Contributor’s Links post for February 6th, 2019

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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

130 Replies to “Contributor’s Links post for February 6th, 2019”

  1. Going to bed happy. I watched the State of the Union Trump address.
    It was really worth it. A major Trump win.

    • It was great!
      Watched next door with Russian friends. They didn’t understand everything, but we all cheered: USA! USA! USA!

    • Socialist hysteria in German school: Kids have to feel cold because of alleged “climate change”

      “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me…”

      The EU gets that suffering child part just fine. Just so long as its only Caucasian children having their lives destroyed, then the stabbers, rapers or heaters make no difference to those who routinely fart through silk.

      As always with the Law of Unintended Consequences™ it’s little brown kids who get all drowny, starvey, and retardy (when they’re not busy imitating their killy, stabby, rapey elders) but this has never been about the kids.

      It’s only about typical EU vote-whoring and the ballot box no longer presents any workable remedies to beleaguered European indigenes.

      Too bad it’s the usual halfway measures enacted by halfwits.

  4. Lol: Use of indicators for unconstitutional organizations – “refugee helper” sentenced for Hitler salute https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2019/fluechtlingshelfer-wegen-hitlergruss-verurteilt/

    A left-wing refugee helper in Munich wanted to express his aversion to the Pegida offshoot there. This could cost the 35-year-old educator dearly. The taz reports that he was sentenced to a fine of 1,500 euros for showing the so-called Hitler salute.

    Edgar D. had called out “Sieg Heil” to participants of the Pegida demonstration in the pedestrian precinct of the Bavarian state capital on June 13 last year and tore his left arm into the air. In court, he reaffirmed his regret and concern about the situation in the state. “That’s terrible what’s going on here, all that hatred.” His action itself was “neatly stupid”.

    File note as “Nazi” threatens

    The public prosecutor made it clear that there could be no “moral justice”, even if he had not acted out of extreme right-wing motivation. A public Hitler greeting was a public Hitler greeting, even if he had raised his left hand. This was also followed by the district judge in his verdict.

    The refugee helper is worried not so much about the fine as about his certificate of good conduct. Now an entry threatens because of the use marks of unconstitutional organizations. “Then I’ll be led as a Nazi, so to speak.”

    The lawyer of the convicted Hitler greeting is currently examining whether to appeal. The case may also be included in the statistics of right-wing crimes, similar to the Hitler salute of an Afghan at the Oktoberfest last year.

    Note: The “sculpture” in the pic of JF-article was made by this idiot
    https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/aug/05/wolves-are-back-berlin-rainer-opolka-hauptbahnhof

    Bonn’s Indian Lord Mayor wants to “mix up” Muslim neighborhoods
    https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2019/bonner-oberbuergermeister-will-moslem-viertel-durchmischen/

    Bonn’s Lord Mayor Ashok-Alexander Sridharan (CDU) has expressed the wish to “better mix” districts with a high Muslim population. He told the world that this could be done, for example, through new apartments for students in the districts.

    The Christian Democrat emphasized that people from 180 nations lived together peacefully in the former federal capital. “We are the German city of the United Nations.

    The cooperation between Muslims and non-Muslim population is also good. It should be taken for granted that all social groups feel comfortable. In this context, he considers specially arranged swimming times for Muslim women to be unproblematic. “Not only Muslims, but also German women, who do not belong to Islam, come to the women’s swimming.

    Islamists and acts of violence put Bonn in the headlines

    In the recent past, Bonn had repeatedly made the headlines because of its Islamist scene and violent crimes committed by foreign criminals. Last November, for example, two men’s teams of the Moroccan sports club Bonn advertised for the Islamist group “Ansaar International”. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, they belong to the Salafist spectrum.

    In April 2017, a rejected asylum seeker raped a student in the Siegaue in Bonn. The trial had caused a sensation nationwide.

    In Bonn-Bad Godesberg in May 2016, the student Niklas P. had been so badly beaten by a group of young men that he succumbed to his injuries. The main suspect Walid S. was acquitted because it could not be clarified whether another perpetrator did not carry out the ultimately fatal blow.

    Sridharan is one of the two chairmen of the “Commission for Integration Ability”. In addition to new immigrants, the committee is also to convey values to the group of “people with a migration background who have been living in Germany for some time”.

  6. Former Member of Dutch Right-Wing Party Converts to Islam (sputniknews, Feb 6, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201902061072169609-dutch-politicians-convert-islam/

    “Joram van Klaveren had been dubbed a confidant to the Freedom Party’s leader Geert Wilders, slammed Islam as a lie and started writing a book critical of Islam. However, along the way, he did an about-turn and has pledged to advocate for the religion he earlier found repugnant.

    In a recent interview with the country’ s business newspaper NRC Handelsblad, one of the former leading men from the Dutch right-wing Freedom Party (PVV) and a reported right-hand man to its head Geert Wilders, Joram van Klaveren has revealed his reasons for converting to Islam. The politician joined the community of Muslim believers, Umma, in October 2018 when he pronounced the so-called shahada.

    Before this van Klaveren had been a vocal critic of Islam as a PVV member, supporting a burqa- and minaret-ban in the country’s parliament and referring to Islam as an ideology of terror, death, and destruction. He is also known for initiating the “Moroccan debates” in the House of Representatives over the high proportion of criminals of Moroccan descent. Although van Klaveren broke with the PVV following controversial remarks by its leader Wilders, who asked if his supporters wanted “fewer or more Moroccans in your city and the Netherlands”, in 2014, he remained a member of an Islam-critical group and stuck to his right-wing stance on the religion.

    The conversion came after he quit politics to write a book that was initially intended to be an anti-Islam work, unmasking violence, anti-Semitism, contempt of women, homophobia, assumed to be justified in Islam.

    But as NRC reports, citing the author, then a Protestant that halfway through his research, he had to rewrite it as his views had drastically changed. The final release, branded a refutation of objections that non-Muslims have against Islam, is called “Apostate: From Christianity to Islam in the Time of Secular Terror”.

    According to van Klaveren, the realisation was not a happy moment for him, as he had “developed a great aversion to Islam”, by then, but in the end, it “felt a bit like coming home, in a religious sense”. Van Klaveren said that his wife had accepted him being a Muslim, pointing out that she was not so happy with him being a member of the PVV. When asked about his former political allies, he said that he anticipated that many people would not react enthusiastically.

    Speaking about criticism against Islam, including anti-Semitism, women’s oppression, violence, he insisted that many of these negative believes originated in medieval Europe, when “Christians saw Islam as a competitive religion”. He also agreed that he thought Islam to be an enrichment for the Netherlands, pointing out, however, that “much of Islam that you see now is coloured by Wahabism”.

