Contributor’s Links post for January 16th, 2019

Daily Links Post graphic

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.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We muse use it while we can.

About Eeyore

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

142 Replies to “Contributor’s Links post for January 16th, 2019”

  1. Dems Say Trump’s Wall Is a ‘Waste of Taxpayer Money’ – But They Spent $52M On CHIMP HOUSING

    • They Spent $52M On CHIMP HOUSING

      At least we all know what our new address will be once Hillary gets into office. If that (thankfully improbable) time ever comes, we Conservatives will be fortunate to occupy such luxurious digs. Bananas at additional cost…

      PS: Notice how Democrats continue to act as though the 2016 election was stolen, even as they’ve all gone totally schtum about Hillary’s continued oxygen theft? It’s astonishing to see so much capitalizing upon a generally unnamed person whose political radioactivity keeps everyone at a safe distance. Say, in the next county. Exactly how does that work?

        • Be sure and read the article about the French Blog wanting to make heterosexuality illegal.

          Someone needs to remind that moron Gallic blogger how, just like homosexuality, celibacy is not hereditary.

    • reuters – British PM: We are leaving EU on March 29

      British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that the UK will be leaving the European Union on March 29, and that the bloc would only consider extending the ‘Article 50’ negotiating period if there was a credible alternative exit plan.

      “The government’s policy is that we are leaving the European Union on the 29th of March. But the EU would only extend Article 50 if actually it was clear that there was a plan that was moving towards an agreed deal,” she told Parliament, a day after her proposed Brexit deal was rejected by 432-202, Reuters reported.

      She said there is a long way to go to bring Britain back together after the divisive 2016 Brexit referendum, calling on lawmakers to back her government in a confidence vote so she could finish the job.

      “We are living through an historic moment in our nation’s history following the referendum that divided our nation in half. We dearly need to bring our country back together, and last night’s vote showed that we do have a long way to go,” May said.

      “But, I don’t believe a general election is that path to do that, and I don’t believe that a government led by (opposition Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn) is the path to do that either.”

      With the clock ticking down to March 29, the date set in law for Brexit, the United Kingdom is now in the deepest political crisis in half a century as it grapples with how, or even whether, to exit the European project it joined in 1973.

      After lawmakers in the 800-year-old parliament dismissed May’s deal, she pledged to speak to senior parliamentarians to find a compromise that would avoid a disorderly no-deal Brexit or another referendum on membership.

      “The prime minister, having got through today, assuming that she does, will then be seeking to talk to senior parliamentarians,” House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom said.

      Labour’s finance minister-in-waiting, John McDonnell, said May could eventually get a deal through Parliament if she negotiated a compromise with his party.

      Labour says its aim is to win power and negotiate Brexit on better terms. However, many Labour members want to see another referendum with an option to cancel Brexit, and the party says it is ruling out nothing if it fails to bring May down.

      Corbyn said May was leading a “zombie government” and that she had not spoken to him since the Brexit vote.

      May’s humiliating loss appears to catastrophically undermine her two-year strategy of forging an amicable divorce with close ties to the EU after the March 29 exit.

      If May is unable to forge a compromise deal, she will have to choose between calling a national election, delaying Brexit or going for a no-deal exit.

      Many Conservative lawmakers would oppose fighting a national election at such a crucial juncture, especially after she lost the party its majority in a snap poll in 2017. May herself said on Wednesday an election would be “the worst thing we could do”.

      EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier indicated that one way forward would be for Britain to accept closer alignment with EU regulations. EU officials say London could, for example, abandon its plan to leave the EU customs union and single market, but that is unlikely to win backing among many Conservatives.

      http://www.iran-daily.com/News/237451.html

      =============================================
      video – British PM May: We are leaving the EU on March 29

      https://in.news.yahoo.com/british-pm-may-leaving-eu-141629271.html

    • europravda – Did French President Emmanuel Macron sum up Brexit better than the British?

    • Let’s face it—much like how Arafat, Gore, and 0bama forever tainted every Nobel Peace Prize awarded ever since—seeing “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” win an Oscar® for Best Original Song at the 2006 Academy Awards makes such online metrics as hit count and “likes” pretty much meaningless.

      Get back to me about the purported quality of new pop (rhymes with “psyop”) playlists when the term ‘Modern Classical Music’ no longer qualifies as an oxymoron. Until then, I continue to fart in the music industry’s general direction.

    • From the link: Martin apologized, claiming “My people gave me wrong information.”

      Wrong information, she says, eh? Methinks this will become the modern version of, “I was just following orders!” (Can’t you hear it already?)

      “I was just following The Narrative™!”

      White Privilege, Racist, Nazi, Far Right Wing, Xenophobe … thanks to mouth-breathing imbeciles like Areva Martin these smears are becoming so shopworn that most people aren’t buying that threadbare crap anymore. Just try and call me an Islamophobe, then see if that even gets you a cuppa coffee anymore.

      PS: The Progressive Left needs to take their White (Male) Privilege, roll it up into a tight little coil, and jam it so far up their collective @ss that their front teeth get knocked out.

    • “Transgender Person At The Center Of Viral Gamestop Video Claims Mistreatment During Interview”

      Of course this confused, dysphoric mangina has experienced, “Mistreatment”. [shriek!] Just make sure to save the first couple of places in whatever prosecutorial lineup for this walking medical ATM’s own gaggle of weepy counselors, doctors, and preoperative surgical advisors.

      PS: What is it with these muscular, lantern-jawed hulks suddenly pretending they’re Little Bo Peep? Do they have specially illuminated makeup mirrors with adaptive optics or something? Who do they think they’re fooling? … Besides themselves, that is.

      This genetic wallflower’s entire medical team should be professionally polygraphed. You can bet the farm, and your last spavined, mange-infested mule, that not a single one of them thinks of this overmuscled pansy as anything but a “him” or “he”. Hell, nothing could be more fitting than to see all of their medical licenses revoked for pronoun abuse.

      • Tranny is rapper and wrote a song about it.

        Is there nothing that (c)rap “music” cannot do???

        Well, aside from conveying a cultured and articulate expression of complex harmonious music and lyrics, that is…

        Just think of how many thug life, gangsta cultcha, hyper-violent, bling-bedecked, misogynist Black (c)rappers would like nothing more than to cap this shrinking violet’s @ss, but only after imposing themselves in every imaginable sexual way. THEN the 9mm!

  2. Richard: The leftists are determined to create a neo feudal government and economic system, they want power to force people to do what the left thinks is right and ignore what the people want. This isn’t going to end peacefully.

    De Blasio pitches plan to seize private property of problem landlords, opponents cry ‘communism’

    Liberal New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is rolling out a new plan that would potentially allow the city government to seize buildings of landlords who force tenants out — a plan his opponents say amounts to “straight communism.”

    De Blasio, in his State of the City address on Thursday, announced he wants to take action against landlords who try to force tenants out by making the property unliveable — and pulled out an executive order to create a Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. He said that in the event the government intervenes, the buildings would then be controlled by a “community nonprofit.”

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/de-blasio-pitches-plan-to-seize-private-property-of-problem-landlords-opponents-cry-communism

    • Allowing, “city government to seize buildings of landlords who force tenants out”, a process known as “eviction” (which can happen for a huge variety of reasons, including no reason at all) is exoplanets apart from taking “action against landlords who try to force tenants out by making the property unliveable”.

      In legal terms, the latter act is known as “Constructive Eviction” (e.g., shutting off utilities or heating, allowing a vermin infestation to exist, creating a rodent harborage) and violates all state, if not federal, housing codes. To wit:

      Constructive eviction is defined as any disturbance to the tenant by the landlord that: (1) renders the premises unfit for the purpose for which they were leased; or (2) deprives the tenant of the beneficial enjoyment of the premises.

      Why, oh why, is it such a hackneyed Leftist trope for them to conflate one legitimate process with another illegal one?

      Asked and answered, I suppose. How else are these anti-American termites ever going to get folks sufficiently riled up without stretching the truth as they do with the Constitution like so much saltwater taffy?

      If they actually [gasp!] played by the rules (a foreign concept, I know) none of this legal rigmarole, which they all know and love so well, would be necessary or anything other than a stale joke told at Landlord–Tenant law conventions.

    • Please be sure to notice how the camera never pulls in for a tight focus on all of the dead bodies everyone is walking across.

