeting of European Muslims in the recently opened central mosque in Cologne (the biggest one in Germany), is under fire in Germany over reports about the Muslim Brotherhood* participating in the gathering.
As the newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported, members of the Egyptian-founded organisation, attended the event along with about a hundred guests, who gathered to discuss the future of Muslims in Europe. The regional Interior Minister in North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed that two participants were identified as ones linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Office for the Protection of the Constitution closely monitors.
Politicians from both the Christian Democrat Union and the Social Democrats have strongly criticised the organisers for cooperating with religious radicals. The head of the city district, where the event took place, also lambasted the DITIB, condemned earlier for receiving support from Turkey’s governmental body of religious affairs Diyanet. Josef Wirges (SPD) told the German broadcaster ARD that he had not been informed about the three-day congress.
“That was not right, and that also annoys me”, he said.
At the same time, the DITIB’s spokesman told the German press agency that it was important to stay in contact with all “socially relevant groups”. Although in the final statement the DITIB mentioned terrorist organisations that abuse Islamic teachings, there was no reference to the Muslim Brotherhood. Additionally, it expressed concern over physical manifestations of Islamophobia.
The security authorities in Germany are warning about a growing number of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, topping 1,000, with 109 radical prayer houses, 50 Islamic centres and the central office “Islamic Community in Germany e.V.” (IGD), located in Cologne. In an interview with the German outlet Focus, head of the regional office for the constitutional protection Burkhard Freier noted that the danger posed by the Muslim Brotherhood is much greater than by Salafists.
“Despite assurances, the IGD and the network of co-operators pursue one goal above all: the establishment of Islamic states of God, eventually in Germany as well”, he said
Since its founding in Egypt in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has fledged into a pan-Islamic organisation with over a million worldwide members in 70 countries. It is regarded as a terrorist organisation in many countries, including Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In Sweden, the MB has been active since the late 1970s.
* The Muslim Brotherhood (sometimes referred to as the Society of the Muslim Brothers) is an extremist organisation banned in Russia.”
The event’s organisers have insisted it is important to stay in contact with all “socially relevant groups”.
To hell with DITIB’s contrived little fig leaf called, “Meeting of European Muslims”. They and everyone else in that Cologne mega-mosque can screw their “socially relevant” terrorist groups (prayer positions catchers!) and the
camelsgoats theylike humpingrode in on.We don’t need no scumbag “socially relevant” jihadist da’wah and we most certainly don’t gotta show no steenkin’
badgestolerance for the Muslim Brotherhood!German Authorities Probe Two Separate Cases of Citizens Vanishing in Egypt (sputniknews, Jan 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201901081071298745-egypt-germany-men-disappearance/
“Shortly after a family lost contact with an 18-year-old man who disappeared in the North African state, a 23-year-old was reportedly detained by authorities upon his arrival. The German government has for several days been trying to uncover the fate of the two travellers, who also reportedly had Egyptian passports.
The German Foreign Ministry stated that they take “very seriously” the disappearance of two Germans who recently went missing in Egypt. The German Embassy in Cairo is in contact with local authorities, pressing to clarify the details.
“There are two separate cases of German citizens who have been reported missing. We have been dealing with them for a few days now and we are taking both cases very seriously”, a ministry spokesman said.
According to the German news agency DPA, contact was first lost with an 18-year-old teenager from Giessen who wanted to enter the country via Luxor on 17 December to visit his grandfather in Cairo, before taking a domestic flight to the Egyptian capital.
“It has been three weeks and there is no trace. Nobody knows if he is still alive”, his father revealed.
10 days later, a 23-year-old German who flew Cairo with his brother was detained by authorities at the airport. His mother said that only his sibling was allowed to enter. There has been no information about him since then, although the media reports, citing sources on the ground, that he might currently be kept in “the headquarters of the intelligence agency”.
The missing men both have a German mother and an Egyptian father, reportedly having German and Egyptian citezenships.”
Turkey Reportedly to Ask US to Hand Over Military Bases in Syria (sputniknews, Jan 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201901081071294813-turkey-us-bases-syria-handover/
“White House National Security Adviser John Bolton earlier arrived in the Turkish capital of Ankara to hold talks with senior Turkish officials on US troop withdrawal from Syria, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the pull-out as “the right call”.
Turkey will ask US officials to hand over its military bases in Syria to Ankara or destroy them, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported. “Give them or destroy them”, the publication’s headline read, referring to what it said were 22 US military bases in the Syrian Arab Republic.
The newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying that Turkey would not accept Washington handing them over to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey…”
Two masked thugs throw woman to the ground in terrifying carjacking attempt at petrol station before staff armed with BROOMS chase them off (dailymail, Jan 8, 2019)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6568721/Two-hooded-men-drag-terrified-woman-away-car-petrol-station.html
NYC Mayor Guarantees Comprehensive Health Care for All in Historic Surprise Announcement
It’s not health insurance; it’s the city paying for direct comprehensive care for those who can’t afford it or are undocumented, a spokesman said
New York City will begin guaranteeing comprehensive health care to every single resident regardless of someone’s ability to pay or immigration status, an unprecedented plan that will protect the more than half-a-million New Yorkers currently using the ER as a primary provider, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
It’s not health insurance, his spokesman clarified after the surprise announcement on MSNBC Tuesday morning.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NYC-Health-Care-Guarantee-Mayor-de-Blasio-504046171.html
“It’s not health insurance; it’s the city paying for direct comprehensive care for those who can’t afford it or are undocumented, a spokesman said”
What could possibly go wrong?
Ginsburg misses second day in a row at Supreme Court
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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was absent from the Supreme Court bench for the second day in a row on Tuesday.
Chief Justice John Roberts noted Ginsburg’s absence when the justices took their seats for the second time in the new year.
Repeating what he said Monday, Roberts said Ginsburg is “unable to be present” for the court’s sitting, but will participate in the decisions using transcripts of the arguments and court briefs.
Ginsburg, who was forced to miss her first oral argument in more than 25 years on Monday, is still recuperating at home after surgery to remove two cancerous nodules from the lower lobe of her left lung on Dec. 21.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/424287-ginsburg-misses-second-day-in-a-row-at-supreme-court
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s failing health has spawned a weird cult-like phenomenon
By Howard Portnoy January 8, 2019
As was noted in this space last July, liberals have become so obsessed with prolonging the life of ailing Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that some have volunteered their bodily organs should the need arise. The motivation behind these seeming acts of largesse is not so much a devotion to the 85-year-old Ginsburg or her far-left ideals is at is a desire to prevent the “evil” Donald Trump from nominating her replacement.
Unless Trump is impeached, which is highly unlikely, the prospect of a third Trump appointment is very real. Yesterday Ginsburg missed her first oral arguments ever since being appointed to the bench — a necessity occasioned by a fall in November in which she fractured two ribs.
Questions about the octogenarian’s declining health have led some on the Left to grow impatient with her for refusing to have the foresight to retire when Barack Obama was still president and could have named her successor. In a rather hard-hearted piece in Mother Jones, reporter Stephanie Mencimer was brutally candid about Ginsburg’s condition, writing:
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/01/08/concerns-over-ruth-bader-ginsburgs-failing-health-have-spawned-a-weird-cult-like-phenomenon/
China has launched a massive campaign of cultural extermination against the Uighurs
IN AN attempt to defend the gulag in which it has imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, China has tried to rebrand concentration camps as centers for “vocational training.” The goal, as a state television broadcast put it, is to “rescue ignorant, backward and poor rural minorities.” That description encapsulates the gross bigotry with which Chinese authorities view the Uighurs, against whom they have launched a massive campaign of cultural extermination.