    “It is very unfortunate because that is a very puritan view of Islam, extreme in the eyes of many people. The majority of Dutch Muslims are of course not Wahabitian. They do not withdraw from social life and do not think that everyone who is non-Muslim is wrong or scary.There are so many prejudices about real Islam”, he said in the interview, admitting that he is responsible for painting Islam in dark colours and saying he could not brush that aside.

    Despite his conversion, he still referred to Christianity as a beautiful belief and denied he had made “a left turn”, pledging allegiance to right-wing values, including low taxes and minimal government interference as well as the immigration policy aimed to let in people who can add something to society. He also denounced the idea that Islam should be banished from the Netherlands, which he once submitted a motion for.

    He also refuted his assumptions in the “Moroccan debates” when he linked Islam to the high crime rate, saying it was his party’s policy that he describes as “connecting everything that does not work to Islam in one way or another”.

    However, contemplating a possible attack in the country, he concluded that “if an attacker calls himself a Muslim and looks for legitimacy in Islam, then you cannot say that it has nothing to do with it”. He traced Daesh’s* roots back to the movement against moderate Islam, originating in the seventh century.

    “It is not only the historical doctrine of Islam. It is important to explain that extremists are wandering. Again and again. That is difficult. People want bite-sized answers. Or have their judgment ready”, he admitted, pointing out that education, including teaching Dutch, would help them to become a part of the community.

    Van Klaveren’s former party ally, Wilders, who heads the Netherlands’ opposition PVV, is internationally known for his anti-Prophet Muhammad remarks and controversial statements about migrants as well as promises to ban the Koran and close down mosques. In August 2017, he announced his decision to cancel a planned Prophet Muhammad cartoon competition, referring to death threats from Muslims and concerns that other people might be in danger. Wilders’ plans for the cartoon contest sparked fierce opposition from the Muslim world, especially Pakistan, given that physical depictions of God and the Prophet Muhammad are forbidden in Islam.”

    • It’s very sad.
      A death in Geert’s “family”. That’s the way I’d feel, anyway. I feel like sending my condolences.

      Actually worse than dead. A soulless zombie. Ghastly bad news.

    • “It is not taught at schools that it was a German who documented the Muslim genocide of the Christian Armenians.”

      People may not fully understand the danger of Socialism’s hushed-up genocides if they haven’t read his fine book or watched the well-made movie of Austrian-Bohemian writer Franz Werfel’s, “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh”.

      Although Wenger disputes precedence over Werfel in broaching news about the Hayots tseghaspanutyun, it still set the bar for future twentieth century exterminations, not to mention typically deafening globalist silence—“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” said Hitler.

      With that trail blazed through the hearts of 1.5 million Christians, a path was beaten for the ensuing Shoa, Holmodor, Gulag Archipelago, and Cultural Revolution.

      Rather conspicuously, these latest genocide-as-usual rumblings—met with the usual blinding media blackout—are coming from a breach birth Ottoman Caliphate that, like always, leads with its anus. Once again, as with any bullying arse, the Little Sultan threateningly backs his nouveau Islamic cesspit into a modern world unappreciative of such barbaric filth or intolerance.

      It looks as though Europe’s perennial Sick Man is not just purging itself of nearly a century of semi-functional Kemalist secularism, but is busily relapsing into another binge on the same old genocidal hemlock that retarded it in yesteryear and threatens to dumb it down further today—as if that’s even humanly possible.

      To paraphrase Churchill: Never have so many little learned so little from such oft-repeated lessons. Nearly a millennium after Islam’s birth and over four centuries ago Venice’s Patriarch, Matteo Zane, described Ottoman Muslims as, “the most arrogant and wicked men one can imagine”. What and why haven’t we learned?

      • This Turk is a génocidaire.
        “cleanse” ~ “exterminate” ~ “neutralize”

        He’s dehumanized an entire ethnicity – the Kurds. He’s consumed with the compulsion to murder them all. 30 million souls, proud and tough.

        A godfather to ISIS, wipe-outs of ancient communities in Iraq and Syria. And every government knows it. USA, NATO, Arab states, Russia.

        Somehow it’s not worthy of media coverage. We just avert our eyes. That’s a stain on all of us.

        We’re so careful of this megalomaniacal Turk’s sensibilities that we dare not acknowledge officially the Armenian Genocide. Industrial-scale murder that paved the way for the Holocaust.

        We – the governments listed above – have enough leverage over this animal to restrain him. It could be done with concerted diplomatic pressure. Without it costing us a dime or a drop of blood. It could’ve been done before Kobane, Yazidis, Afrin.

        Past time we stop this monster.

  9. Gunmen kill policeman, blow up fuel tanker in Iran (abcnews, Feb 6, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/gunmen-kill-policeman-blow-fuel-tanker-iran-60878033

    “Iran’s state TV says gunmen have killed a policeman and wounded a police officer in a shootout in which a stray bullet hit a fuel tanker, causing it to explode.

    It said Wednesday that the shootout erupted near a gas station in the western province of Lurestan. It says the explosion shattered the windows of a nearby building.

    State TV says the wounded police lieutenant is in “satisfactory” condition after being transferred to a local hospital.

    It says the assailants fled in a stolen car. It was unclear what sparked the shootout.

    Heavily rural Lurestan has seen occasional tribal-related armed clashes. Many people in the area keep private firearms.

    In November, authorities confiscated some 150 guns from smugglers in the province.”

    • “Iran’s state TV says gunmen have killed a policeman and wounded a police officer in a shootout in which a stray bullet hit a fuel tanker, causing it to explode.”

      Yet another Crossfire Casualty™ involving those folks for whom “spray and pray” is just a way of life. All that’s missing is a Motorcycle o’Doom.

  10. Amnesty calls for halt to arms sales to Saudi-led coalition (abcnews, Feb 6, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/amnesty-calls-halt-arms-sales-saudi-led-coalition-60879206

    “An international rights group has urged Western governments to stop supplying weapons to parties to the conflict in Yemen after reports that they were ending up in the hands of extremist groups.

    Amnesty International’s arms control and human rights researcher Patrick Wilcken said in a statement Wednesday that “the proliferation of unaccountable, UAE-backed militias is worsening the humanitarian crisis and posing a growing threat to the civilian population.”

    Wilcken says American and British weapons have ended up in the hands of al-Qaida and Islamic State militants, in reference to recent reports by the Amman-based Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism.

    The Saudi-led coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates, has been at war in Yemen with Iran-aligned Houthi rebels since 2015.”

  12. Turkey: French declaration on 1915 events null and void (aa, Feb 6, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/turkey-french-declaration-on-1915-events-null-and-void/1384968

    “Turkey Wednesday strongly condemned French President Emmanuel Macron’s declaration of April 24 as a national day marking the so-called Armenian genocide.