      It’s also worth noting that the film makes very little commotion about how much of the “peasant uprising” was overwhelmingly stage-managed by party apparatchiks. Where is the testimony of any tenant farmers who felt that they had been treated fairly by their landlords?

      All right, you can stop laughing now…

  3. ‘At any cost’: China warns US Navy over Taiwan

    A senior Chinese military official warned the US Navy Tuesday against any “interference” in support of Taiwan’s independence, saying that Beijing would defend its claim to the island “at any cost”.

    General Li Zuocheng, a member of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during a meeting in Beijing with Admiral John Richardson, the chief of US naval operations.

    China sees Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified, despite the two sides being ruled separately since they split in 1949 after a civil war won by Mao Zedong’s communists.

    The self-ruled island has its own currency, flag and government, but is not recognised as an independent state by the UN.

    Beijing has said it will not hesitate to use force if Taipei formally declares independence, or in the case of external intervention — including by the United States, the island’s most powerful unofficial ally.

    “The Taiwan issue is an internal matter of China, concerns China’s fundamental interests and the national feelings of the Chinese people, and no outside interference will be tolerated,” Li Zuocheng said in a statement released by the Ministry of Defence.

    “If anyone wants to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese army will defend the unity of th

    https://www.france24.com/en/20190115-cost-china-warns-us-navy-over-taiwan

    Richard: China see the division in the US government and thinks that the Dems will win the fight, this gives them the confidence to threaten the US. They may decide to attack some US ships or planes based on the idea that PT won’t do anything because of the Dem resistance.

    Keep you musket clean, your powder dry and watch your back this is not going to end peacefully.

    • A senior Chinese military official warned the US Navy Tuesday against any “interference” in support of Taiwan’s independence, saying that Beijing would defend its claim to the island “at any cost”.

      Cool beans. Just so long as America gets to defend it right to vaporize Red China’s biggest cities like so much sesame oil being poured into a glowing wok.

      (Beans? Sesame oil? Glowing woks? … It must be recipe time!)

      • I just posted a video by Calissarus (sp?) about can the US and China avoid a war, the video skipped a lot of the Chinese aggression towards it neighbors and seemed to be happy the US is in trouble. What the people at that channel need to realize is that all of their assumptions are based on a semi steady state with semi peace around the world. They also ignored the weakness in the Chinese economy.

        I am starting to think Black Pigeon nad the Calissarus group are shifting to the untrustworthy collumn.

  4. Honduran Border Police arrest organizer of new migrant caravan for warrant on rape charge

    The new migrant caravan from Honduras is off to a bad start after one of its leaders was arrested for having a rape warrant dating back to 2015.

    Juan Molina, who was identified as one of the caravan’s main organizers, was reportedly caught at a national police checkpoint and taken into custody on Monday.

    President Trump responded to the news of the latest migration effort by slamming Central American countries for doing nothing to stop the trend.

    “Honduras is not helping us, they could stop it, we send them hundreds of millions of dollars a year — El Salvador, Honduras and other places…Guatemala — hundreds of millions, but they don’t help us like so many nations, we help them, they don’t help us,” he stated.

    The president repeated his promise to tackle the issue of mass migration from Central America by cutting off funding to the countries that don’t take action to stop new caravans from forming.

    https://www.oann.com/honduran-border-police-arrest-organizer-of-new-migrant-caravan-for-warrant-on-rape-charge/

    • Honduras: Riot police stop migrant caravan at Guatemalan border

      Hundreds of Honduran migrants reached the Agua Caliente border crossing with Guatemala on Wednesday, where they were met by cordons of riot police preventing them from entering the country.

      Several tents were set up nearby, where the authorities reportedly demanded that the migrants provide personal documents to continue the journey northwards.

      “We made the decision because in San Pedro Sula the situation is difficult. This a decision which is being taken by many people, and I hope, if God’s willing, we’ll continue advancing,” said Pedro Aguilar, a migrant.

      The new migrant caravan set off on their way to the United States on Tuesday. Whole families, men, parents with newborn children, and elderly people, could be seen among the marchers, who claim they are in a search for a better life.

  5. Left-wing blog calls for heterosexuality to be banned in France by citizen initiative
    By Joe Newby January 16, 2019

    With white people — and especially white males — now considered personae non grata by the Left, it was only a matter of time before the next bastion of traditionalism found itself in the crosshairs. As if on command, an article published a at the left-wing website Mediapart argues that winning the battle for acceptance of the LGBTQ community by society at large is not enough. Instead, heterosexuality — along with fellow evils whiteness and maleness — must go.

    The post, which is in French, takes the form of a petition, featuring sixteen “whereas” clauses before arriving at the bottom lines, which is “it is urgent to forbid heterosexuality.”

    Among the arguments made are:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/01/16/left-wing-blog-calls-for-heterosexuality-to-be-banned-in-france-by-citizen-initiative/

    Richard: Please click through and read the entire article, the final sentence is asking the money question.

    • Left-wing blog calls for heterosexuality to be banned in France by citizen initiative

      Yeah. Sure thing. Do tell, after this law is passed, which French kids are going to (be born) grow up and vote for anything?

      Innit about time for France to just roll up its sidewalks (along with their nuclear arsenal) and place everything under the conservatorship of more competent minds?

  6. Bruce Ohr testimony: Steele told him in July 2016 that Russian oligarch was investigating Manafort
    By Daily Caller News Foundation January 16, 2019

    Christopher Steele told a top Justice Department official about an effort undertaken on behalf of a Russian oligarch to investigate the business dealings of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a revelation that raises new questions about the dossier author’s contacts with the Russian, Oleg Deripaska.

    During a meeting on July 30, 2016, Steele told Bruce Ohr, who at the time was the top career official at DOJ, that an attorney for Deripaska had gathered information about Manafort’s business dealings.

    “And then the third item he mentioned was that Paul Hauser, who was an attorney working for Oleg Deripaska, had information about Paul Manafort, that Paul Manafort had entered into some kind of business deal with Oleg Deripaska, had stolen a large amount of money from Oleg Deripaska, and that Paul Hauser was trying to gather information that would show that, you know, or give more detail about what Paul Manafort had done with respect to Deripaska,” Ohr told lawmakers.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/01/16/bruce-ohr-testimony-steele-told-him-in-july-2016-that-russian-oligarch-was-investigating-manafort/

  7. MSNBC anchor suggests Trump is blackmailing Lindsey Graham over ‘extreme’ secret
    Paul Crookston, WFB January 15, 2019

    [Ed. – These people have lost their minds, their perspective, and all sense of compunction and decorum.]

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/01/15/msnbc-anchor-suggests-trump-is-blackmailing-lindsey-graham-over-extreme-secret/

    MSNBC Anchor Suggests Trump Is Blackmailing Graham Over ‘Extreme’ Secret

    MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle implied without evidence Tuesday that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) has something to hide and the president is blackmailing him over it.

    Graham has become one of the President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies in the Senate, although he has criticized him for some key decisions, such as the military pullout from Syria. Ruhle seemed to imply there’s more to their relationship than politics, however, during a discussion about Graham with former Rep. David Jolly and professor Eddie Glaude.

    “Before Don got elected, Lindsey Graham called Donald Trump a racist, xenophobic bigot. Those are Lindsey Graham’s words,” Jolly said. “I doubt Lindsey Graham could tell you Donald Trump has had a change of heart in the last 24 months, I bet the change of heart has been with Lindsey Graham, not the president.”

    “Or it could be that Donald Trump or somebody knows something pretty extreme about Lindsey Graham,” Ruhle replied. “We’re gonna have to leave it there.”

    The smirk Ruhle produced when she spoke suggests she was referring to rumors about Graham’s sexuality, which some Democrats have been trumpeting anew recently. Jon Cooper, chairman of the Democratic Coalition super PAC, explicitly accused Graham on Saturday of letting himself be blackmailed for “some pretty serious kink.”

    https://freebeacon.com/politics/msnbc-anchor-suggests-trump-is-blackmailing-graham-over-extreme-secret/

    • MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle implied without evidence Tuesday that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) has something to hide and the president is blackmailing him over it.