But accept for a moment Beijing’s description of the camps’ purpose. How, then, to explain the fact that not just “ignorant” peasants but also scores of the most prominent Uighur intellectuals have been sent to them? Are poets, professors, scientists and journalists living in Xinjiang also in need of vocational training?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/china-has-launched-a-massive-campaign-of-cultural-extermination-against-the-uighurs/2019/01/07/efe03c9c-12a4-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3a2e9427eb91
Two men ‘shouted “be a good woman” as they raped drunk reveller they lured into car with promise of a lift home after she lost her friend and ran out of phone charge during night out’ (dailymail, jan 8, 2019)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6568619/Two-men-raped-drunk-reveller-car-night-out.html
“Two men prowled a city centre looking for drunk and vulnerable victims to sexually assault before raping a woman in a car, a court heard.
Najirul Miah, 20, and Syed Ahmed, 21, were parked outside a takeaway in Sunderland when the alleged victim asked for a lift, believing they were in an unlicensed taxi.
When she offered to pay them to take her home the pair drove her to a deserted street where they took it in turns to rape her in the back of the car, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Prosecutors say driver Ahmed and passenger Miah were loitering in the area to ‘deliberately target drunk and vulnerable women in order to take advantage of their vulnerability and commit sexual offences on them.’
Prosecutor Paul Cleasby told the court the woman became separated from a friend after a night out in the early hours of April 10, 2016.
Her phone ran out of battery and she was unable to find a taxi, the court heard.
Mr Cleasby said: ‘Had she been sober, she would, of course, have had second thoughts about approaching this vehicle but she was affected by alcohol and wasn’t thinking straight.
‘The prosecution say she was in a particularly vulnerable state and the defendants, who were the occupants of the silver vehicle, would have recognised her vulnerability immediately.
‘It is the prosecution case that those defendants had, in fact, parked at that location in order to target drunk and vulnerable women, in order to take advantage of their vulnerability and commit sexual offences upon them.’
The court heard once the woman was in the back of the car, she was driven in the opposite direction of her home and ‘quickly realised something was wrong.’
Mr Cleasby said the men demanded more money than the woman had and she handed over her bag to them.
He added: ‘She thought to herself, she was in trouble here. The situation she was in was dangerous.’
During the rape, she ‘tried to block out what was happening to her’, and was ordered by the men to ‘be a good woman’ and told ‘you’ve got to do this’.
When both men had finished, the woman was dragged out of the car and abandoned at the roadside.
Mr Cleasby added: ‘The defendants, both having raped her, left her on the ground and they drove off, leaving her in the secluded area, miles from her home.’
The court heard the men kept the victim’s handbag, which they ‘callously’ discarded.
The woman knocked on a number of doors before one was answered and she told the occupant she had been raped and robbed.
Ahmed, from Sunderland, denies rape, false imprisonment and theft of the complainant’s belongings.
Miah, also from Sunderland, denies three counts of rape, a sexual assault and false imprisonment. He admitted theft.
During police interviews, the men claimed the woman had offered to do sexual acts in return for being taken home. The trial continues.”
Chinese Scientist Who Created CRISPR Babies Could Face the Death Penalty, Fellow Geneticist Warns
A British geneticist is worried that He Jiankui—the Chinese scientist responsible for the birth of genetically modified human twins—could face the death penalty for corruption and bribery charges.
When He Jiankui went missing back in early December, we suspected big trouble ahead for the rogue scientist, but as Sarah Knapton reports in the Telegraph, his predicament is even worse than we thought.
The embattled scientist is reportedly living under armed guard at a state-owned apartment in Shenzhen, China, according to geneticist Robin Lovell-Badge of the Francis Crick Institute in London, who now worries that He could face the death penalty for his indiscretions.
https://gizmodo.com/chinese-scientist-who-created-crispr-babies-could-face-1831553751
Chinese Scientist Who Created CRISPR Babies Could Face the Death Penalty, Fellow Geneticist Warns
Much like a lot of for-profit GMO work, the human race’s long term survival does not hinge on genetically edited or (worse yet) “designer babies”. Due to enormous downside ripple effects, illicit and unsupervised modification of the human genome might best be met with capital punishment.
The scientist in me rebels against headlong deployment of stubbornly unpredictable technologies. For that reason, my near-automatic reaction about this was: “Let that be a warning to you all!”
Captured Islamic State Jihadist ‘Entitled to Consular Assistance’ from Ireland (breitbart, Jan 7, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/07/captured-irish-isis-militant-entitled-consular-assistance/
“A suspected Islamic State fighter who was captured by Kurdish forces is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland who was known to Irish police.
According to reports, the 45-year-old male is originally from Belarus but gained Irish citizenship after having lived and worked in Dublin for a number of years.
Named by the Irish Independent as Alexandr Ruzmatovich Bekmirzaev, it is believed that he left for the Middle East in 2013.
Irish taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar told media on Monday, “I’ve only heard about that in the last short while.
“The information we have is that an Irish citizen has been taken into custody in Syria.
“We don’t know the details of that so I can’t comment on it in any detail, but what I can say is that any Irish citizen around the world is entitled to consular assistance and will get that.”
Broadcaster RTÉ reported Sunday night that Garda sources said that the suspected captured militant was known to the Irish police, the Gardaí, in the context of monitoring individuals suspected of being sympathetic to radical causes…”
German Populist Party Chairman Hospitalised in ‘Assassination’ Attempt (breitbart, Jan 8, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/08/german-populist-party-chairman-hospitalised-in-assassination-attempt/
“German member of parliament for the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) Frank Magnitz was brutally attacked Monday evening in what some are labelling an assassination attempt.
Mr Magnitz, who sits in the German parliament and acts as state chairman of the of the Bremen branch of the AfD, was set upon by several unknown individuals after leaving the theatre at the Goetheplatz according to a post which was shared on the AfD Bremen Facebook page.
The post claimed that Magnitz had been hit with some sort of blunt object and that if it had not been for the intervention of a bystander he may not have escaped the situation alive. He was taken to a local hospital soon after the attack with the AfD claiming that the police were investigating the matter as an act of politically-motivated violence.
“Not only the left but also the Social Democrats and the Greens support Antifa and their attacks. Is that what the other political forces want? Is that your understanding of democracy? Again, the AfD is the focus for left attacks that are not condemned or are even supported by the other parties,” the post read.
“Today is a black day for democracy in Germany.”
The brutal attack comes less than a week after an office belonging to the AfD in the city of Döbeln was bombed in what is also believed by the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) to have been a politically motivated attack.
The AfD say they keep track of attacks against their officers, members, and their homes, and gave statistics to Breitbart London which showed that attacks have risen from only four in 2014 to well over 600 in 2017.
Alt-left extremist Antifa violence has also become more violent and more pronounced in Germany over the last several years, with members of the extremist organisation releasing terror manuals encouraging attacks on the AfD.
A report released by the German domestic intelligence agency BfV last June confirmed the rise in far-left violence by showing the number of violent crimes to have increased 88 percent from 2012 to 2017.”
“Again, the AfD is the focus for left attacks that are not condemned or are even supported by the other parties,” the post read.”
How soon they forget that ancient saw about sauce for the goose…
(Yes, it’s all about the food, all the time.)
Scientists Patch Photosynthesis Glitch to Make Plants Grow 40 Percent Larger
NR: This is a relatively honorable example of a potentially positive GMO (Genetically Modified Organism). Unlike Monsanto’s horrific Roundup Ready™ socially-disembedded agricultural freak show (e.g., farm eradication of milkweed host plants driving Monarch butterfly extinction), there are possibly beneficial applications of GMO technology.