    “Allegations of a so-called Armenian genocide are political lies lacking any legal basis, contrary to historical facts. They are null and void for Turkey,” Ibrahim Kalin, Turkish presidential spokesman, said in a statement.

    “Those who ignore Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call in 2005 to establish a joint historical commission to shed light on historical realities are trying to manipulate historical events,” Kalin added.

    Stating that Turkey will never give opportunity to those who try to breed hatred and enmity by distorting history, he said: “No one can accuse Turkey of a crime it did not commit and cannot defame our history.”

    He also said that Macron, cornered by political woes and months of protests, is trying to rescue himself by using historical events as political fodder…”

  13. Racism, Bullying, Sexism: Amnesty International Workplace ‘Toxic’, Report Finds (sputniknews, Feb 6, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/world/201902061072179943-amnesty-toxic-workplace-culture/

    “The review was based on a survey of 475 staff, 70 percent of the organization’s international workforce, and scores of interviews.

    Leading human rights charity Amnesty International has a “toxic” working environment, with bullying, public humiliation, discrimination and other abuses commonplace, a report — commissioned after two employees committed suicide in 2018 — has found.

    The review, conducted by the KonTerra Group and led by psychologists, identified a hazardous “us vs. them” dynamic at the organization’s offices, combined with an almost total lack of trust in senior managerial figures, evidence of “nepotism and hypocrisy”, and multiple reports of managers “belittling” staff in meetings, deliberately excluding certain employees from reporting, or making demeaning, menacing comments such as “you’re s***!”, “you should quit!”, and “if you stay in this position, your life will be a misery”.

    Shockingly, interviews with staff also indicated Amnesty attempted to “cover up” the death of Gaetan Mootoo, the 65-year-old Amnesty France employee who killed himself in June 2018.

    One staff member told the review that the organisation’s response to Mootoo’s death “upset many of us a lot”. “The way they announced it, the way they tried to cover up.”

    The consultants focused primarily Amnesty’s international secretariat in London, finding the office to be largely operating in a “state of emergency” following a restructuring process to decentralize and move staff closer to the ground in places of civil unrest and conflict, which had taken a “considerable toll” on staff wellbeing, it said. Many Amnesty staffers described their employment as a “life cause” and said there was “significant risk of experiencing stress or trauma” due to the nature of the work they conducted — moreover staff are prone to sacrificing their own wellbeing by taking on massive workloads, leading to “overload and burnout”.

    Staff also reported multiple accounts of discrimination on the basis of race and gender, with women, staff of colour and LGBT employees targeted for abuse, or treated unfairly, a finding KonTerra branded “disconcerting”.

    They found multiple instances of alleged favouritism or nepotism in hiring and cases where positions and/or individuals were made redundant “without due process”.

    In a statement, Amnesty Secretary General Kumi Naidoo said the report was “profoundly troubling”, and “unacceptable management practices, attitudes and behaviours cannot and will not be tolerated at any level” in the organization.

    “We will now look in detail at the recommendations of the KonTerra review — and in consultation with staff draw up an overall implementation plan, assessing to what extent and in what stages we will deliver on them, and how we best integrate them with James Laddie’s recommendations. To that end, I will engage with the wellbeing committee, union and management team to identify what is most urgent and what is seen as most appropriate to address the systemic challenges and to restore trust, and how we best communicate these efforts across the organization. I will present the new plan by the end of March 2019,” he pledged. “

  14. There Are Those Interested in Idlib Remaining Occupied by Terrorists – Governor (sputniknews, Feb 6, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201902061072180014-syria-idlib-nusra-front/

    “Fadi Saadun, the governor of Syria’s province of Idlib, told Sputnik that “the Turks are interested in Idlib remaining occupied by terrorists”. Saadun believes that, first of all, there are political reasons for this; secondly, the province is a huge market for Turkish goods…”

  16. Jihadists retaliate after Burkina Faso military offensive (abcnews, Feb 6, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/jihadists-retaliate-burkina-faso-military-offensive-60881318

    “The commander general of Burkina Faso’s army says five gendarmes are dead and three wounded after jihadists retaliated against counterterror operations that killed 146 of their fighters earlier this week.

    Commander Gen. Moise Minoungou also said late Tuesday that armed forces killed 21 jihadists after they attacked a military base in Oursi.

    Minoungou encouraged the population to continue collaborating with security forces against the growing jihadist presence in the West African nation.

    Islamic extremists in recent months have increased attacks in Burkina Faso’s volatile Sahel region, which is now under a state of emergency.

    Burkina Faso is part of a regional counterterror force, the G5 Sahel, launched in 2017. Other members are Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.”

  17. Patriots fans celebrate Super Bowl 53 win with all-out brawl

    Patriots fans sure have an odd way of celebrating the team’s Super Bowl win.

    Tuesday’s parade for the six-time NFL champions began by irking local commuters by bringing thousands of fans into Boston during rush hour and has spurred at least one punch- and kick-filled brawl on the city streets.

    Maybe they were just fighting over the Tide Pods that tight end Rob Gronkowski was tossing into the crowd, but either way, this seems like a weird way to show appreciation for the city’s latest Super Bowl victory.

    https://nypost.com/2019/02/05/patriots-fans-celebrate-super-bowl-53-win-with-all-out-brawl/

  18. Nuns ‘sex slaves’ scandal fresh blow to Catholic church

    Nuns ‘sex slaves’ scandal fresh blow to Catholic church
    [AFP News]
    Ella IDE
    AFP News5 February 2019
    Pope Francis’s public admission that priests have used nuns as “sexual slaves” marks a new chapter in the crisis rocking the church

    Pope Francis’s public admission that priests have used nuns as “sexual slaves” — and may still be doing so — marks a new chapter in the abuse crisis rocking the Catholic church.

    “It is the first time that the pope, but also the church as an institution, has publicly admitted this abuse is taking place, and that’s hugely important,” Lucetta Scaraffia, editor of the Vatican’s women’s magazine, told AFP on Wednesday.

    The pontiff on Tuesday said Catholic priests and bishops had been sexually abusing nuns, and that his predecessor Benedict XVI had dissolved a religious order of women because of “sexual slavery on the part of priests and the founder”.

    The Church has “suspended several clerics” and the Vatican has been “working (on the issue) for a long time,” he said.

    The abuse was “still going on, because it’s not something that just goes away like that. On the contrary,” he added.

    The nuns scandal broke as the Catholic church has had to contend with a wave of cases involving paedophile priests in countries worldwide from Ireland and the United States to Australia.