      Graham’s overnight conversion from, “I wish we could find some way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war. During World War II, you had limits on what you could do if it inspired the enemy”, to flag-waving Trump cheerleader certainly suggests a sword of Damocles hidden somewhere in the woodpile.

      This duplicitous shite can’t be trusted any farther than he can piss.

      For those who’ve yet to see Ann Barnhardt not-so-gently vivisect this intellectual hamster, please view the following clip. Just watching this amazing gal rip pages that disrespect women from a Koran bookmarked with strips of raw bacon is worth the price of admission alone.

  8. House Democrats to put Ocasio-Cortez on Financial Services Committee
    The Hill January 16, 2019

    [Ed. – She can’t really do that much harm there, as a junior member on a policy committee (as opposed to actually moving taxpayer money around) — but oh, the jokes we can tell.]

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/01/16/house-democrats-to-put-ocasio-cortez-on-financial-services-committee/

    Richard: This is going to generate a lot of headlines that the left will have a hard time spinning as good for Red Cortez.

    • [Ed. – She can’t really do that much harm there, as a junior member on a policy committee (as opposed to actually moving taxpayer money around) — but oh, the jokes we can tell.]

      I smell comedy gold!!!

      PS: I told my parents that I wanted to be a comedian … and they just laughed!

      • LOL I can’t think of anything the Dems could do that would hurd Red Cortez more then putting her on a committee where her absolute ignorance of all things financial will become known to everyone in the world.

        • People like Coctez (did I type that in my out-loud font?) sound good when they audition but melt under the spotlight.

  9. Sec of State Pompeo: Trump Admin Will Help Iranian People Take ‘Control of Their Capital’
    By Pamela Geller – on January 15, 2019

    This is exactly what the Iranian people were hoping for when they rose up in June 2009. What they didn’t anticipate was then-President Obama propping up the murdering mullahs to quash the freedom movement. Obama sanctioned the cruel and brutal putdown of the Iranian people who marched for democracy: Iran Rape Video Is Indictment of Obama.

    https://gellerreport.com/2019/01/trump-2hel-iranian-freedom.html/

    Iran Rape Video Is Indictment of Obama

    Pamela Geller | Thursday Apr 8, 2010 3:01 AM

    http://humanevents.com/2010/04/08/iran-rape-video-is-indictment-of-obama/

  10. NBC News – U.S. service members killed by explosion in Manbij, Syria

    ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which came just weeks after President Trump said “we have beaten them and we have beaten them badly.”

    U.S. service members were among those killed by an explosion in Syria on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the coalition fighting the Islamic State group said.

    The official said the Americans were killed while “conducting a routine patrol,” but did not say how many.

    Earlier, a senior Kurdish security official told NBC News that members of the U.S.-led coalition were caught up in a blast at a market in the northern city of Manbij. The official said that Americans were among the casualties but could not confirm the number of injured or dead.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-service-members-wounded-explosion-manbij-syria-n959231
    ===========================================
    BBC – Syria war: ‘IS suicide bomber’ kills US troops in Manbij

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46892118

    • Manbij Health Committee: 13 people died in the suicide attack

      According to local authorities, 13 people including 3 US soldiers died in Wednesday’s suicide attack in Manbij.

      Manbij Health Council released a statement about the suicide attack that was carried out in front of the Qeser Al Umaraa restaurant on the Sindis street in Manbij city center Wednesday afternoon.

      According to the Council, the attack left 13 people dead, including three US soldiers and two fighters of the Manbij Military Council, while many other people were wounded.

      The dead and wounded US soldiers were retrieved from the scene by US military helicopters and taken to hospital.

      The civilians killed or wounded in the attack were also taken to various hospitals in the city.

      Manbij Health Council Committee official Ehmed Hito stated that 13 people died as a result of the suicide attack, among them three US soldiers and two fighters, while 18 other people got wounded. Hito said 5 of those injured are in critical conditions.

      In the meantime, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.

      https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-northern-syria/manbij-health-committee-13-people-died-in-the-suicide-attack-32185

    • Erdogan: Terror Attack in Manbij, Syria May Be Aimed to Influence US Withdrawal (sputniknews, Jan 16, 2019)
      https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201901161071525844-syria-manbij-explosion/

      “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that the terror attack in the Syrian city of Manbij which took place earlier in the day has claimed the lives of at least 20 people, including five US soldiers.

      Commenting on the latest terror attack in the Syrian city of Manbij, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted that he did not believe it would impact the Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from the country.

      “According to my information, five US servicemen were killed in the terrorist attack, which claimed 20 lives. The attack was organized by the IS [Daesh*] group. Perhaps they want this event to influence the decision of [US President Donald] Trump to withdraw troops from Syria. This may influence. However, if this happens, it will be a victory of the IS,” Erdogan told reporters.

      According to the local military council, the blast occurred near a patrol of the international coalition in the city. Eyewitnesses in Manbij told Sputnik that the explosion took place near a cafe where the leaders of the council and guests from a delegation, “whose identity has not yet been established”, had gathered…”

  11. AI to select potential criminals:
    https://youtu.be/FaW3bvsqLjA

    With the Chinese-Socialists already having average facial-features, (such as eyes imperceptibly moving out to the sides of their heads to see which cameras the Morlocks are watching them on) then all other characteristics are by definition, abnormal; and thus declared as having criminal tendencies. This battery-chicken gauge only works because of the billion-batch reference-clones already in production to achieve a 0.00001 error. It would work exactly the same on ‘The Children of First Cousins’ to predict the willing-slave against those with balanced-brains. Simply weed out the capable babies. All that are left are the “yes boss” weak-before-the-strong.

    But this is old Soviet Psychology 101- to kill the independently-minded. Selecting by hand and sending them to a psychiatic hosptital is so twentieth century. Just use AI face recognition technology to automatically eliminate anyone who could “cause a public disturbance”. All babies that escape the hospitals will have Wanted Posters: “Have you seen this infant? Extra rice for your family. Calls will be monitored and your name used for promotional purposes”

    All down-breeds are equal, but some are more equal than others.

    • It would work exactly the same on ‘The Children of First Cousins’ to predict the willing-slave against those with balanced-brains. Simply weed out the capable babies. All that are left are the “yes boss” weak-before-the-strong.

      Welcome to the club, friend. I’ve been saying the same thing for a decade, even as I hoped it was all a Cassandran hissy fit. Sure enough though, it’s not some long wavelength circadian rhythm.

      The relative ease with which Muslims embraced taqlid (lit: Blind obedience) and forsook ijtihad (lit: Doctrinal self-interpretation) is indicative of that inbred gullible obedience and overly-ready inclination to commit random violence already in discussion.

  12. Border rancher: ‘We’ve found prayer rugs out here. It’s unreal’

    LORDSBURG, N.M. — Ranchers and farmers near the U.S.-Mexico border have been finding prayer rugs on their properties in recent months, according to one rancher who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by cartels.

    The mats are pieces of carpet that those of the Muslim faith kneel on as they worship during their unauthorized trek into and through the United States.

    “There’s a lot of people coming in not just from Mexico,” the rancher said. “People, the general public, just don’t get the terrorist threats of that. That’s what’s really scary. You don’t know what’s coming across. We’ve found prayer rugs out here. It’s unreal. It’s not just Mexican nationals that are coming across.”

    The rancher, who lives with her family in a remote, southwestern part of the state, said the discoveries raise questions about how many people who illegally entered the U.S. in Hidalgo County, N.M., traveled thousands of miles from overseas to sneak across the southern border.

    She is one of just a few hundred residents of Animas, N.M., a tiny town that sits between the international border and the Border Patrol’s Lordsburg Station, which is 95 miles north of the boundary.

    The few hundred residents have no local police department. They rely on the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department and U.S. Border Patrol to help when they need it, but otherwise count on tips and support from one another because of the 40 miles that separate the community from the county headquarters in Lordsburg.

    The rancher and six other residents of Animus told Washington Examiner this week that migrants from places other than Mexico and Central America are arriving.

    “I’ve talked to several agents that I trust. There’s not a lot that I do trust, but the ones I do trust, I talk to them,” she said during a tour of her property. “What Border Patrol classifies as OTMs [other than Mexicans] has really increased in the last couple years, but drastically within the last six months. Chinese, Germans, Russians, a lot of Middle Easterners. Those Czechoslovakians they caught over on our neighbor’s just last summer.”