An early and much-vaunted (and perpetually controversial) example was Golden Rice (link from 2013). This provitamin A (beta carotene) enhanced strain of common Oryza sativa addresses a nutritional deficiency that’s estimated to kill well over half-a-million preschool children annually and causes a similar number of cases of irreversible childhood blindness. Early post-weaning nutritional deficiencies of this one nutrient can have lifetime aftereffects whereas a single bowl of Golden Rice could provide sixty percent of a child’s A vitamin RDA (Required Daily Amount).
A flipside to this being “yield droop” where the inserted gene cassette of daffodil chromosomes interfere with the rice plant’s basic metabolic functions and consumable yield. In worst-case examples, the GMO field tests displayed “genetic drift”, where subsequent crop generations exhibited counterproductive mutations (e.g., stunted adult growth, impaired disease resistance, poor seed formation).
While I remain convinced that nowhere near enough properly contained, isolated and controlled testing is happening, this should not entirely discredit what is otherwise a promising approach. That said, genetically modified crops have unique and risky characteristics. For instance, once released into the wild, the pollen of GMO strains cannot be “recalled”.
At the very least, this latest effort at modifying the photorespiration characteristics (see first link) of food-stock crops represents an encouraging avenue towards ensuring stabilized or even increased harvests in changing climate conditions.
Now for the mind-bender. During my college lectures about the history of renewable energy I met an exceptionally bright young student team that was examining the redirection (via enhanced carbon conduction) of underutilized plant energy absorption over to electrical power generation.
Although their theoretical approach did not employ GMO technology, nonetheless, it easily might benefit from such investigative avenues. Imaging planting and propagating your own vegetal solar panels that could “heal themselves” (i.e., regrow damaged leaves). Now, consider the possibilities if these plants also furnished food or some other vital environmental function (e.g., the capillary action of some Australian eucalypts is so pronounced that they were used to drain swamps).
Just as with high temperature superconductors and autonomous vehicles, GMO technology (like almost all others) has its dark side as well. I’ll toss off a quick challenge for anyone to name any single technology without a dual use. To date, I’ve only been able to think of one and its designed application is not positive in the least.
For more scientific background, please see: Disembedding grain: Golden Rice, the Green Revolution, and heirloom seeds in the Philippines (PDF–2016)
Very interesting NR!
Thank you, Johnnyu. I hope you enjoyed the rare earth articles as well.
Repairing this photosynthetic glitch is a prime example of giving Mother Nature a helping hand instead of elbowing it out with chimeric time-bombs that pose as many problems as they solve.
The rare earths brouhaha is an excellent object lesson as to how badly predatory marketing plans can backfire on free market poachers. Beijing tipped its hand about monopolizing a strategic global market and, wittingly or not, served the outside world due notice of its bad intentions.
Court Hears Mohammed Abdul Told Bouncers ‘I’ll Kill You Guys’, Drove Into Club Dancefloor (breitbart, Jan 8, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/08/clubber-drove-suv-dancefloor-nightclub-bouncers-kill-you/
“Mohammed Abdul drove onto an outdoor dancefloor, hitting clubbers, after allegedly telling bouncers he was going to “shut this place down and kill you guys”, Maidstone Crown Court has heard.
Mr Abdul appeared before the court Monday facing charges including attempted murder, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH), and GBH, reports KentOnline.
The jury heard that Abdul, 21, had been ejected from the Blake nightclub on Queen Street, Gravesend, on March 17th, 2018, for being drunk.
After being thrown out, he allegedly told one of the doormen, “I am going to shut you down tonight.”
Doorman Peter Muro told police he had threatened, “If I can’t come in I’m going to come back and shut this place down and kill you guys.”
The court heard that around 10 minutes later, Mr Abdul had returned, driving his Suzuki Vitara down an alley along the side of the nightclub where he then allegedly shouted, “I told you I’d be back.”
Prosecutor Simon Taylor said that a bouncer tried to stop him but Mr Abdul drove on, heading towards a marquee housing an outdoor dancefloor and DJ unit.
He was said to have stopped for nine seconds, “no doubt to make a final decision about what he was going to do,” Mr Taylor said, before driving into the marquee at speed, hitting a number of people.
“He travelled for a distance of around five to 10 metres and gave the customers and staff, who were in his way, no time to react at all,” Mr Taylor said.
“Some of the occupants of the marquee were hit by the car and thrown onto the bonnet and then onto the floor,” he added.
The court then heard that the south-east London resident had reversed before being pulled from the vehicle by staff and clientele.
The jury was shown footage of Mr Abdul leaving the club after being ejected, going to his car, and driving into the marquee.
The prosecution told jurors that the defendant had used his car as a “weapon,” saying: “The manner in which the defendant drove was not short in either duration or distance. It was a determined and indiscriminate effort to cause death to those people present.
“Mercifully — and no thanks to the defendant — death was not caused, but serious injury was.”
“This case has been investigated and the Crown make it clear there is no terrorist element to the defendant’s action. The motivation was revenge and anger at being ejected from the club,” Mr Taylor added.
Mr Abdul denies two charges of attempted murder, one charge of attemping to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, and two charges of causing GBH with intent. The trial continues.”
Greek Priest Beaten by Syrian Migrants in Front of His Own Church (breitbart, Jan 8, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/08/greek-priest-beaten-syrian-asylum-seekers-church/
“A Greek Orthodox priest was beaten by a pair of Syrian asylum seekers in front of his own church.
The priest observed the migrants parking their motorcycles in the courtyard of the sanctuary of St. Nicholas in Patisia, a neighbourhood in Athens, on Friday afternoon, and went to confront them, newspaper Proto Thema reports.
After a heated exchange of words, the pair is said to have punched the priest and then fled. Police initially arrested two suspects and questioned them at the Agios Panteleimonas police station but let them go due to a lack of evidence.
Not long after the initial suspects were released, the perpetrators came to the police station and surrendered to the authorities.
The attack comes only months after the destruction of a stone cross in Lesbos which pro-migrant left-wing NGOs had previously demanded be removed, claiming that the cross promoted “hate” against migrants on the island, which hosts a large migrant camp…”
Mother Kicked Out of British Pub for ‘Transphobic’ T-Shirt (breitbart, Jan 8, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/08/mother-barred-pub-transphobic-t-shirt/
“A British mother was kicked out of her local pub after a complaint that her T-shirt emblazoned with the dictionary definition of ‘woman’ was offensive to transgender people. “
Italian Archbishop Blasts Salvini, Urges Civil Disobedience in Rescuing Migrants (breitbart, Jan 8, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2019/01/08/italian-archbishop-blasts-salvini-urges-civil-disobedience-in-rescuing-migrants/
“The archbishop of Chieti has joined the growing ranks of Catholic prelates voicing public opposition to the immigration policies of interior minister Matteo Salvini.
Rescuing migrants is not something optional but a “moral imperative,” said Archbishop Bruno Forte in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera Sunday, in reference to the 49 African migrants currently on board two vessels belonging to German NGOs.
“Alarmism and talk of an invasion are propagandistic lies that are harmful to everyone, except to those who use them for electoral advantages,” the archbishop said in reference to the interior minister’s frequent allusions to Italy’s migrant crisis.
Moreover, Forte said, “Minister Salvini should not start giving magisterial lessons; we have the pope for that and he does it very well and clearly. If you want to be a Catholic, listen to the pope.”
“The Minister of the Interior has important responsibilities, and he should talk about things he is competent in,” he said.
Ethically speaking, the archbishop said, “if something contrary to my conscience is imposed on me, such as refusing help to whole families at the mercy of the sea for days, conscientious objection is justified.”
In point of fact, Italy’s tightened border controls significantly reduced migrant sea deaths in the Mediterranean during 2018, as Italian media reported this past weekend.