    The papal admission followed a rare outcry last week from the Vatican’s women’s magazine, “Women Church World”, over the rape of nuns, leaving them feeling forced to have abortions or raise children not recognised by their priest fathers.

    https://sg.news.yahoo.com/nuns-sex-slaves-scandal-fresh-blow-catholic-church-002950866.html

    • Pope publicly acknowledges clergy sexual abuse of nuns

      ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis on Tuesday publicly acknowledged the scandal of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns and vowed to do more to fight the problem, the latest sign that there is no end in sight to the Catholic Church’s abuse crisis — and that it now has a reckoning from the #MeToo movement.

      Francis admitted to the problem for the first time in public during a news conference while returning to Rome from the United Arab Emirates. The acknowledgment comes just two weeks before he hosts an unprecedented gathering of bishops to craft a global response to the scandal of priestly predators who target children and the superiors who covered up the crimes.

      https://apnews.com/397f2c76afc04532908035a66ccaacc8

  19. Russia Starts to Worry Maduro’s Grip Is Slipping in Venezuela

    After pledging full support for the embattled regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Russia is starting to show signs of doubt about his ability to survive an opposition challenge.

    While Moscow hasn’t given up its public backing of Maduro, it increasingly recognizes that the disastrous state of Venezuela’s economy is inexorably draining what remains of his public support, said two people close to the Kremlin. At the same time, the army’s reluctance to crack down on its own citizens limits his ability to use force to crush the challenge to his rule, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the issue is sensitive.

    “Unfortunately, time isn’t on Maduro’s side,’’ said Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy chairman of the international affairs committee in the upper house of Russia’s parliament. “In a situation of worsening economic crisis, the mood in society can quickly turn against him.’’

    Moscow remains wary of Maduro’s U.S.-backed opponents but is acutely aware how few levers it has to rescue a client who’s too deep in financial distress for the Kremlin to bail him out and too far away for Russia to deploy significant military force to shore him up.

    https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russia-starts-to-worry-maduros-grip-is-slipping-in-venezuela-64416

  20. https://themoscowtimes.com/news/cast-in-russia-as-enemy-within-jehovahs-witnesses-see-soviet-history-replay-64238
    Never had any real problem with JWs. even those who knocked on your door were relatively easy to defeat due to their inherent ignorance of the man JoN and his words. BUT! They are willing to die for their beliefs and did so in Nazi Germany(Himmler said while watching an execution:”this is how I want my men to die”. So they deserve credit for being to die but there seems to be no record of them actually killing anybody? I guess that I must have missed in Russia the many suicide bombs, the multiple rape grooming gangs, the using of vehicles as weapons to kill civilians etc. that mark such a dastardly group. Or just maybe Putin like everyone else is simply too gutless to squash the real enemy.

    • Russia keeps its religions under the State thumb.
      Only the Orthodox Church is allowed to proselytize.

      Catholicism is ok, but not the Protestant flavors. They’re not indigenous to Mother Russia, which already has more than enough native multiculti.

      Jews are fine. Putin would love to reverse some of the brain-drain, lure back Russian Jews living in Europe.

      The Mosques are closely monitored: The imams are Putin’s creatures; the congregations laced with secret police. But underground mosques are everywhere.

      The real percentage of tards isn’t published, but I’m told Moscow’s got the highest of any city in Europe. Many are illegals from the Caucasus. Putin is constantly busting terrorist cells, thwarting plots.

  21. Venezuela’s Rank-and-File Soldiers Have Been Deserting in Droves

    Read more at: https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/venezuelan-national-guardsmen-have-been-deserting-in-big-numbers#gs.9ZlyWu49
    Copyright © BloombergQuint

    (Bloomberg) — Even before the U.S.-backed leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly called on the military to abandon President Nicolas Maduro, the government was trying to stop a surge of desertions and ordered border guards to stop soldiers trying to leave the country without permission. Two documents illustrate the erosion of the armed forces. One lists about 4,300 national-guard officers who

    Read more at: https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/venezuelan-national-guardsmen-have-been-deserting-in-big-numbers#gs.9ZlyWu49
    Copyright © BloombergQuint

  22. South African land grab farmers fleeing to Australia in ‘record numbers’

    SOUTH African farmers are fleeing to Australia in “record numbers” as expropriations loom, it has been reported.

    Perth-based law firm Suffolk Law has calculated at least 162,000 South Africans have emigrated Down Under since last February.

    This marks a major upturn in migration between the two countries, which has been suggested is linked to South Africa’s controversial land reforms.

    https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/757905/south-africa-farmers-land-grabs-australia-emigration-migration

  23. A SOTU for the record books
    By J.E. Dyer February 6, 2019

    I noticed that Ann Coulter didn’t like President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night. She wasn’t just skeptical or “meh”; she was peevish about it.

    Ann Coulter
    ?
    @AnnCoulter

    “Golden beaches of California”? This was the lamest, sappiest, most intentionally tear-jerking SOTU ever. Please fire your speechwriter, @realDonaldTrump.
    3,182
    9:31 PM – Feb 5, 2019
    Twitter Ads info and privacy

    8,488 people are talking about this

    I think she’s out of step. A lot of people on social media were calling it the best SOTU they’ve ever heard. I don’t know; I don’t remember SOTUs that well from year to year. But the main impression I came away with was a sense of grace and positive energy.

    It probably wasn’t Nancy Pelosi’s smartest move, to paint a big red arrow on this SOTU and basically guarantee that it would have more attention than usual.

    Just a few observations. Kind of at random, in fact; these are just the things that jumped out at me and demanded to be remembered.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/02/06/a-sotu-for-the-record-books/

    • The end of her article: But he is the choice set before us today between life as a republic of free citizens, and death in a sucking vortex of government-mandated resentment and grievances against our fellow men.

      The question has never been whether Donald Trump is a discerning “adult” in the practice of politics, civic communication, and priority-setting. The question has always been whether we are.

      As most of you know Trump wasn’t my first choice but he is the man who won the Republican Primary and then the General Election. (A win that once again has the Dems working to change things so 6 or so big cities choose the President and the rest of us have no say in who is leading the nation.) His victory has given the US a chance to pull back from the Socialist/Marxist nightmare that Obama brought and that Hillary wanted to extend.

      We are blessed or cursed with a incredibly hard task, we either step up and prove that we are worthy descendants of the Frontiersmen and women who created our nations or if we are no longer capable of doing great things. For generations the left has been indoctrinating us and our kids with the idea that we are useless dregs of humanity that deserve to be thrown on the trash heap of history. Then President Trump entered the game and in two short years he has turned things around and the US is once again strong and getting stronger. He isn’t the most polished President we have ever had, but if he was polished he probably couldn’t achieve what he has. He isn’t one of the self proclaimed elite that place style over substance and performance. He is a self made Billionaire who believes in results over style. The elitists on both sides hate him because he is showing them to be the incompetent Perfumed Princes and Princesses (A military term for a self important child of someone who did great things). To borrow an expression from Dan Bongino, the rules have changed. The new rules are, We don’t care how crude the President is. And we win you lose remember those rules (we don’t care, we win you lose) and ignore the mud the left throws and the anger they display

      We win, they lose. Things are that simple, remember this and help PT as he works to restore all of the rights the Constitution is suppose to protect. With the US as an example of what Free People can achieve the left can’t win. Fight to ensure that the next few Centuries will be Centuries of free people instead of Centuries of slaves.