    Billy Darnell, a cattle rancher in Animus, said his neighbor had 18 women and children from the Philippines show up on his property last year. Border Patrol was called to the scene and took the group in.

    Government data indicates six known or suspected terrorists were caught trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico from Oct. 1, 2017, through March 31, 2018. However, the Trump administration has stated on several occasions that 3,700 people who were identified as coming from countries with terrorism problems have also been apprehended at that border.

    “We’ve talked about the thousands — the thousands of terror watch list individuals who traveled through our hemisphere last year,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said on Fox News this month. “To pretend there’s not a danger on an unsecured border, on an open border, is just ridiculous. It belies common sense.”

    Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, did not respond to multiple interview requests in the past week.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/border-rancher-weve-found-prayer-rugs-out-here-its-unreal

  13. CBC – Saudi teen granted asylum in Canada gets 24-hour security amid online threats

    Rahaf Mohammed, 18, granted asylum after her plight captured global attention on social media

    A Saudi teen who fled alleged abuse by her family considers herself “one of the lucky ones” now that she has arrived as a refugee in Canada, but the agency tasked with getting her settled has still arranged 24-hour security for her in the wake of online threats.

    Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, arrived in Toronto on the weekend as a government-sponsored refugee, after taking to social media to allege abuse at the hands of her father. She said she was also fleeing attempts to force her into an arranged marriage.

    After locking herself in a Bangkok hotel room and tweeting details of her plight, including fears of what would happen to her if she returned to her family in Saudi Arabia, Canada permitted her entry as a government-sponsored refugee, acting on a United Nations request.

    Since arriving in Canada, she has dropped her last name, instead using Mohammed, saying her family has disowned her.

    Mohammed’s public campaign, which was covered widely by international media, has also led to online threats against her, according to COSTI, the agency contracted by the federal government to help refugees, including Mohammed, get settled in Toronto. So steps have been taken to ensure there is someone with her at all times, be it an agency staffer or a private security guard.

    It’s hard to say how serious the threats are, Mario Calla, executive director of COSTI, told reporters Tuesday morning.

    But, Calla said, “we are taking these seriously because she’s our responsibility and so we want to be sure she’s protected.”

    Without offering details about what round-the-clock security will cost — other than to say it’s “not a great amount” — Calla said either the federal government or COSTI will foot the bill.

    But he said it’s “not unusual” for the agency to hire private security for refugees. There are about two “urgent protection” cases each year in which the government will expedite a refugee claim and ensure that person has extra security.

    ‘I could not achieve my dreams’
    Mohammed told CBC News on Monday that she was “exposed to physical violence, persecution, oppression, threats to be killed. I was locked in for six months,” she said, in Arabic, describing what happened after she cut her hair.

    “I felt that I could not achieve my dreams that I wanted as long as I was still living in Saudi Arabia.”

    In a brief statement to reporters on Tuesday, she called herself “one of the lucky ones,” saying other women in Saudi Arabia have “disappeared” after trying to escape their circumstances, or feel powerless to even try.

    She said she is looking forward to living in Canada free to make her own decisions about her life.

    “I want to be independent: travel, make my own decisions on education, a career, or who and when I should marry.

    “I had no say in any of this. Today I can probably say that I am capable of making all of those decisions.”

    She said she also plans to work in support of freedom for women around the world, “the same freedom I experienced on the first day I arrived in Canada.”

    But first, there are many aspects of her new life that must be sorted out, according to Calla.

    COSTI workers will help Mohammed find permanent accommodations, as well as help her understand her “rights and obligations,” apply for a social insurance number and health card, open a bank account and navigate the city.

    She will also start English classes before she considers how to further her education. A high school graduate, Mohammed does want to pursue post-secondary education, Calla said.

    Asked whether Mohammed’s bold action will inspire others who seek to start a better life in a new country to take to social media, Calla was measured in his response, saying the social media landscape keeps changing and there are always “forces that make that difficult.”

    He noted the number of refugees and displaced persons around the world totals upwards of 60 million, and only a third of one per cent of them get resettled.

    “Social media may now be a tool for them,” Calla said. “It depends on whether they get the attention of the right people.”

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/saudi-teen-granted-asylum-in-canada-gets-24-hour-security-amid-online-threats-1.4978513

    • Saudi teen who fled ‘abusive’ family celebrates freedom with bacon and Starbucks

      Rahaf Mohammed, 18, was granted asylum in Canada after fleeing to Bangkok, claiming her life would be in danger if she returned to her family in Saudi Arabia

      A Saudi teen who fled her family saying she feared for her life has gleefully shared snaps of her new life in Canada – including eating bacon and drinking Starbucks.

      Rahaf Mohammed, 18, was at the heart of a worldwide storm when she barricaded herself in a hotel room at Bangkok Airport after running away.

      Rahaf – who has renounced her last name, al-Qunun – alleged she suffered horrific abuse at her family’s hands, which they deny.

      She arrived in Canada on Saturday after the country granted her asylum – and she was pictured at Toronto International Airport wearing a hoodie with the word ‘Canada’ on it.

      She was welcomed by the country’s Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, who hailed her as a “very brave new Canadian”.

      Yesterday she posted a picture of a traditional Canadian breakfast on Snapchat, alongside the caption: “omg bacon”.

      And a picture of a Starbucks coffee reveals she was wearing a skirt above her knee.

      Rahaf refused to meet her father and brother, who arrived in Bangkok to try take her back to Saudi Arabia.

      Freeland said: “Rahaf wanted Canadians to see that she has arrived at her new home.

      “But she had a very long and tiring journey and so would prefer not to take questions today.

      “And she is now going to go to her new home.”

      Rahaf chose Canada because Australia took too long assessing whether to grant her asylum.

      “(Australia) takes too long. That’s why I went to Canada,” she told Reuters in a direct message before boarding her flight to Toronto.

      Earlier this month, after escaping her family on a holiday in Kuwait, Rahaf started posting messages on Twitter from the transit area of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport saying her life would be in danger if forced to return to Saudi Arabia.

      Within hours, a campaign sprang up dubbed SaveRahaf, spread on Twitter by a loose network of activists.

      Following a 48-hour stand-off at Bangkok airport, some of it barricaded in a transit lounge hotel room, she was allowed to enter the country and has been processed as a refugee by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

      https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/saudi-teen-who-fled-abusive-13864146

      • Saudi teen who fled ‘abusive’ family celebrates freedom with bacon and Starbucks

        Bacon and coffee with a little apostasy on the side? What’s not to like? She sounds like promising marriage material when that time comes!

        • Won’t she be arrested for a Hate Crime?

          You can’t be ex-muslim, ex-marxist or ex-sexualpod!

          Once they have given up their souls in return of a love-hate paradigm of pride, (master-slave, mistress-cuck, top-below), all Hell with no greater fury will come from these scorned females.

  14. Kenya attack: DusitD2 siege over as attackers killed (BBC, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46888682

    “A deadly siege by suspected militants in Nairobi has ended after all the attackers were “eliminated”, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.

    Gunmen attacked a compound in the Westlands district of Kenya’s capital on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people.

    Some 50 people are still missing, Kenya’s Red Cross has said.

    The Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab said it was behind the attack on the complex, which houses the luxury DusitD2 hotel.

    It is not clear how many attackers there were, but Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinnet told AFP news agency that “five terrorists” had been involved.

    Two people believed to be linked to Tuesday’s siege were arrested following raids on properties on Wednesday, AFP reported…”

    • 50 People Missing After Terrorist Attack at Nairobi Hotel – Kenya Red Cross (sputniknews, jan 16, 2019)
      https://sputniknews.com/africa/201901161071539069-nairobi-hotel-attack-missing/

      “The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) said on Wednesday that the organization had no information on the whereabouts of 50 people who were staying at the Dusit Hotel in Nairobi, the site of a terrorist attack.

      “A total of 94 cases were reported missing as of 16th January 2019 at 1500 hours, 44 cases had been closed positively while 50 remain pending,” the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) said via Twitter.

      The attack took place on Tuesday when militants stormed the Dusit hotel complex in the Kenyan capital. The country’s law enforcement agencies have categorized the assault as a terrorist attack. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Wednesday that the hotel attack had claimed the lives of 14 civilians and that all the attackers had been killed as a result of a special operation.