According to the United Nations immigration department (UNHCR), there were a total of 2,269 migrant sea deaths in the Mediterranean during 2018, down from 3,139 in 2017 and 5,096 in 2016, when migration across the Mediterranean to Europe was at its peak.
According to a series of surveys last summer, many practicing Catholics prefer the immigration policies of Italian Minister Matteo Salvini to those of Pope Francis…”
LEFT FOR DEAD German far-right leader severely injured after being beaten in ‘assassination attempt’
AfD party chairman Frank Magnitz was left with a gaping head wound after being knocked unconscious by three attackers in Frankfurt
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8142936/german-far-right-leader-severely-injured-after-being-beaten-in-assassination-attempt/
Video at site
WSJ: Gun Ownership on Rise in Europe After Terror Attacks, Sexual Assaults (breitbart, Jan 8, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/08/wsj-gun-ownership-rise-europe-terror-attacks-sexual-assault/
“Personal weapons ownership is on the rise in Europe in response to mass sexual assaults and radical Islamic terror attacks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
While the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey found that a rise in personal firearms ownership on the continent represents only 10 per cent of the 32 percent global rise in the decade to 2017, the WSJ remarks that “Europe’s shift has been rapid”.
The Times of London notes that Finland, Austria, Norway, Germany, and France are now in the top 25 nations in the world for civilian gun ownership, with France having 12.7 million weapons — more than Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
All of those Western and Nordic European countries took in a high number of Middle Easterners during the migrant crisis after German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the EU’s borders in 2015, resulting in a series of high-profile terror attacks and mass sexual assaults by migrants and EU nationals of migrant background using the chaos of borderless Europe to travel to and from war zones in the Muslim world.
WSJ spoke to 26-year-old Berlin resident Carolin Matthie who decided to apply for a small firearms licence following the Cologne 2015/16 New Year’s sex attacks, where migrants and men of migrant background raped or sexually assaulted 1,000 women celebrating in Colognes cathedral square and central railway station.
Media referred to the phenomenon as “taharrush gamea” — collective sexual assault in crowds first documented in Arab countries over a decade ago, and notably employed in Egypt during demonstrations as a misogynistic weapon against female protesters.
Ms Mattie said, “If I don’t do it now, I will have to wait maybe another half year” and obtained an airgun which she is allowed the carry with her. The young woman has gone on to apply for another permit for a higher-powered weapon and advocates for personally-armed self-defence.
Breitbart London reported in December that the number of licences in Germany for ‘non-lethal’ weapons (i.e., flare guns and alarm pistols) had more than doubled since the migrant crisis.
Belgium has seen a similar rise, almost doubling since the November 2015 terror attack in Paris and the Brussels bombings in March 2016, representing “a clear indication of why people acquired them,” according to Nils Duquet of the Flemish Peace Institute.
Personal gun ownership laws have been progressively tightened since 2006 in Belgium, where now a potential gun owner must undergo psychological evaluation and a year of theory and shooting tests.
Brussels shooting range owner Sébastien de Thomaz noted that “With each terror attack, the legislation gets stricter,” making it harder for law-abiding citizens to own firearms.
“For the black market, everything stays the same,” he added dryly.
The report adds that two-thirds of the weapons market is illegal, with many of the firearms coming from the former Yugoslavia. The Small Arms Survey finding that Europe’s unregistered weapons outnumber legal arms 44.5 million to 34.2 million.”
Facing chants of ‘Nazi’ and ‘scum’, UK lawmakers ask police to act over Brexit abuse
LONDON (Reuters) – British lawmakers called on the police on Tuesday to do more to tackle intimidation of politicians and journalists outside parliament after protesters shouted verbal abuse at a prominent pro-EU Conservative during live television interviews.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-abuse/facing-chants-of-nazi-and-scum-uk-lawmakers-ask-police-to-act-over-brexit-abuse-idUSKCN1P218F
NGOs appeal to EU to take in migrants stuck on their boats (abcnews, Jan 8, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ngos-appeal-eu-migrants-stuck-boats-60227613
“German humanitarian groups Sea-Watch and Sea-Eye are appealing to European Union countries to take in 49 migrants stuck on their ships since their rescue in the Mediterranean in December, warning their health is deteriorating.
The two groups told reporters Tuesday in Berlin they have had to ration drinking water and that some migrants had trouble eating due to illness.
Sea Watch member Erik Marquardt asked: “Do people need to die before a solution is found?”
Sea-Watch rescued 32 migrants from a smugglers’ boat in the Mediterranean Dec. 22 within sight of Malta. Seventeen others were saved by Sea-Eye on Dec. 29 and they also are awaiting permission to disembark.
Malta won’t allow disembarkation until deals are reached to distribute the 49 among fellow EU nations.”
Top Republicans demanding update on probe into FBI, Dept. of Justice surveillance abuse
Top House Republicans are demanding answers from an attorney, who’s looking into allegations of surveillance abuse at the Department of Justice and the FBI.
On Monday, GOP lawmakers on two House committees sent a letter to U.S. attorney John Huber asking for an update on the nine month probe regarding claims of abuse when the two agencies obtained warrants to spy on the Trump campaign.
https://www.oann.com/top-republicans-demanding-update-on-probe-into-fbi-dept-of-justice-surveillance-abuse/
Exclusive: New documents link Huawei to suspected front companies in Iran, Syria
LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) – The U.S. case against the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, who was arrested in Canada last month, centers on the company’s suspected ties to two obscure companies. One is a telecom equipment seller that operated in Tehran; the other is that firm’s owner, a holding company registered in Mauritius.
U.S. authorities allege CFO Meng Wanzhou deceived international banks into clearing transactions with Iran by claiming the two companies were independent of Huawei, when in fact Huawei controlled them. Huawei has maintained the two are independent: equipment seller Skycom Tech Co Ltd and shell company Canicula Holdings Ltd.
https://www.oann.com/exclusive-new-documents-link-huawei-to-suspected-front-companies-in-iran-syria/
India’s lower house passes citizenship bill despite protests (abcnews, Jan 8, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/citizenship-bill-protest-shuts-indias-northeast-60227376
“India’s lower house of Parliament approved a bill Tuesday that would grant residency and citizenship rights to non-Muslims who entered India illegally, allegedly after fleeing persecution in several neighboring nations, despite protests against the legislation in the populous northeast that brought the region to a near standstill.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh of the ruling Bharitiya Janata Party denied that the Citizenship Amendment bill which he introduced was discriminatory. It would grant rights to Hindus, Jains, Parsi and several other non-Muslim religious groups who migrated illegally from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The bill would provide an exemption to these groups from an Indian law which prohibits naturalization for illegal immigrants.
The initiative is the latest in a BJP campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of general elections set to take place early this year promoting India as a sanctuary for persecuted Hindus globally.
Protesters in Assam set up blockades with burning tires and vandalized two BJP offices, disrupting traffic and business from early in the morning to late afternoon.
Assam police spokesman Mukesh Agarwal said more than 700 demonstrators were arrested. Police used tear gas to disperse crowds.
Protest organizer Samujjal Bhattacharya, a leader of the All Assam Students Union, said the legislation would confer citizenship on the basis of religion, violating India’s secular constitution. He also said that providing residency and citizenship rights to migrants from Bangladesh, with which Assam state shares a long open border, would threaten indigenous communities.
“Already, we have a whole lot of Muslim migrants from Bangladesh who entered Assam illegally over the years. Now, the government is trying to make a law seeking to confer citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh. We want all illegal migrants to be detected and deported, irrespective of their religion,” Bhattacharya said.
The issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh has spurred periodic public uprisings in Assam since the Indian government granted rights to Bangladeshis who entered the country after winning independence from Pakistan in a 1971 war.