    • I thought the speech soared, the President was spectacular.
      That “choice” at the end was straight out of Deuteronomy.

      Princess Ann Coulter can choke on her bleached-blond hair extensions.

  25. SOTU from the haters’ perspective
    By Howard Portnoy February 6, 2019

    If you haven’t yet read J.E.Dyer’s stirring and at times moving assessment of last night’s State of the Union address, I urge you to stop reading and do so now. (Richard: I second the motion. https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/02/06/a-sotu-for-the-record-books/)

    One passage in particular that resonated with me focused on a rare moment for any SOTU or other official state business ordinarily marked by decorum if not pomp. It was when the entire chamber broke out in a chorus of “Happy Birthday” for 81-year-old invited guest Judah Samet, who survived the Holocaust and, more recently, the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The event was so spontaneous, so rousing, that even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began to sing, at first tentatively, then with full throat.

    J.E. wrote used this inspirational moment to reflect on the two Americas we currently live in. One is the America whose citizens “just keep hoisting their rucks every day and going about their business, providing for their families, producing everything we have” and “would rather sing Happy Birthday to a stranger than hear one more word about what a terrible place their country is.” The other is the America inhabited by those who prefer to “plot to move other people’s money around to suit the tantrums of an ill-tempered ideology.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/02/06/sotu-from-the-haters-perspective/

    • Another one well worth the read, at the end he said that the lefts failure to grasp what was said is sentencing them to 2 more years, maybe more of winter.

      The reaction of the leftist haters of freedom and individuality shows that they have learned nothing from the 2016 loss and the (historically) poor win in 2018. They are still ignoring the Working and Small business classes that make America work. They are still ignoring Science and Reality preferring to live in a fantasy world that the rest of us reject. Their knee jerk rejection of all that has made the US great is going to cost them dearly in the next election. If, I repeat if they don’t resort to violence before the 2020 election (I think they will) they will resort to violence after their next big loss.

  27. Rep. Tlaib promotes using eminent domain to seize GM’s property for ‘Green New Deal’
    Craig Bannister, CNSNews February 5, 2019

    [Ed. – Raise the communist flag. The nation now has a dictator.]

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/02/05/rep-tlaib-promotes-using-eminent-domain-to-seize-gms-property-to-create-green-new-deal/

    Rep. Tlaib Promotes Using Eminent Domain to Seize GM Property to Create ‘Green New Deal’

    On Friday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) promoted and quoted a video calling for the government to use eminent domain to seize plants closed by companies like General Motors (GM) – and use those plants to create Tlaib’s “Green New Deal.”

    Tlaib tweeted a new video created by Greater Detroit Democratic Socialists of America, “Make the Green New Deal a Reality,” quoting its last line advocating using government to “take control” of corporate production capacity:

    https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/rep-tlaib-promotes-using-eminent-domain-seize-gm-property-create-green-new-deal?utm_source=sumome&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=sumome_share

    Richard: In some, possibly many ways this is good for our side, this call for the Government to seize the private property and use it for a junk science program is going to help our side. Especially among the people who would be put out of work (or forced to work on the junk science programs) by this seizure. This is going to drive a lot of the old time Dems from the new party, they will either fight a civil war in the party to regain control or they will move off to start a new party. Both will help us elect people who will fight the Marxist policies of the left.

  28. QUEBEC – Opponents condemn CAQ minister’s hijab comments as clumsy, divisive

    Quebec’s official opposition party is criticizing the new Minister Responsible for the Status of Women over comments she made calling hijabs a symbol of oppression.

    On Tuesday, Isabelle Charest said wearing a hijab does not correspond to Quebec values and keeps women from flourishing.

    Her comments came as the debate over religious accommodation, secularism and religious symbols has heated up. The Coalition Avenir Quebec government has vowed to pass legislation banning government workers in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols such as hijabs or kippahs.

    Interim Liberal leader Pierre Arcand called on the CAQ government to debate religious symbols in a reasonable manner, saying Quebec needs tolerance.

    Liberal MNA Kathleen Weil called Charest’s remarks “very clumsy.”

    Quebec Solidaier co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said that Charest’s comments were “divisive.”

    https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/opponents-condemn-caq-minister-s-hijab-comments-as-clumsy-divisive-1.4284881
    ==================================================

    Quebec status of women minister calls Muslim head scarf symbol of oppression

    Quebec’s new minister responsible for the status of women says the Muslim hijab is a symbol of oppression.

    Speaking to reporters after being named to the portfolio Tuesday, Charest said the Muslim head scarf does not correspond to her values and is not a way for women to flourish in society.

    She said women should not wear the garment. She objects to it because it represents a command for women to cover themselves, she said.

    Her statements come as the Coalition Avenir Quebec government prepares to introduce legislation prohibiting public servants in positions of authority — including teachers — from wearing visible religious symbols including the hijab, kippa and turban.

    Pierre Arcand, interim leader of the Opposition Liberals, said today that tolerance and calm are needed in the debate prompted by the Coalition government. He said his party favours freedom of choice.

    Charest, a former Olympic short track speed skater, was elected for the first time on Oct. 1. She is also junior education minister.

    https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/02/06/quebec-status-of-women-minister-calls-muslim-head-scarf-symbol-of-oppression/

    =============================================

    • CBC – Muslim head scarf a symbol of oppression, insists Quebec’s minister for status of women

      Quebec’s newly appointed minister responsible for the status of women is standing by her position that the Muslim hijab is a symbol of oppression.

      Speaking to reporters after being named to the portfolio Tuesday, Isabelle Charest said the head scarf “is not something that women should be wearing.”

      Charest didn’t back down from those comments Wednesday, though she acknowledged that some women choose to wear the hijab themselves, and she “respects their decision.”

      “When they are dictated by a religion on what they have to wear, for me it’s a lack of liberty, and it doesn’t meet my values,” Charest said.

      ‘Divisive’ comments: Québec Solidaire

      Pierre Arcand, interim leader of the Opposition Liberals, said tolerance and calm are needed in the debate prompted by the CAQ government. He said his party favours freedom of choice.

      Québec Solidaire’s co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said Charest’s comments were “divisive.”

      He said the minister for the status of women should seek to build “consensus” rather than stir conflict.