      Islamist militant group Al Shabaab, which operates mainly in neighboring Somalia, has claimed responsibility for the gun-and-bomb attack. One US national and one UK national are said to be among the victims.”

  15. US Teacher in Daesh Ranks Sees no Difference Between Executions in Syria, Texas (sputniknews, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201901161071536081-us-teacher-daesh-execution-syria/

    “Muslim convert Clark crossed into Syria four years ago, in a bid to learn about Daesh and what the group is about, and ended up in Kurdish territory during a recent massive liberation campaign in northern Syria.

    Warren Christopher Clark, an American teacher who joined Daesh* via Turkey in the spring of 2015 said that witnessing people being beheaded didn’t strike a raw nerve in him since according to him, “they like to execute people in the US too,” at least in Texas, where he lived before travelling to Syria.

    The 34 year-old Clark told NBC News in an interview conducted in a prison in northern Syria, where he was placed after being captured by Kurds, that he saw “some people being executed publicly, some crucifixions”.

    “That’s just normal life here,” Clark noted. He confirmed he had seen respective videos, adding that he “sees no difference” in beheadings in Syria and executions in his native state of Texas. “They might do it off camera, but it’s the same”, he asserted.

    Having graduated from Houston University, he worked for some time as a substitute teacher in the nearby city of Sugar Land, before converting to Islam and making up his mind to travel to Syria out of curiosity, as he put it, to “see exactly what the group was about, and what they were doing.” He said he never fought for Daesh, who detained him several times, but was later let go for refusing to use arms.

    He admitted offering to teach English in the area, which goes in line with last year’s NBC report on Clark’s CV with a cover letter, found at a house in Iraq. In the document, later studied by the Programme on Extremism at George Washington University, the Texan under the alias Abu Muhammad al-Ameriki expressed willingness to work as an English teacher at Mosul University and provided his formal credentials to be accepted for the position.

    Despite never being on the frontline, he couldn’t escape the war, perpetually having to hide from airstrikes and bombings, and mostly using a mosque as a shelter. When asked how he had sustained injuries (he walked using crutches at the time of the interview,) he insisted he had been wounded “in a personal fight”.

    Clark was detained around the time a group of other international Daesh fighters were taken into Kurdish custody, during the campaign to liberate the last Daesh strongholds in northern Syria, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement.

    Last year, the US Programme on Extremism found that apart from thousands of Europeans, as many as 64 Americans had travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside Daesh since 2011…”

  16. Iran to Keep All Its Forces and Weapons in Syria – Revolutionary Guards Chief (sputniknews, jan 16, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201901161071522811-iran-syria-forces-weapons/

    “Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Iran to “get out of [Syria] fast” threatening to continue air raids against Iranian military targets, allegedly stationed in the Arab state.

    The Head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Ali Jafari has said that Tehran will not listen to Tel Aviv’s threats and will keep its forces and weapons in Syria, Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported.

    “The Islamic Republic of Iran will keep its military advisors, revolutionary forces and its weapons in Syria”, he said.

    Jafari has cautioned Israel against making any further threats, warning that it “was playing with the lion’s tail” and promising that otherwise Iranian missiles will “roar and fall on [its] head”…”

  17. Swiss MP Claims Turkey Sells Looted Syrian Olive Oil to Fund Militia – Media (sputniknews, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/world/201901161071538815-olive-oil-looting-turkey-syria/

    “In 2018, the Turkish military entered Syria and advanced on the city of Afrin in operation “Olive Branch” against Kurdish forces located there. Ankara accused them of cooperating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey.

    Swiss lawmaker Bernhard Guhl, representing the country’s Conservative Democratic Party, has informed authorities that Turkey could be exporting olive oil plundered in Syria in its military op there, but then being labelled as Turkish, The Telegraph reports. The oil is allegedly entering Europe, including Spain.

    “In Turkish-occupied Afrin, the olive groves are being pillaged by both Turkish forces and the militias they support. The olives they steal have been sold to Spain, and the sale will continue”, he said.

    ?According to the MP, who presented a corresponding motion in his country’s parliament, the revenue from the looted oil is flowing to Turkish-backed militias in Syria. He also asked how these allegations are being investigated.

    “It doesn’t matter if the final destination is Spain or Germany but, I believe it is very important that the country or countries concerned launch a criminal investigation to determine whether companies are trading in stolen olives or olive oil”, the lawmaker insisted.

    The allegations were brought to light by a journalistic investigation by the Spanish online newspaper El Público and the Kurdish Firat News Agency, which reported that they had obtained Turkish government documents on the matter.

    El Público said that the Turkish authorities have sold seized olive oil from the Syrian-Kurdish territories mixed with a Turkish produce via intermediary companies. El Público valued last year’s haul at an estimated at $90 million.

    At the same time, The Telegraph cited some Turkish media outlets as reporting that Turkey’s Agriculture Minister Bekir Pakdemirli had made statements about the authorities’ plans to claim the olive oil in Afrin to cut off Kurdish forces from it.

    In 2018, Turkey launched operation “Olive Branch” in the province of Afrin without Damascus’ consent, aiming to push Kurdish militia units out from northern Syria and create a buffer between them and the Turkish border. Turkey and Syrian militant groups have clashed with the Kurdish YPG, Free Syrian Army, and SDF forces, claiming some of their territories in Syria.

    Ankara accuses Syrian Kurdish militia of conducting terrorist activities along with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered terrorists by Turkey. It has been fighting the PKK since the 1980s, when the group first demanded autonomy for Kurdish-populated territories. Ankara and the PKK reached a ceasefire in 2013 to fight the threat of Daesh*, but it was terminated in 2015, when the PKK accused Ankara of bombing its positions in Iraq, along with those of Daesh*.”

  18. Toronto Sun – Mandel – New questions arise about Danforth shooting

    Enough rounds of ammunition to kill hundreds. Donations to a mosque fund in Pakistan. An Islamic headdress. Conspiracy DVDs that dispute al-Qaeda’s role in 9/11.

    For almost six months, speculation has been rampant about what caused Faisal Hussain to indiscriminately open fire on innocent citizens on the Danforth this past July, a horrific mass shooting that ended with the murders of 18-year-old Reese Fallon and 10-year-old Julianna Kozis and the injuring of 13 others before the 29-year-old turned the gun on himself.

    His family quickly blamed mental illness. Those who questioned whether terrorism was the motive were just as quickly branded Islamophobes and shut down.

    The entire police investigation — taken over by the SIU — was then cloaked in inexplicable secrecy.

    The question is, why have authorities been so determined to play it down, and why has the investigation into this horrific crime taken so long?

    Heavily redacted portions of the search warrant used by Toronto police for Faisal’s Thorncliffe Park apartment were unsealed Tuesday and they are alarming: just hours after the attack, a police explosives dog led investigators to a drawer beneath a sleigh bed in the killer’s bedroom where police uncovered a cache of ammunition large enough to have turned the Danforth into a war zone massacre.

    Officers found two fully loaded AK-47 clips — capable of at least 30 rounds each, two loaded 9 mm magazines, two loaded drum magazines and three fully loaded extended magazines. They also discovered a black sock with more loose cartridges.

    The drawer also contained a white powdery substance believed to be cocaine and an “Islamic head dress.”

    Naturally, police were anxious to find the firearms, and especially the AK-47, that went along with all these bullets. They did seize a carrying case for a long gun in his closet — but it was empty.

    “It is reasonable to believe that when fully loaded magazines and cases are located, there would be firearms to match located in the residence but there were not,” the officer wrote in the information to obtain (ITO) the warrants.

    “Given the amount of ammunition on hand, it is reasonable to believe this occurrence was planned.”

    We’ve only ever been told that Hussain was armed with a single handgun.

    Dressed all in black — baseball cap, sweater and pants — he also had a black shoulder bag and in the ITO, witnesses reported seeing him “change magazines” and “possibly drop or switch firearms” after shooting Fallon four times.

    His twin told police his brother “did not seem that interested in religion;” his father said he’d taken him to Pakistan a few years earlier but only to visit family and in Toronto, he had to force him to attend the mosque on Fridays because he “is not devout.”

    https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/mandel-new-questions-arise-about-danforth-shooting-was-terror-the-motive

  19. Canadian Citizen Kidnapped in Burkina Faso on Tuesday Night – Security Minister (sputniknews, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/africa/201901161071535772-canadian-kidnapping-burkina-faso/

    “Several northern provinces in Burkina Faso have been under a state of emergency since December 31, following numerous attacks by Islamist militants in the area.