The bill is unlikely to pass the upper house of Parliament, which isn’t controlled by the ruling party. However, if it isn’t passed, the government could pass an ordinance that wouldn’t require lawmakers’ approval.
BJP’s alliance partner in Assam, the Asom Gana Parishad or Assam People’s Party, quit the coalition government on Tuesday to protest the bill.
“We have always opposed the entry and presence of illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Our party was formed in 1985 with this promise of freeing Assam from illegal migrants from Bangladesh. We therefore cannot remain an ally of the BJP after this move by the Modi government,” AGP president Atul Bora said.”
US says airstrikes in Somalia kill 4 al-Shabab extremists (abcnews, Jan 8, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-airstrikes-somalia-kill-al-shabab-extremists-60229400
“The United States military says it has carried out two airstrikes in Somalia that killed four al-Shabab extremists.
The U.S. Africa Command statement on Tuesday says Monday’s airstrikes were in the vicinity of Baqdaad after the military’s Somali partners “were engaged by al-Shabab militants.” It does not say whether any of the partners were killed.
Another U.S. airstrike on Sunday killed six al-Shabab members near Dheerow Sanle in Lower Shabelle region.
The U.S. military says no civilians were injured or killed in any of these airstrikes.
The U.S. carried out at least 47 such airstrikes last year in the Horn of Africa nation.
The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab continues to control large parts of Somalia’s southern and central regions and carry out deadly bombings against high-profile targets in the capital, Mogadishu.”
EU puts Iranian intel agency on blacklist over foiled plots (abcnews, Jan 8, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/eu-puts-iranian-intel-agency-blacklist-foiled-plots-60226843
“The European Union is putting an Iranian intelligence service and two senior officials on its terror list over suspicions that they have been involved in assassinations and plots to kill opposition activists in Denmark, France and the Netherlands, Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said Tuesday.
Ministers from the 28-nation bloc’s governments “agreed to enact sanctions” at a meeting in Brussels in what Samuelsen said is a “strong signal from the EU that we will not accept such behavior.” A freeze on their funds and assets will take effect on Wednesday once their names are published in the EU’s official journal.
Samuelsen said Denmark had worked with France to put the Direction of Internal Security at Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and its chief Saeid Hashemi Moghadam on the list, adding that the aim is “to create a resolute and robust European foreign policy; that we respond clearly and significantly when our borders are crossed.”
The Dutch government said that, based on information collected by its General Intelligence and Security Service, “the Netherlands considers it probable that Iran had a hand in the preparation or commission of assassinations and attacks on EU territory,” including the killing of two Dutch nationals of Iranian origin in the cities of Almere in 2015 and in The Hague in 2017. Iran has denied involvement.
Paris alleges that Tehran’s intelligence internal security section is linked to an attempt to bomb a rally of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, or MEK, on June 30 outside the French capital. The Danes say Iran in October was planning to kill in Denmark a member of the group that Tehran has blamed for a Sept. 22 attack that killed at least 25 people. The group, called Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, condemned the violence and said it was not involved.
The blacklisting move could complicate EU efforts to keep alive an international agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out. Amid heated U.S. rhetoric and sanctions, the bloc is struggling to establish a balance between encouraging Iran to stay on board while punishing it for alleged transgressions not linked to the pact.
Samuelsen said that some EU countries were “hesitant” Tuesday about the move due to the nuclear deal with Iran. He didn’t name them.
“We are behind the nuclear deal as long as they stick to their commitments,”Samuelsen said. “It is in the European interest that the deal is being respected.”
The Dutch government said that “as long as Iran fulfils its obligations under the deal, the European Union will do the same. Nevertheless, Iran will be held to account for matters that affect EU and international security interests.”
Samuelsen said he had conversations with a U.S. colleague ahead of the decision and was told it was “a bold decision, bold initiative.”
“The fact that we’re clear on this was appreciated from the American side,” he told reporters.
In Denmark, Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen tweeted that the move was “very encouraging,” adding “EU stands united — such actions are unacceptable and must have consequences.””
Pelosi tells DHS secretary she’s not interested in facts on border security
By Rusty Weiss January 8, 2019
Newly elected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi clashed with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen telling her “I reject your facts” on security issues at the southern border.
Nielsen was conducting a presentation regarding the nation’s security and the threat of illegal immigration when the top Democrat made a declaration rejecting the facts.
The exchange highlights how the administration is interested in dealing with the reality of the threat at the border, while the party of resistance has no interest in truth.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nielsen was running off statistics regarding the border and the criminal threat attempting to enter the United States – including those associated with terrorism – when Pelosi interrupted. “These aren’t my facts,” Nielsen fired back. “These are the facts.”
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/01/08/pelosi-tells-dhs-secretary-shes-not-interested-in-facts-on-border-security/
Reports: Obama-era officials allegedly behind false-flag media campaign targeting Roy Moore
By Daily Caller News Foundation January 8, 2019
Richard: Don’t expect anyone connected with this election tampering action to be arrested and punished, and since it worked we can expect this to be done against a lot of candidates in 2020. The double standard of tolerance of political corruption on the left but strict enforcement on the right is finally coming home to roost in the US. We are facing a civil war, so far most of the fighting has been done at the ballot boxes but the Dems reaction to the election of Donald Trump and their theft of several elections in 2018 combined with the Dems moving from the leftist position they have held for a long time to the far radical lefft that elected Red Cortez says that they aren’t going to accept any election losses in 2020. Expect massive turmoil with the typical antifa protests and riots.
Two Obama-era officials were instrumental in the false flag operation in Alabama ahead of the special election in 2017, reports show.
One of the Obama-era officials behind the misinformation campaign in Alabama finally opened up about his group’s role in the caper.
Two of the people involved in the social media misinformation campaign in Alabama are denying their roles in the operation, reports indicate.
A trove of reports show two Obama-era officials are partially responsible for a misinformation campaign designed to derail Republican Roy Moore’s senatorial campaign in Alabama.
Former President Barack Obama campaign organizer, Mikey Dickerson, was instrumental in a disinformation campaign targeting Moore, reports show. He was not alone. Evan Coren, who has worked for the National Archives unit since Obama’s first term, also targeted the Republican’s campaign.
Coren, for his part, is a progressive activist who handles classified documents for the Department of Energy. He has not responded to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about the nature of the campaign, which was designed to fool conservatives into believing Moore intended to reimpose prohibition.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/01/08/reports-obama-era-officials-allegedly-behind-false-flag-media-campaign-targeting-roy-moore/
Ocasio-Cortez thinks detaining migrants, separating families, originated with Trump
By LU Staff January 7, 2019
Not just that, but she apparently labors under the misapprehension that detention camps along the southern border arose “spontaneously.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Left’s worst joke on America since the election and re-election of Barack Obama, said last night during her much-publicized interview with Anderson Cooper on CBS’s “60 Minutes”:
Ocasio-Cortez has said a lot of outrageous things, but to attach less value to the immutable facts than to her wholly subjective sense of what’s morally right is a new low for her.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/01/07/ocasio-cortez-thinks-detaining-migrants-separating-families-began-with-trump/
The following tweet leads to an extraordinary essay – long but worth every syllable – and highly recommend:
Brazil’s new foreign minister @ernestofaraujo lays out a profound philosophical base for democratic nationalism and populism in defense of Western civilization. His 2017 article is translated here for the first time. https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2019/01/07/brazils-new-foreign-minister-gives-profound-philosophical-base-to-trumpian-populism/ … … @jairbolsonaro
https://twitter.com/JMichaelWaller/status/1082398777745555456
A couple of brief quotes from the essay:
&
Pompeo: US Redoubles Diplomatic and Commercial Efforts to Put Pressure on Iran (sputniknews, Jan 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/us/201901081071301664-pompeous-redoubles-diplomatic-commercial-efforts-pressure-iran/
“US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began his tour of the Middle East on Tuesday in order to convince regional states to ramp up pressure on Iran.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US is “redoubling not only our diplomatic but our commercial efforts to put real pressure on Iran”.