      Charest, a former Olympic short-track speed skater, was elected for the first time on Oct. 1. She is also junior education minister.

      Justice Minister Sonia Lebel was formerly responsible for the status of women, but gave up the position Tuesday.

      The CAQ government is preparing to introduce legislation banning public workers in positions of authority from wearing visible religious symbols, including the hijab.

      https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/isabelle-charest-hijab-muslim-1.5007889
      =====================================================
      Montreal Gazette- Quebec minister for women stands by belief that hijabs are oppressive

      Isabelle Charest also refuted the idea that the CAQ’s soon-to-be tabled secularism legislation targets Muslim women.

      QUEBEC — With the opposition parties denouncing her remarks as insensitive, Quebec’s minister for the status of women Wednesday refused to back down from her statement that finds the hijab oppressive.

      Instead she went further saying all religious symbols can be a sign of oppression.

      “I stand by what I said yesterday,” Isabelle Charest told reporters arriving for a morning meeting of the Coalition Avenir Québec caucus. “I don’t regret the way I answered the question.

      “When a religion dictates clothing or something, for me, this is not freedom of choice. When someone doesn’t have freedom of choice, for me it’s a sign of oppression.

      “I told you the hijab does not correspond to my values. My values are that a woman should be free to wear what she wants to wear or not wear.”

      She also refuted the idea that the CAQ’s soon-to-be tabled secularism legislation banning religious symbols for authority figures basically targets Muslim women wearing hijabs.

      “The bill on secularism touches all religions, in fact all religious symbols,” she said.

      A day earlier, within moments of being handed responsibility for the status of women by Premier François Legault, Charest stated she believes the hijab is a symbol of female oppression.

      Her remarks immediately made waves with opposition politicians.

      Interim Liberal Pierre Arcand told reporters the remarks do not help improve the current climate on the issue.

      “What we need in Quebec is really to talk about these subjects with a sense of tolerance, serenity,” Arcand said Wednesday arriving for the Liberal caucus. “Our position in the Liberal Party is simple. We believe in freedom of choice.”

      “We’re talking about people’s rights,” added D’Arcy McGee Liberal MNA David Birnbaum. “I hope the new minister is going to learn that she is the minister for all Quebec women and for all Quebec.

      “It’s rather inappropriate and I think irrelevant what she thinks about the hijab. There are women who choose to wear it and that’s evidently their right. I’m not sure her answer is relevant or pertinent.

      “The question is do we need to legislate people’s individual rights? The answer for me and our party is quite simple.”

      The co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, described the comments as “divisive.”

      https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/quebec-minister-for-women-stands-by-belief-that-hijabs-are-oppressive

      ======================================

      Montreal Gazette : Me and my hijab

  29. RT – Washington vows to pull half its troops out of Afghanistan by April – Taliban

    A delegation of the Taliban is in Moscow for two-day peace talks claiming the US has vowed to withdraw half its troops from Afghanistan by April.

    • BBC – Taliban official: ‘War in Afghanistan should end soon’ –

      Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who has led the Taliban’s peace negotiations with the US, has told the BBC that “peace is more difficult to achieve than war”.

      Mr Stanikzai was until recently the head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar and remains a leading figure in the group.

      He gave his first interview to the international media to the BBC’s Secunder Kermani, while attending a meeting in Moscow with senior Afghan opposition politicians

  30. VICE NEWS – Guilty: The Activists Who Stopped a Deportation Flight –

    ( 17 min )

    On 28th March 2017, 15 activists broke into Stansted Airport and chained themselves to a plane to stop a deportation flight.

    The flight was chartered by the Home Office and was due to deport 57 people in the dead of the night.

    Thanks to the protestors, several people on the flight were able to appeal their deportation and stay in the country.

    However, their actions have led to them being charged with endangering an aerodrome, a charge that carries a life sentence.

    We’ve been following some of the protestors to see what made them take such drastic actions and risk their own lives to save the lives of strangers.

    • UK: Activists rally as ‘Stansted 15’ sentenced for blocking deportation flight

      Around 300 supporters protested outside Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex on Wednesday, in defence of 15 activists who were awaiting their sentencing on terror charges after they blocked a runway at Stansted Airport last year in protest against chartered migrant deportation flights.

      It is thought the 15 defendants will be spared jail.

      The protesters exhibited numerous banners in support of the so-called ‘Stansted 15’, as well as many pro-refugee placards and flags.

      “I’m disgusted, I’m outraged, I’m ashamed of this country and the judiciary for making those charges, and making example of people who’ve actually – all they’ve done is try to help people and save lives. And they have done that,” remarked one protester.

      On March 29, 2017, the 15 activists were arrested at Stansted Airport for bringing it to a standstill by blockading a non-commercial runway where a deportation flight to Nigeria and Ghana was scheduled to depart.

      Reportedly, they surrounded the charter plane, lay on the ground tied to one another and chanted phrase, “No borders no nations, stop deportations.”

      Essex Police were called to the airport to intervene and reported making several arrests.

      Several flights were diverted as a result of the incident and the charter flight was cancelled. The direct action is reportedly the first of its kind to successfully stop a mass deportation charter flight.

  31. BBC – Where are England’s asylum seekers living?

    Exclusive figures reveal high numbers of asylum seekers are being housed in some of England’s most deprived areas

    Newsnight has seen exclusive figures that reveal the extent to which high numbers of asylum seekers are being housed in some of the country’s most deprived areas.
    There are currently forty thousand asylum seekers housed under the government’s dispersal scheme across much of the country, but the reality is that the majority are placed in some of the poorest parts – often in towns in the midlands and north.

    An agreement that the number of asylum seekers in a local authority doesn’t exceed 1 in 200 of the overall population is meant to ensure a fair spread.

    But figures shown exclusively to Newsnight paint a different picture. Katie Razzall reports on the situation in Yorkshire.

  32. AP – Tusk: Special place in hell for no plan Brexiteers

    European Council President Donald Tusk blasted British politicians in Brussels Wednesday, saying there’s a ‘special place in hell’ for those who lobbied for the UK to leave the European Union without considering a plan for how to do it. (Feb. 6)

  33. Channel 4 – Fighting far-right extremism in white communities

    ( 14 min 32 )

    For years, critics of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy, the Prevent programme, have claimed it stigmatises the Muslim community.

    But last year, the number of people referred to Prevent over concerns about far-right extremism rose by more than a third.

    This programme has been given exclusive access to the first Prevent group aimed at a group of mothers from predominantly white areas of Bradford.

    Channel 4 News has been speaking to them about why an increasing number of young, white people are vulnerable to radicalisation.