    A Canadian citizen was kidnapped in northern Burkina Faso, near the Malian border, on Tuesday night, Burkinabe Security Minister Clement Sawadogo told reporters.

    As the minister specified, the kidnapped person was working for the Progress Minerals mining company, which, according to their website, focuses on the “West African Birimian Greenstone Belts, targeting large, low-cost, high-quality, gold deposits”.

    The minister is yet to specify details of the incident, as well as the identity of the Canadian citizen. It is not immediately clear whether his kidnapping was connected with his professional activities.

    Meanwhile, local news portal Infowakat reported that the abduction took place at a geologists’ camp. The media also named the kidnapped Canadian citizen, citing a representative of the Burkinabe security service: Kirk Woodman.

    The state of emergency that has been imposed in several northern provinces of the country is connected with the deteriorating security situation in the country: jihadists, including some based in Mali, are attempting to increase their influence across the poorly policed areas of the Sahel region, just south of the Sahara Desert.”

  20. BREITBART – LEAK: ‘Huge Teams’ Engaged in Manual Interventions on Google Search Results

    Google has “huge teams” working on manual interventions in search results, an apparent contradiction of sworn testimony made to Congress by CEO Sundar Pichai, according to an internal post leaked to Breitbart News.
    “There are subjects that are prone to hyperbolic content, misleading information, and offensive content,” said Daniel Aaronson, a member of Google’s Trust & Safety team.

    “Now, these words are highly subjective and no one denies that. But we can all agree generally, lines exist in many cultures about what is clearly okay vs. what is not okay.”

    “In extreme cases where we need to act quickly on something that is so obviously not okay, the reactive/manual approach is sometimes necessary.”

    The comments came to light in a leaked internal discussion thread, started by a Google employee who noticed that the company had recently changed search results for “abortion” on its YouTube video platform, a change which caused pro-life videos to largely disappear from the top ten results.

    In addition to the “manual approach,” Aaronson explained that Google also trained automated “classifiers” – algorithms or “scalable solutions” that corrects “problems” in search results.

    Aaronson listed three areas where either manual interventions or classifier changes might take place: organic search (“The bar for changing classifiers or manual actions on span in organic search is extremely high”), YouTube, Google Home, and Google Assistant.

    Aaronson’s post also reveals that there is very little transparency around decisions to adjust classifiers or manually correct controversial search results, even internally. Aaronson compared Google’s decision-making process in this regard to a closely-guarded “Pepsi Formula.”

    These comments, part of a longer post copied below, seem to contradict Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s sworn congressional testimony that his company does not “manually intervene on any particular search result.”

    According to an internal discussion thread leaked to Breitbart News by a source within the company, a Google employee took issue with Pichai’s remarks, stating that it “seems like we are pretty eager to cater our search results to the social and political agenda of left-wing journalists.”

    According to the posts leaked by the source, revealed that YouTube, a Google subsidiary, manually intervened on search results related to “abortion” and “abortions.” The intervention caused pro-life videos to disappear from the top ten search results for those terms, where they had previously been featured prominently. The posts also show YouTube intervened on search results related to progressive activist David Hogg and Democrat politician Maxine Waters.

    In a comment to Breitbart News, a Google spokeswoman also insisted that “Google has never manipulated or modified the search results or content in any of its products to promote a particular political ideology.”

    Pichai might claim that he was just talking about Google, not YouTube, which was the focus of the leaked discussion thread. But Aaronson’s post extends to Google’s other products: organic search, Google Home, and Google Assistant.

    Aaronson is also clear that the manipulation of the search results that are “prone to abuse/controversial content” is not a small affair, but are the responsibility of “HUGE TEAMS ” within Google.

    “These lines are very difficult and can be very blurry, we are all well aware of this. So we’ve got huge teams that stay cognizant of these facts when we’re crafting policies considering classifier changes, or reacting with manual actions”

    If Google has “huge teams” that sometimes manually intervene on search results, it’s scarcely plausible to argue that Pichai might not know about them.

    Aaronson’s full post is copied below:

    I work in Trust and Safety and while I have no particular input as to exactly what’s happening for YT I can try to explain why you’d have this kind of list and why people are finding lists like these on Code Search.

    When dealing with abuse/controversial content on various mediums you have several levers to deal with problems. Two prominent levers are “Proactive” and “Reactive”:

    Proactive: Usually refers to some type of algorithm/scalable solution to a general problem
    E.g.: We don’t allow straight up porn on YouTube so we create a classifier that detects porn and automatically remove or flag for review the videos the porn classifier is most certain of
    Reactive: Usually refers to a manual fix to something that has been brought to our attention that our proactive solutions don’t/didn’t work on and something that is clearly in the realm of bad enough to warrant a quick targeted solution (determined by pages and pages of policies worked on over many years and many teams to be fair and cover necessary scope)
    E.g.: A website that used to be a good blog had it’s domain expire and was purchased/repurposed to spam Search results with autogenerated pages full of gibberish text, scraped images, and links to boost traffic to other spammy sites. It is manually actioned for violating policy
    These Organic Search policies and the consequences to violating them are public
    Manually reacting to things is not very scalable, and is not an ideal solution to most problems, so the proactive lever is really the one we all like to lean on. Ideally, our classifiers/algorithm are good at providing useful and rich results to our users while ignoring things at are not useful or not relevant. But we all know, this isn’t exactly the case all the time (especially on YouTube).

    From a user perspective, there are subjects that are prone to hyperbolic content, misleading information, and offensive content. Now, these words are highly subjective and no one denies that. But we can all agree generally, lines exist in many cultures about what is clearly okay vs. what is not okay. E.g. a video of a puppy playing with a toy is probably okay in almost every culture or context, even if it’s not relevant to the query. But a video of someone committing suicide and begging others to follow in his/her footsteps is probably on the other side of the line for many folks.

    While my second example is technically relevant to the generic query of “suicide”, that doesn’t mean that this is a very useful or good video to promote on the top of results for that query. So imagine a classifier that says, for any queries on a particular text file, let’s pull videos using signals that we historically understand to be strong indicators of quality (I won’t go into specifics here, but those signals do exist). We’re not manually curating these results, we’re just saying “hey, be extra careful with results for this query because many times really bad stuff can appear and lead to a bad experience for most users”. Ideally the proactive lever did this for us, but in extreme cases where we need to act quickly on something that is so obviously not okay, the reactive/manual approach is sometimes necessary. And also keep in mind, that this is different for every product. The bar for changing classifiers or manual actions on span in organic search is extremely high. However, the bar for things we let our Google Assistant say out loud might be a lot lower. If I search for “Jews run the banks” – I’ll likely find anti-semitic stuff in organic search. As a Jew, I might find some of these results offensive, but they are there for people to research and view, and I understand that this is not a reflection of Google feels about this issue. But if I ask Google assistant “Why do Jews run the banks” we wouldn’t be similarly accepting if it repeated and promoted conspiracy theories that likely pop up in organic search in her smoothing voice.

    Whether we agree or not, user perception of our responses, results, and answers of different products and mediums can change. And I think many people are used to the fact that organic search is a place where content should be accessible no matter how offensive it might be, however, the expectation is very different on a Google Home, a Knowledge Panel, or even YouTube.

    These lines are very difficult and can be very blurry, we are all well aware of this. So we’ve got huge teams that stay cognizant of these facts when we’re crafting policies considering classifier changes, or reacting with manual actions – these decisions are not made in a vacuum, but admittedly are also not made in a highly public forum like TGIF or IndustryInfo (as you can imagine, decisions/agreement would be hard to get in such a wide list – image if all your CL’s were reviewed by every engineer across Google all the time). I hope that answers some questions and gives a better layer of transparency without going into details about our “Pepsi formula”.

    Best,

    Daniel

    Breitbart Tech will continue to investigate Google’s manipulation of search results on both its search engine and the YouTube video platform.