He also claimed that the US decision to withdraw troops from Syria did not jeopardise efforts to counter threats in the Middle East, which he alleged stem from Daesh* and Iran.
Jordan became the first destination of Pompeo’s 8-day Mideast trip, which is intended to promote the US position on Iran among the states he is to visit. Besides Jordan, Pompeo will have a stop in Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait, according to the US State Department’s website.
Mike Pompeo announced on Twitter earlier that he would send a “clear message” to the US’ “friends and partners”, and that Washington is “committed to counter Iran’s destabilizing activities”.
Since the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, Washington has been re-imposing sanctions against Iran that had previously been lifted under the agreement. Two packages of US restrictions came into force in August and November 2018, targeting Iranian core sectors of its economy.
The US decision to withdraw from the JCPOA was not supported by other signatories to the deal — China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the European Union — which insisted that Iran was respecting its part of the deal.
*Daesh, also known as ISIS/IS/Islamic State, is a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.”
Erdogan Calls Bolton’s Remark on Kurdish Militias ‘Serious Mistake’ (sputniknews, Jan 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201901081071294558-erdogan-bolton-remarks-syria/
“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has commented on Bolton’s call for Ankara not to undertake military operations in Syria without an agreement with the United States.
Erdogan has criticised US National Security Adviser John Bolton’s recent statement, saying he made a “serious mistake”, and that Turkey could never compromise on the issue of the Kurdish YPG militia.
“Bolton is making a big mistake, his statement is unacceptable. Terrorist organisations do not represent Kurds. Those who spread lies about Turkey killing Kurds in Syria are trying to play on the mood of the world community”, Erdogan said during his presentation to the parliamentary faction of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)…”
Erdogan Cancels Meeting With Bolton, As U.S. Seeks To Reassure Allies On Syria
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has apparently snubbed U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, canceling a planned meeting to discuss the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria as well as the fate of a U.S.-allied Kurdish militia fighting ISIS in Syria.
Bolton’s meeting with Erdogan was canceled moments before it was to begin, reflecting Turkish anger at Bolton’s insistence that those Kurdish forces be protected after more than 2,000 American troops exit northeastern Syria.
Erdogan cited the “local election season and a speech to parliament for not meeting with Bolton,” The Associated Press reports. But the Turkish leader also used his speech to rail against protection for the YPG, which he considers a terrorist organization allied with separatist Kurdish groups operating within Turkey.
Bolton’s trip to Turkey comes as he and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are visiting American allies in the region, seeking to quiet concerns and ease confusion about U.S. policies following President Trump’s surprise announcement last month that all U.S. troops will be leaving Syria.
Trump’s withdrawal order sparked questions and pushback — including the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. And key questions remain about ISIS, the fate of Kurdish fighters and control over the land they’ve seized in Syria’s long-running civil war.
Unlike the U.S., Turkey “sees these Kurdish authorities as being aligned with militants it considers terrorists, and has threatened to attack the parts of Syria they control,” NPR’s Ruth Sherlock reports.
The distrust runs both ways. In Syria, Kurdish leaders aren’t happy at the possibility their territory might fall into Turkey’s grasp — leading them to hold previously unthinkable negotiations with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.
“Kurdish militias here have sacrificed hundreds of lives in fighting ISIS and taking control of this territory,” Sherlock reports, “and they see Turkey as a bigger threat than ISIS to their survival.”
Bolton did meet with Turkish presidential adviser Ibrahim Kalin on Tuesday, but that session didn’t seem to produce any breakthroughs. Afterward, Kalin said that while Turkey is willing to coordinate some activities, its military doesn’t need to ask anyone’s permission to conduct operations over the Syrian border.
Around the time of the Bolton-Kalin meeting, Erdogan was speaking to Parliament and renewing his public stance against the YPG.
“Erdogan said preparations for a military operation in northern Syria are ‘complete,’ ” NPR’s Peter Kenyon reports from Istanbul. “He added there would be ‘no concessions’ in Turkey’s fight against terror groups, and rejected Bolton’s comment that Syrian Kurdish fighters would not be harmed.”
By emphasizing the differences between his views and Bolton’s, Erdogan echoed his New York Times op-ed piece from Monday, in which he said that with the U.S. leaving, it’s time for Turkey’s military to take control.
But that same day, Pompeo said the Turkish leader had previously offered reassurances that Turkey would protect U.S. allies — referring to the Kurds. Pompeo said Erdogan made the commitment during a phone call with Trump just before the U.S. president announced the troop withdrawal.
On Dec. 19, when Trump ordered the Pentagon to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, he said he was doing so because their mission was over.
“Our boys, our young women, our men, they’re all coming back, and they’re coming back now,” Trump said, as he declared victory over ISIS.
But Trump has recently acknowledged that ISIS has not been eradicated entirely, and his mentions of the timing for withdrawal have become much less concrete.
“We won’t be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone,” Trump said Sunday.
Over the weekend, Bolton said the drawdown is subject to conditions and that there is no set deadline.
“There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal,” Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem. “The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement,” he said, seemingly in reference to the fight against ISIS and the future of the Kurdish militia.
The mixed messages have created confusion over exactly what the U.S. policy is in Syria and the broader region — and that perception has persisted, despite State Department officials’ insistence last week that “the United States is not leaving the Middle East.”
Hoping to clarify American policy for some of its most vital allies, Pompeo has begun a weeklong trip through the region. He started it off in Amman, Jordan, where he said Tuesday that the Syrian pullout doesn’t mean the U.S. is abandoning the international fight against ISIS.
“That battle continues,” Pompeo said. “The president’s decision to withdraw our folks from Syria in no way impacts our capacity to deliver on that.”
There is also some fence-mending to do. Bolton’s visit to Ankara comes one week after Pompeo angered the Turkish government by saying the U.S. wants to be sure “the Turks don’t slaughter the Kurds.”
Pompeo doesn’t plan to visit Turkey on his current trip. After Amman, Pompeo is slated to visit at least eight Middle East capitals, from Cairo to Riyadh and Kuwait City.
In the background of the talk about ISIS and Kurdish fighters, another spat is bubbling between the U.S. and Turkey, centering on the NATO ally’s recent arms deal with Russia.
As NPR’s Kenyon reports, “Washington is displeased with Ankara’s move to buy Russian S-400 missiles, and has recently offered to sell them Patriot missiles instead.”
https://www.wgbh.org/news/international-news/2019/01/08/erdogan-cancels-meeting-with-bolton-as-us-seeks-to-reassure-allies-on-syria
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Erdogan blasts Bolton over U.S. demands that Turkey protect Kurdish fighters in Syria
President Tayyip Erdogan rebuked Washington’s national security adviser on Tuesday for demanding that Turkey does not harm Kurdish fighters in Syria, accusing him of complicating President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops.
Erdogan said John Bolton, who held talks with Turkish officials in Ankara on Tuesday but left without meeting the president, “made a serious mistake” in setting conditions for Turkey’s military role after the U.S. pull-out.
The rebuke highlights the difficulties in implementing Trump’s goal of bringing home some 2,000 U.S. troops stationed in Syria – a plan that hinges on Turkish cooperation to secure a huge swathe of northeast Syria as the United States departs.