    + comments on the YT page

  34. UK Police Arrest 33 Men Over Child Sex Abuse

    LONDON—British police have arrested 33 men as part of an investigation into historical child sex abuse allegations involving one woman, a police force in northern England said Feb. 4.

    The men were arrested after the woman alleged that she was sexually abused as a child between 2002 and 2005 in Halifax in the West Yorkshire area, local police said.

    All of the men were interviewed and released under investigation, according to West Yorkshire police.

    “Protecting and safeguarding children is a top priority … this operation forms part of West Yorkshire Police’s ongoing commitment to investigating both current and non-recent sexual offenses against children,” Detective Inspector Laura Nield said.

    “Tackling child abuse is not something the police can do alone, and we continue to work closely with local authorities, charities, and other organizations to support victims and bring offenders to justice,” she said in a statement.

    West Yorkshire police last month arrested 55 men in a separate investigation into historical child sex abuse allegations involving seven women in the region.

    All the men were interviewed and released under investigation, according to detectives in West Yorkshire.

    The allegations were made by seven women in connection with sexual abuse against them as children between 2002 and 2009. The men are from Dewsbury, Batley, and Bradford.

    Investigators warned in 2017 that child exploitation was still in operation across the country.

    “I think there’s every likelihood that this is happening in every town and city across the country,” Chief Constable Steve Ashman of Northumbria Police told The Independent.

    Last August, 30 men and one woman were charged with sexual exploitation in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The suspects were charged with abusing five girls under the age of 18 over a period of seven years, between 2005 and 2012. Charges included rape, trafficking, and sexual exploitation. The alleged victims were between the ages of 12 and 18.

    In March 2018, seven men were convicted of abusing young girls in Oxford. The gang frequently abused girls aged between 13 and 15, the court heard.

    A number of grooming gangs have been exposed in the UK in recent years; one of the most prominent cases is in Rotherham.

    A 2014 investigation found there were 1,400 sex abuse victims in the town between 1997 and 2013.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/uk-police-arrest-33-men-over-child-sex-abuse_2789850.html

    • Mirror – UK – More than 30 men arrested in large historic sex abuse probe

      West Yorkshire Police says the investigation centres on allegations made by one woman of sexual abuse committed against her as child and have called the alleged offences “truly heinous

      Some 33 men have been arrested in connection to alleged historic sex offences against one woman when she was a child.

      West Yorkshire Police have described the alleged crimes as “truly heinous” as they step up an extensive probe.

      The suspects, aged between 30 to 40 years, were detained at a number of addresses since October 9, 2018.

      They’ve now all been released under investigation pending further enquiries.

      The huge probe centres on allegations made by one woman of sexual abuse committed against her as child predominantly in Halifax, West Yorkshire, between 2002 and 2005.

      “Protecting and safeguarding children is a top priority for the Force and this operation forms part of West Yorkshire Police’s ongoing commitment to investigating both current and non-recent sexual offences against children,” said detective inspector Laura Nield, of Calderdale District Safeguarding.

      “These crimes affect the most vulnerable in our society and are truly heinous crimes.”

      hose arrested were detained at properties in nearby Calderdale, Bradford and Kirklees, police added.

      Calderdale Council and other partner agencies are assisting in the continuing probe.

      Detective inspector Laura Nield added: “We have specialist safeguarding units in each of our five policing districts, which include officers dedicated to investigating and dealing with both current and non-recent child sexual exploitation.

      “Tackling child abuse is not something the Police can do alone, and we continue to work closely with local authorities, charities and other organisations to support victims and bring offenders to justice.

      “All our investigations are victim-led and the long-term wellbeing of those victims is of paramount importance.

      “We would urge anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse, no matter when it took place, to report it to the police. You will be listened to, taken seriously and supported by professionals with experience of dealing with these kind of offences.”

      If you or anyone have any information relating to child sex abuse, you should call West Yorkshire Police on 101.

      https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/more-30-men-arrested-large-13951555

      ==================================================
      the Examiner – Sex and violence abuse victims will be offered free advice at drop-in clinics

      The sessions are being held as part of ‘Abuse Awareness Week’

      […]And West Yorkshire Police are continuing to investigate claims of continual abuse and it was revealed last month that 55 people had been arrested on suspicion historic child sex abuse allegations in the Kirklees District.

      The 55 were questioned following an arrest operation in the Batley , Dewsbury and Bradford areas over the last few months, West Yorkshire Police said.

      It’s after seven women came forward saying they were abused as girls between 2002 and 2009. All those arrested have been interviewed and released under investigation.

      […]

      https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/sex-violence-abuse-victims-offered-15776662

  35. MEMRI – NJ Imam: Liberals Are Trying To Force Muslims To Adopt Liberalism, Allow Them To Insult Muhammad

    New Jersey-based Imam Mateen Khan said during a lecture at the Muslim Center of Middlesex County, NJ, (MCMC) that liberalism is a philosophy that requires everybody to adopt it, and that holds that those who don’t accept liberalism are a threat. Giving the example of Afghanistan, which he said the U.S. invaded under the pretext of empowering Afghani women, Khan said that those who don’t accept liberalism are forced to accept it with the pretext of women’s rights, LGBT rights, and combating intolerance.

    He said that liberals want Muslims to allow them to exercise their freedom of speech to insult the Prophet Muhammad.

    Later in the lecture, Khan said that the Jews in Europe had been hated and used as a scapegoat because Europeans were antisemitic.

    He then claimed that some Israeli psychologists had written that the Zionists had successfully convinced the Europeans to hate the Arabs and Palestinians – who he explained are also Semitic – instead of the Jews, by telling them that the Palestinians are the backwards, monotheistic Semites who should really be hated.

    The lecture was uploaded to MCMC’s YouTube channel on December 30, 2018.

  36. Virginia Del. Kathy Tran Submitted Bill To Save Caterpillars On Same Day As Late-Stage Abortion Bill

    The Democratic Virginia delegate who has recently come under fire for sponsoring a bill in the Virginia House of Delegates that would allow the termination of a pregnancy up to 40 weeks old, is also the chief patron of a bill that would protect the lives of “fall cankerworms” during certain months.

    Democratic Virginia Del. Kathy Tran introduced “House Bill No. 2495 – Fall cankerworm; spraying prohibited during certain months” on Jan. 9, the same day as “House Bill No. 2491 — Abortion; eliminate certain requirements.”

    Tran came under fire Tuesday for her support of legislation that would allow an abortion to be performed just moments before the birth of a child. (RELATED: VA Considering Bill Legalizing Abortion Until 40 Weeks In Pregnancy)

    https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/31/kathy-tran-caterpillars-same-day-abortion/

  37. Warren’s Folly
    Imposing a “wealth tax” would be unwieldy—and probably unconstitutional.

    enator and 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has proposed a national wealth tax—a 2 percent annual levy on a person’s net worth above $50 million.