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/01/16/leak-huge-teams-engaged-in-manual-interventions-on-google-search-results/

  21. Putin assassination attempt REVEALED: Security agents swoop on suspected ISIS jihadist (express, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1073146/putin-news-assassination-ISIS-russia-news-vladimir-putin-belgrade

    “A “jihadist” suspected of plotting an assassination bid on Vladimir Putin has been detained in Serbia, say reports.

    The Kremlin leader is due to make a state visit to Belgrade tomorrow. A man named as Armin Alibaši? , 21, suspected of being an Islamic State “terrorist”, was detained in the Serbian city of Novi Pazar, according to reports today. The alleged jihadist possessed a cache of weapons and explosives, according to multiple reports in Serbia and Russia, it was claimed.

    Images show the alleged cache.

    A report attributed to the Serbian intelligence agency BIA said “he was preparing a terrorist attack specifically at the time of the Russian leader’s visit”.

    Details were not immediately clear of how any attempt was to have been carried out.

    Putin was “a target for terrorists because of the war that Russia carries against ISIS,” said the BIA source…”

  22. YouTube removes far-Right adverts showing Britain First members confronting Muslim outreach workers (dailymail, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6599075/YouTube-removes-far-Right-adverts-Britain-First.html

    “YouTube has removed adverts for far-right group Britain First after clips promoting the organisation appeared before videos on the site.

    The adverts were taken out after the video-sharing platform was contacted about the clips, which had appeared before content linked to Brexit and British politics.

    The video showed Britain First leader Paul Golding and supporters confronting volunteers at a Muslim outreach stall last November in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

    YouTube, which was contacted about the adverts by the Guardian, said they were removed for breaching its rules which prohibit ads promoting hatred or intolerance.

    A spokesman for Google, which owns YouTube, said: ‘YouTube does not allow ads or videosthat promote hatred, intolerance or discrimination on the platform.

    ‘We work hard to remove content that violates our policies quickly, using a combination of human flagging and review and smart detection technology.

    ‘We’re making progress in our fight to prevent the abuse of our services, including hiring more people and investing in advanced machine learning technology.
    ‘We know there’s always more to do here and we’re committed to getting better.’

    In March last year, Golding was jailed for 18 weeks after being convicted of religiously-aggravated harassment at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court in Kent.

    In the same month, the Britain First Facebook page and those linked to Golding and deputy leader Jayda Fransen were also removed from the social network.

    This came after Facebook said the pages had repeatedly violated its rules on hate speech. Accounts linked to the group were also taken off Twitter in December 2017.”

  23. Kenya Muslim terror attack: death toll rises to 21

    The Kenyan Chief of Police reveals that the death toll from the Nairobi hotel complex Muslim attack has risen to 21

  24. VICE NEWS – Ann Coulter Is “Not Going To Complain” Trump Shut Down The Government Over Immigration

  25. Nearly Half of Swedish Women in Early 20s Feel Insecure Due to Crime (breitbart, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/16/nearly-half-of-swedish-women-early-20s-feel-insecure-crime/

    “Statistics released by the Swedish criminal statistics agency Brå reveal that 42 percent of women aged 20 to 24 feel insecure in their everyday lives, fearful they could be victims of various crimes.

    The new statistics come as part of the agency’s National Security Survey (NTU) of 2018, which found that the women surveyed claimed to have changed their route or mode of transport due to fears of crime.

    Maria Söderström, an investigator at Brå, commented on the results, saying: “The fact that many people’s lives are limited by the fact that they have to change their travel routes and methods is a serious consequence of the insecurity and anxiety about crimes that young women say they experience.”

    The report comes after another report released by Brå last July which showed nearly half of the women living in “vulnerable areas,” often referred to as no-go zones, felt insecure in their own neighbourhoods after dark.

    The survey also found the across the board more Swedes are becoming wary of what they post on social media due to the possibility of being harassed or threatened because of what they post.

    Sweden has seen a surge in investigations and prosecutions over the last several years on those posting “hate” online following the work of “anti-hate” organisation Näthatsgranskaren (“Network Examiner”) which has reported hundreds of individuals to police since forming in 2017.

    Last year, the group claimed to have reported around 800 cases of “hate posts” and most of the people they reported to police were older women, often over the age of 65.

    The number of cases could rise once again following a new European Union infusion of cash into Sweden directed at helping individuals report “hate crimes” to police.

    The EU is set to give the government 738,248 euros as part of a programme to help victims of such crimes, including showing alleged victims how to properly report the crimes to police.”

  26. Asylum Claims Up 22 Percent in Macron’s France, Down in Populist Countries (breitbart, jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/16/macrons-france-sees-22-percent-increase-asylum-requests-2018/

    “France has seen a 22 percent rise in asylum applications in 2018, while populist-led countries such as Italy and Austria have seen sharp declines in claims.

    The French Interior Ministry revealed that the country had received 122,743 asylum applications in 2018, continuing the progressive rise in asylum applications which has occurred every year since 2014, Le Monde reports.

    A total of 46,700 individuals were granted asylum status by the French government in 2018, up nine percent from the previous year according to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra).

    While the largest number of asylum requests came from Afghan, Albanian, Ivory Coat, and Georgian nationals, the main nationalities to actually receive asylum were from Afghanistan, Syria, and Sudan. The total approval rate for asylum applications was 27 percent for initial claims which went up to 36 percent following the appeals process — although it should be noted that rejected claimants are not always deported, either.

    Last October, Didier Leschi, the director-general of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII) explained in a note published by think tank Fondapol that France had become the “most attractive” country for Afghan asylum seekers and that their number had risen by 55 percent in 2018.

    In 2017, the acceptance rate for Afghans had been 83 percent, compared to neighbouring Germany where the acceptance rate was far lower at 44 percent.

    Leschi also estimated that around 37 percent of asylum seekers in France had already applied for asylum in another European Union (EU) country, with previous claims often having been rejected by Germany or Sweden.

    The figures are a stark contrast to those of Italy, where populist Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s anti-mass migration policies have led to around an 80 percent decline in illegal migrant arrivals.

    Salvini and Macron have clashed on the issue of immigration over the last year. Tensions rose sharply between the pair after Salvini accused the French authorities of dumping illegal migrants over the border into northern Italy, which French police later admitted.”

  27. Iran state TV’s English channel says anchorwoman held in US (abcnews, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-state-tvs-english-channel-anchorwoman-held-us-60411834

    “A prominent American anchorwoman on Iranian state television has been arrested by the FBI during a visit to the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday, and her son said she was being held in a prison, apparently as a material witness.

    Marzieh Hashemi, who worked for the network’s English-language service, was detained in St. Louis, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area. She was then taken to Washington, according to her elder son, Hussein Hashemi.

    The FBI said in an email that it had no comment on the arrest of the woman who was born Melanie Franklin of New Orleans and has worked for Iran’s state television network for 25 years. She lives about half the time in Colorado, where her children live, and half the time in Iran, according to a brother.

    “We still have no idea what’s going on. My siblings and I also have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. We don’t know what this is about or how it’s unfolding,” said Hashemi, a research fellow at the University of Colorado who was interviewed by phone from Washington.

    The incident comes as Iran faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual nationals and other people with Western ties. Those cases have previously been used as bargaining chips in negotiations with world powers.

    Hashemi said his mother was detained as she was about to board a flight from St. Louis to Denver…”

  28. Turkey’s Erdogan calls for revision of Bosnia peace accords (abcnews, jan 16, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkeys-erdogan-calls-revision-bosnia-peace-accords-60423200

    “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a revision of the 1995 peace agreement that ended the Bosnian War, saying they failed to address the former Yugoslav republic’s future.

    Erdogan said the United Nations should take “a stronger step” in a possible revision of the international Dayton Accords that established a complex government system designed to heal an ethnic divide after the 1992-95 war in which 100,000 people died.

    The Turkish leader made the comments during a news conference Wednesday with visiting Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.

    Bosnia’s administration consists of a Serb and a Muslim-Croat entity held together by common, multi-ethnic government. The three-member presidency is held by pro-Russian Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who has advocated separation of the Serbs from Bosnia; Muslim politician Sefik Dzaferovic and Bosnian Croat Zeljko Komsic.”

  29. Pakistani police raid militant hideout; 4 people killed (abcnews, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pakistani-police-raid-militant-hideout-people-killed-60410798

    “Security forces raided a militant hideout in the northwestern town of Hangu, killing three suspects including the mastermind of a bombing last year that killed 35 Shiites at a food market, a police official and the military said Wednesday.