Trump’s abrupt announcement last month sparked concern among officials in Washington and some Western allies and prompted Defence Secretary Jim Mattis to resign. It also alarmed the YPG, Washington’s main partner against Islamic State in Syria.
But the plan was lauded by Ankara. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organisation and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast. Washington’s support for the militia has infuriated Turkey.
Before arriving in Turkey, Bolton said Turkey must coordinate military action with the United States and no U.S. withdrawal would take place until Ankara guaranteed the Kurdish fighters would be safe.
But Erdogan, who has long argued that the YPG were no different from the Islamic State militants, said the condition was unacceptable.
“If they are terrorists, we will do what is necessary no matter where they come from,” he told members of his AK Party in parliament.
“Bolton has made a serious mistake and whoever thinks like this has also made a mistake. It is not possible for us to make compromises on this point.”
The Turkish president accused members of Trump’s administration of trying to muddy a clear understanding between the two countries over the withdrawal.
“Different voices have started emerging from different segments of the administration,” Erdogan said.
FOCUS ON YPG
A senior Turkish official said Bolton had asked to see Erdogan but his earlier remarks may have been a factor in the meeting not going ahead. Erdogan later told reporters there was no need for him to meet Bolton.
Instead, Bolton met his Turkish counterpart Ibrahim Kalin. A senior U.S. official said Bolton told the Turkish officials the United States opposed any mistreatment of its Kurdish allies.
He also said the United States would not be withdrawing from its base at al-Tanf near the Iraqi border at this point.
On a visit to Jordan on Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the withdrawal would not jeopardise Washington’s efforts to counter regional threats from Islamic State and Iran.
ECONOMIC FRICTION
The friction with the United States has had economic consequences for Turkey. A diplomatic rift last year – now partly repaired – was one of the factors that sent Turkey’s lira into a tailspin over the summer.
The currency slipped again on Tuesday, weakening some 2 percent against the dollar.
Ahead of Tuesday’s talks, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper said Ankara would ask U.S. officials either to hand over its military bases in Syria to Ankara or to destroy them. It cited unspecified sources as saying Turkey would not accept the handover of what it said were 22 U.S. military bases to the YPG.
A senior Turkish security official told Reuters last week Washington needed to allow Turkey to use its bases in Syria. Kalin said Turkey wanted the bases emptied and handed over to “local elements”.
Following the meeting, Kalin said there was no slowdown in the U.S. withdrawal from Syria and that Turkey was focused on what happens to U.S. bases in Syria and the weapons Washington has given the YPG.
Bolton was joined by U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford and U.S. special Syria envoy James Jeffrey for the talks with Kalin, who is Erdogan’s spokesman and deputy head of Turkey’s security and foreign policies board.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-turkey-rebukes-us-over-demand-to-protect-kurdish-fighters-in-syria/
Turkey: ‘Serious mistake’ – Erdogan lashes out at Bolton over Syria comment
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at US National Security Advisor John Bolton over his pledges to ensure Turkey’s non-aggression against the US-backed Kurdish militias in northern Syria amid the US planned drawdown of its troops in the country. He made the statement when addressing lawmakers in the Turkish parliament in Ankara on Tuesday.
Erdogan said, “We cannot accept Bolton’s messages given from Israel.” He went on to say that “we will not compromise,” stressing that Bolton made a “serious mistake” after he said that the US would only pull out from Syria if Ankara vows not to attack the US Kurdish allies.
The Turkish president argued that the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) “cannot be representative of my Kurdish brothers,” adding that “they [Washington] don’t know” who these groups are.
Bolton Slams Erdogan’s Article in NY Times on US Withdrawal From Syria – Reports (sputniknews, Jan 8, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/us/201901081071306521-bolton-slams-erdogan-article-ny-times-withdrawal-syria-reports/
“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier had an article on the US withdrawal from Syria published in the New York Times. The Turkish president, while describing the Trump’s move as “the right call”, noted that the withdrawal must be planned “carefully”.
US National Security Advisor John Bolton has reportedly told Turkish officials that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s article, which was published on 7 January 2019, was wrong and offensive.
Bolton, who is currently on a tour of the Middle East attempting to convince US regional partners that they won’t leave them to fend for themselves in the fight against Daesh*, noted that Washington would oppose any mistreatment by Turkish forces of the its Kurdish allies in Syria, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed senior US official.
John Bolton didn’t believe that he had been disregarded due to the Turkish president’s refusal to meet with him, as plans for bilateral talks had not been confirmed in advance, the unnamed US senior official said.
Previously, Erdogan, while commenting on Bolton’s statement regarding a possible Turkish operation against Kurdish forces, criticized him by saying that Turkey could never compromise on the issue of the Kurdish YPG militia, as, according to the president, they had never actually fought against Daesh.
“Bolton is making a big mistake, his statement is unacceptable. Terrorist organisations do not represent Kurds. Those who spread lies about Turkey killing Kurds in Syria are trying to play on the mood of the world community”, Erdogan said during his presentation to the parliamentary faction of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
On 7 January 2019, The New York Times published an article written by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan where he evaluated the US withdrawal from Syria, noting that Trump’s move needs to be carried out in close cooperation with “the right partners to protect the interests of the United States, the international community and the Syrian people”.
The Turkish president highlighted that Turkey is “the only country with the power and commitment to perform that task”.
In mid-December, US President Donald Trump announced the pull-out of American troops from Syria, having declared victory over Daesh — the sole reason, he said, for the soldiers presence in the Arab country.
*Daesh, also known as Islamic State (IS)/ISIS/ISIL — a terrorist group, banned in numerous countries, including Russia”
Watch it and then you decide whether to laugh or cry.
OTTAWA – Second suspect in random east-end attack surrenders to police
The second suspect in the brazen beating of a senior citizen on a Vanier sidewalk last month has surrendered to police.
Yusuf Hussein, one of two 18-year-olds charged in the crime was to appear in court Tuesday on a number of charges.
In a news release Monday, Ottawa police said Abdirahman Sahal, 18, of Ottawa has been charged with assault, aggravated assault and two breaches of probation.
Morty White, 74, told this newspaper he “could have died” after being viciously attacked as he emerged from a bank machine on Montreal Road at about 9 a.m. on Dec. 8.
White, one of the founders of Bagel Bagel in the ByWard Market, suffered a broken nose, black eyes, bruises and swelling on the back of his head, a fractured pelvis, and broken ribs.
He was also perplexed as to the motive, as nothing was stolen from him. Police are describing the attack as random.
Reached via email while on vacation in Mexico, White’s wife, Pat Black, wrote: “Morty is just very pleased that the police were able to find them and have enough evidence to arrest … We were most impressed with the seriousness with which the police took this matter and for keeping us informed.”
On Dec. 8, White had breakfast at Eddy’s Quick Lunch on Montreal Road near Hannah Street when he made the short drive to the Scotiabank a couple of blocks away. As he walked back to his car after using the bank machine, White said he briefly saw two men, one of whom suddenly punched him hard in the face.
Witnesses said the two men continued to beat him as he lay on the edge of the parking lot. A Good Samaritan soon came to his rescue. White said he briefly lost consciousness and remembers waking up in the ambulance at about 9:30 a.m. He spent a couple of days in hospital and sufficiently recovered his mobility to the point that he planned to travel to Mexico this month for an extended vacation.
“I don’t think I was targeted. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time.”
The Ottawa police annual report for 2017 shows virtually every type of robbery was up from the year before, the total jumping to 502 from 435. So-called “personal” robberies increased to 143 in 2017 from 92. Violent crime was up 20 per cent in one year, from 541 incidents to 649. There were more crimes “against the person” in 2017 than in the previous five years.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/wanted-suspect-sought-in-random-east-end-attack
Sharifa Alkhateeb Talks About Using Public Schools to Convert America to Islam
When Muslims aren’t shy about stating the nature of the threat.