    A civilian was also killed in the shootout, they said.

    Local police officer Mohammad Khalid said militant commander Mohammad Islam was among the three militants killed in late Tuesday’s raid. He said Islam had orchestrated the Nov. 23 bombing at the market in the town of Klaya in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province.

    The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack at the time, saying it targeted “Shiite apostates.”

    Sunni extremists often targeted Shiites in this Islamic nation. The Islamic State group has carried out several attacks, though authorities say it has no organized presence in Pakistan.

    Also on Wednesday, a bomb attached to a motorcycle went off near a shop in the town of Rojhan in eastern Punjab province, killing one resident and wounding another, senior police officer Haroon Khan said.

    He said officers were still investigating who had planted the bomb and what was the motive behind the incident.”

  30. Gunmen attack villages in central Mali, kill 20 people (abcnews, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/gunmen-attack-villages-central-mali-kill-20-people-60420233

    “The spokesman for a Tuareg group in Mali says gunmen have attacked two villages in the country’s central Menaka region near the border with Niger, killing at least 20 people.

    Mohamed Ag Albachar of the Azawad self-defense group, said Wednesday that armed men attacked two villages on Tuesday, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Menaka. The attackers killed 20 civilians, including elderly people, and some security personnel also died in the attack.

    The attack has not been claimed but it bears the marks of jihadists who stage attacks in the region in retaliation against Tuaregs who are fighting against the Islamic State.

    Attacks against civilians have increased in Mali’s Menaka area since 2018, when the U.N.’s mission in Mali documented 100 cases of human rights violations there.”

    • Mali: ‘Dire’ humanitarian situation, ‘grave’ security concerns challenge fragile peace (UN, jan 16, 2019)
      https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/01/1030602

      “Bintou Keita, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations in Africa, also apprised the Council of the alarming security situation in the central and northern areas of the African State, saying it was “of grave concern,” and provided “a major challenge” to implementing the UN-backed 2015 peace agreement.

      The Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali was signed in June 2015 by the Coordination des Mouvements de l’Azawad armed group, following its signature in that May by the Government and a third party, the Plateforme coalition of armed groups.

      The Malian Government has been seeking to restore stability and rebuild following a series of setbacks since early 2012, including a military coup d’état, renewed fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels, and the seizure of its northern territory by radical extremists.

      She flagged the “very difficult conditions” under which the UN Stabilization Mission in Mali’s (MINUSMA) peacekeepers and the Malian defense and security forces continue to serve, saying that “far too often, they pay the ultimate price” in support of peace and stability across the country. Mali continues to be the most dangerous place in the world to wear the UN’s blue helmet.

      “Asymmetric attacks continue to target peacekeepers, national and international forces, and increasingly civilians”, she asserted.

      The UN official recalled the 21 December attack against MINUSMA, which she said, “indicated the determination of extremist groups and spoilers to prevent the Mission from implementing its mandate.”…”

  31. Pro-Military Media Accuses US Ambassador of Wanting to ‘Turn Algeria into Syria’ (moroccoworldnews, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/01/263569/pro-military-us-ambassador-algeria-syria/

    “In an article published on January 15, the francophone website Algérie patriotique accused Ambassador John Desrocher of “plotting” with opposition parties to destabilize the current regime and “turn Algeria into a new Syria”.

    The article went on to question the real motives behind the American diplomats’ extensive travels around the country and the purpose of his invitations for young Algerians to “undergo” American NGO’s training on democracy.

    The pro-establishment website indicated that the Ambassador held secret meetings with opposition groups to encourage them “to carry out actions of subversion”. It suggests that Washington’s top diplomat actions and activities are suspect and amount to “political activism” against the Algerian state.

    Furthermore, Algérie patriotique accused, in the same article, Ambassador William J. Burns, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International and former U.S. deputy secretary of state under President Obama, of conspiring with the Moroccan monarchy to subvert Algeria.

    However, the more troubling element in this hard to fact-check article is Algérie patriotique comparison of Ambassador Desrocher to his predecessor, “the unmistakable Robert Ford who, in the 1990s, had turned his office of adviser to the US embassy in El-Biar into a headquarters for extremists of the FIS and the armed arm, the GIA”, according the website.

    It startling to see a pro-government media site accuses past and current American diplomats stationed in Algeria of associating with terrorist groups and plotting to change the government by force. Algérie patriotique will never publish such account without the direction and approval of top intelligence officers.

    In fact, Algeria’s notorious Military Intelligence manufactures these “type” of stories and feeds them to their social media mouthpieces. The hope is to cast doubt about the allegiance and patriotism of opposition groups fighting for democracy and human rights.

    In provoking Ambassador Desrocher, the Algerian government tries to portray the opposition as agents of the American government leading some activists to distance themselves from the work of Western non-governmental organizations.

    While Algeria is not innately anti-American, it is suspicious of the work of U.S. pro-democracy organizations. The government fears that democracy-building activities are a threat to its rule.

    For some independent political observers, Ambassador Durocher is a collateral damage of the larger smear campaign directed by the military to delegitimize members of a coalition of independent organizations fighting to stop a fifth mandate for President Bouteflika.

    Nevertheless, Accusations of “acts of subversion” against US diplomats are serious and a breach in protocol. Since Algérie patriotique conveys the position of the powerful military establishment that controls the country, the Algerian government must give some clarifications regarding the publication of such false allegations.”

  32. Immigration group demands SPLC revoke ‘hate’ label (WT, Jan 16, 2019)
    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jan/16/immigration-group-files-rico-lawsuit-splc/

    “One of the most prominent groups advocating for stricter immigration went to court Wednesday to demand a judge order the Southern Poverty Law Center to stop labeling it a “hate group,” accusing the self-described watchdog of running an illegal racket to silence political opponents.

    The Center for Immigration Studies says the SPLC’s accusations of “racist” and “anti-immigrant” are not only wrong, but they have cost the nonprofit support and financial backing by scaring people away from doing business with the center.

    CIS brought its challenge in federal district court in Washington, D.C., filing a civil complaint under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act against SPLC President Richard Cohen and Heidi Beirich, who runs the group’s Hatewatch blog.

    Mark Krikorian, CIS’s executive director, says his organization doesn’t meet the SPLC’s own definition of a hate group and the Alabama-based watchdog knows it, but persists anyway — which he said was evidence of the racket.

    “SPLC and its leaders have every right to oppose our work on immigration, but they do not have the right to label us a hate group and suggest we are racists,” he said. “The Center for Immigration Studies is fighting back against the SPLC smear campaign and its attempt to stifle debate through intimidation and name-calling.””

  33. memri tv – Egyptian Cleric: Films, TV Have Given Women the Impression They Can Refuse Husbands’ Calls to Bed

    During a Friday sermon at the Al-Adawi Mosque in Mit Asas, Egypt, Sheikh Ahmad Abd Al-Bari said that the leading reason that wives refuse their husbands’ calls to bed are movies and TV series that have taught them to be disobedient.

    He said that these shows have given women the impression that they have independent lives and that they can reject their husbands’ calls to bed as they please.

    He also quoted a hadith by Muhammad the prophet that said that a woman must obey her husband’s call to bed even if she is riding a camel. The sermon was uploaded to the Internet on December 21, 2018.

  34. MEMRI TV – South African Sheikh Abdurahman Alexander Calls for Spirit of Tolerance for Other Religions

    Sheikh Abdurahman Alexander, the co-imam of Masjidul Quds in Cape Town, South Africa, said during a December 28 sermon uploaded to the Masjidul Quds YouTube channel that Muslims should take the opportunity during the holiday season to carry a spirit of tolerance, and to reach out to communities rather than condemn Christians and pass fatwas against saying “Merry Christmas”.

    Alexander then said that Moses had nothing to do with “the so-called Judaism of today,” which he said is being hijacked by fanatical Jews and Israelis who insult Jesus and who have taken the good name of Judaism to plunder and colonize Palestine.

    He said: “Modern apartheid Israel has nothing to do with Judaism.”

    He also said that Jesus never preached Christianity, and that his true message has also been “hijacked”.

    He concluded: “Muhammad told us to respect every Christian… [and] every Jew… [and] to reach out to them in positivity… [and] love.”