January 8, 2019
Frontpagemag.com
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4732679/sharifa-alkhateeb-talks-public-schools-convert-america-islam&fbclid=IwAR123wunxJyyl99nwvi41n76-fkmXBXeaU1MLnCqNGnL8Fm7eUVrVfyllJg
Opposition to A Border Wall Is Opposition to Public Safety
Open borders cost innocent lives.
January 8, 2019
Michael Cutler
The battle between the Congressional Democrats and the Trump administration continues over the construction of a border wall along the U.S./Mexican border.
Many political battles are fought over hypothetical arguments. This debate, however, is well-grounded in cold, hard, irrefutable facts and in the deaths of far too many innocent people, who have fallen victim to aliens who entered the United States illegally, often repeatedly.
Let me be clear, in my judgement, the Democrats have left the administration with no choice but to take the action of shutting down a part of the government. As a former INS agent I can certainly empathize with the federal employees. All too frequently the employees of the government suffer from the bad decisions of our political leaders. However, America faces many threats and challenges that are the direct result of multiple failures of the immigration system and our nation must finally address these failures beginning with securing our borders.
The most critical issues that the federal government must address are national security and public safety.
On January 3, 2019 I participated in an interview of Fox & Friends First to discuss the senseless murder of 33 year old police officer Ronil Singh, from Newman, California, by a citizen of Mexico who was allegedly an illegal alien: 32 year old Gustavo Perez-Arriaga.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272473/opposition-border-wall-opposition-public-safety-michael-cutler
“I don’t think I was targeted. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time.”
Let’s see if he spouts this same drivel after a second dose of Islamic foreplay.
But he is somewhat right, he, as a person, wasn’t targeted. On the other hand you are also right, he was targeted because he was an old white man. If in his place was another old white male, that other man would have been beaten up.
“If in his place was another old white male, that other man would have been beaten up.”
Thank you, kathy. Still, this doesn’t pass the jihadi smell test.
“Scott Adams talks with Brandon Darby about the border situation”
Open Mind – January 8, 2019
The Dan Bongino Show
Ep. 889 It’s Worse Than You Thought
https://bongino.com/ep-889-its-worse-than-you-thought/
WSJ: Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria Is ‘Social Contagion’
The medical community is far too unconditionally affirmative in its treatment of rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD), a Wall Street Journal op-ed argued Sunday, making ROGD an anomaly among social contagions.
Unlike traditional gender dysphoria, a “psychological affliction that begins in early childhood and is characterized by a severe and persistent feeling that one was born the wrong sex,” writes Abigail Shrier, ROGD is “a social contagion that comes on suddenly in adolescence, afflicting teens who’d never exhibited any confusion about their sex.”
Note: The acronym ROGD is typically pronounced “Rogered”. Which they most certainly are.
Why Obamacare Doesn’t Work As Promised
Lara Kollab, Muslim Doc Discussed Destroying Jewish Immune Systems While Studying Medicine
January 7, 2019
Daniel Greenfield
After Canary Mission’s original report on Lara Kollab, the Muslim doctor who talked about giving Jews the wrong medicine, went viral, she issued the expected apology, claiming that she had been immature and apologizing for all the pain she had caused.
The issue isn’t whether she caused people emotional pain, but that someone trying to be a doctor was discussing poisoning a particular ethnic group with the wrong medicines.
This is a compelling reason to make sure that she never has a position where she’s able to work with anything more advanced than frogs.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272480/lara-kollab-muslim-doc-discussed-destroying-jewish-daniel-greenfield
“This is a compelling reason to make sure that she never has a position where she’s able to work with anything more advanced than frogs.”
I don’t see why she should be allowed to inflict her murderous self upon the French, no matter how much they deserve some extra Muslim mischief.
Multiculturalism and the Transformation of Britain in 2018: Part II
by Soeren Kern
January 8, 2019 at 5:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13513/britain-multiculturalism-transformation-ii
July 1. Mubarek Ali, a 35-year-old former ringleader of a Telford child sex abuse gang, was sent back to prison after breaching the terms of his parole. In 2012, Ali was sentenced to 22 years in prison for child prostitution offenses, but was automatically released in 2017 after serving only five years. Telford MP Lucy Allan said there are “many questions to be answered” about why Ali was released, and also about how the justice system treats so-called grooming cases:
Apologists for Extremism in the West
by Majid Rafizadeh
January 8, 2019 at 4:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13468/apologists-extremism-west
As someone who grew up in fundamentalist Muslim countries, the continuing spread in the West of apologists for sharia law is, to say the least, intriguing. It is, of course, good-hearted to wish people from other cultures to feel welcome. Many of these apologists, however, have no first-hand experience of how it feels actually to live in that part of the world or to be a victim of day-by-day radical Islam. What is painful is that although many of these apologists have never lived under Islamist rules, they often act as if they had.
First, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan correctly said, “There is no moderate Islam; Islam is Islam.”
Islam, however, can be interpreted. Even Erdogan has said — although it is not clear what he meant by it — that, “Islam must be updated.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, also expressed similar views:
Even Erdogan has said — although it is not clear what he meant by it — that, “Islam must be updated.”
All that The Little Sultan really means to do is clarify political Islam’s proclaimed
taqiyyadoctrine of “Swords into plowshares” by rewording it as, “Swords into Kalashnikovs”.I hope this helps…
In the past few hours the #YellowVestsUK have:
– Had their social media accounts banned
– Had their PayPal account removed
– Had ‘journalists’ show up at their elderly parents houses
– Had lies spread about them on national TV and in the media
Tell me there’s no establishment.
https://twitter.com/RaheemKassam/status/1082689522045988866
“– Had their social media accounts banned
– Had their PayPal account removed
– Had ‘journalists’ show up at their elderly parents houses
– Had lies spread about them on national TV and in the media
You omitted:
– Had reason to secure firearms
Then again, I’m utterly spoilt by America’s fussiness about Second Amendment Rights.
Trump administration snubs European diplomats in U.S.: officials
Robin Emmott
3
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has lowered the status of the European Union’s diplomats in Washington without notifying Brussels, EU officials said on Tuesday.
The change in protocol for a close U.S. ally means the bloc’s Washington-based diplomats are less likely to be invited to high-profile events and have a lower importance than under former President Barack Obama.
The snub, first reported by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, was illustrated at the Dec. 5 funeral of another former U.S. president, George H.W. Bush, when Europe’s envoy was among the last diplomats to be called to pay respects, one EU official said.
“We understand that there was a recent change in the way the diplomatic precedence list is implemented by the United States’ protocol,” a Commission spokeswoman told a briefing, declining to give more details.
“We are currently discussing with the relevant services in the administration possible implications for the EU delegation in Washington.”
U.S. diplomats in Brussels were not immediately available for comment.
Trump has often shown his disdain for the EU and has backed Britain’s planned departure from the bloc.
But the United States and EU have the world’s biggest bilateral trade ties, and U.S. investment in the bloc is three times higher than in Asia, according to EU data.
While the shift does not stop senior EU officials from meeting U.S. counterparts, it follows a tumultuous year for transatlantic ties. Trump withdrew from several international agreements backed by the EU and vowed to reform “the liberal international order” he says the bloc helps underpin.
In a speech in Brussels in December, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump’s “America First” policy was reshaping the post-World War Two system on the basis of sovereign states, not multilateral institutions.
He also took aim at “bureaucrats” responsible for upholding multilateralism “as an end in itself” and cast doubt on the EU’s commitment to its citizens, drawing a rare rebuke from the European Commission, the bloc’s executive.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-eu-idUSKCN1P21EN