    At best, the wealth tax would be constitutionally problematic. Congress has the power to tax almost anything, other than exports, but the Constitution imposes limits on this broad power. For one thing, if a tax is a “duty, impost, or excise”—usually called an indirect tax—it must be uniform throughout the United States. The tax rates and what is taxed must be the same in Massachusetts as in Mississippi. The uniformity rule is usually easy to satisfy, but the wealth tax is unlikely to be considered an indirect tax.

    The wealth tax is more likely to be considered a direct tax, and enacting a workable direct tax is hard to do—intentionally so. The Founders worried that Congress might use the relatively dangerous direct taxes as everyday revenue-raisers. To prevent abuse, the Constitution requires apportioning a direct tax among the states based on population: regardless of how the tax base is distributed across the country, taxpayers in each state in the aggregate must pay tax in proportion to their state’s share of the national population. The apportionment rule makes imposition of a direct tax often technically—and politically—impossible. That’s not a glitch, as some suggest; that was the point.

    https://www.city-journal.org/elizabeth-warren-wealth-tax

  38. Looks like Macron will do anything to stay in power.

    https://www.businessinsider.com.au/france-fires-nuclear-capable-missile-during-inf-row-with-russia-us-2019-2?r=US&IR=T

    France said on Tuesday, days after a treaty between the US and Russia that formed the cornerstone of European nuclear security collapsed, that it had fired a nuclear-capable missile from a fighter jet.
    France has been flexing its military muscles and asserting its independence since feuding with US President Donald Trump over defence issues.
    France fired the missile from a fighter jet in an exercise that tested every element of an actual nuclear strike, Reuters described the country’s military as saying.

  39. zero hedge – CNN Finally Discovers The US-Saudi Arms Pipeline To Al-Qaeda

    It appears CNN has finally caught up to what many of us have for years documented: US weapons shipments to Middle East “allies” have often gone straight into the hands of al-Qaeda and other hardline jihadists. A new CNN “exclusive” finds that throughout the Saudi war in Yemen, the Pentagon has been arming an array of dangerous groups through the Saudis and Emiratis, which further includes the very Iran-backed Shia rebels the US-Saudi coalition is aiming to defeat. The CNN report begins:

    Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners have transferred American-made weapons to al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other factions waging war in Yemen, in violation of their agreements with the United States, a CNN investigation has found.

    The weapons have also made their way into the hands of Iranian-backed rebels battling the coalition for control of the country, exposing some of America’s sensitive military technology to Tehran and potentially endangering the lives of US troops in other conflict zones.

    For those who have long watched US “train-and-equip” campaigns in places like Libya, Syria, and Yemen, the CNN “bombshell” is absolutely nothing new, but a long established pattern. In these places the US weapons pipeline was set up to give American military and intelligence officers plausible deniability as they were handed out on the Syrian and Libyan battlefields often by third parties, which formed a jihadi one-stop shop Walmart of sorts.

    US arms are so profuse they’ve become a local currency of sorts used by the Saudis and Emiratis to buy loyalties:

    Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, its main partner in the war, have used the US-manufactured weapons as a form of currency to buy the loyalties of militias or tribes, bolster chosen armed actors, and influence the complex political landscape, according to local commanders on the ground and analysts who spoke to CNN.

    But perhaps what’s new in the CNN report is that Tehran-backed groups are also enjoying the largesse at a time the Trump administration is ramping up war rhetoric with Iran. And likely the report never would have seen the light of day prior to the grizzly Saudi-sponsored murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which CNN actually seems to acknowledge in its report.

    Now CNN wonders if the US has “lost control” over its key ally the Saudis (ironically CNN asks this question years after even then Vice President Biden admitted that “our allies” were arming ISIS in 2014).

    CNN continues:

    The revelations raise fresh questions about whether the US has lost control over a key ally presiding over one of the most horrific wars of the past decade, and whether Saudi Arabia is responsible enough to be allowed to continue buying the sophisticated arms and fighting hardware. Previous CNN investigations established that US-made weapons were used in a series of deadly Saudi coalition attacks that killed dozens of civilians, many of them children.

    As part of their investigation, CNN took cameras into local Yemeni arms markets in the country’s southwest, were American-made weapons were purchased alongside candy and household goods:

    In one arms market, sweets were displayed among the ammunition. “Do you have American guns here?” CNN asked. “The American guns are expensive and sought after,” the weapons trader replied, in an exchange captured by undercover CNN cameras.

    The report documents instances of groups like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) being in possession of sophisticated US military hardware such as armored vehicles:

    Amid the chaos of the broader war, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) made its way to the frontlines in Taiz in 2015, forging advantageous alliances with the pro-Saudi militias they fought alongside.

    One of those militias linked to AQAP, the Abu Abbas brigade, now possesses US-made Oshkosh armored vehicles, paraded in a 2015 show of force through the city.

    Another jihadist group operating in Yemen even had armored vehicles with visible labels showing they’d been made in Beaumont, Texas.

    According to CNN:

    Nearly half a dozen Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles sit side by side, most bearing stickers with the insignia of the Giants Brigade.

    One even has the export label on it showing it was sent from Beaumont, Texas to Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, before ending up in the hands of the militia. The serial number of another MRAP reveals it was manufactured by Navistar, the largest provider of armored vehicles for the US military.

    And in some instances the very “enemy” the Saudi-UAE-US coalition is at war with was in possession of major American-made hardware:

    CNN obtained an image showing the serial numbers of a second American MRAP in the hands of another senior Houthi official last year in Hodeidah.

    The vehicle was part of a $2.5 billion sale to the UAE in 2014. The sale document, seen by CNN, certifies that “a determination has been made that the recipient country can provide the same degree of protection for the sensitive technology” as the United States.

    CNN notes that Tehran is “assessing US military technology closely” and that the weapons proliferation seen in the Yemen war is making this task easier.

    The Pentagon meanwhile, when pressed on its weapons going to the Saudi coalition, where it then appears to end up in the hands of any and all players on the Yemeni battlefield, simply responded this has not been “authorized”.

    “The United States has not authorized the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates to re-transfer any equipment to parties inside Yemen,” Pentagon spokesman Johnny Michael said in a statement to CNN. “The US government cannot comment on any pending investigations of claims of end-use violations of defense articles and services transferred to our allies and partners.”

    So apparently, there’s at least an ongoing investigation, however, we don’t expect that investigation to run too deep, and it certainly won’t venture into probing the even more egregious arming of al-Qaeda and ISIS factions in places like Libya and Syria.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-05/cnn-finally-discovers-where-all-those-us-saudi-coalition-weapons-end

    =======================================
    CNN – US general expresses support for Saudi coalition after CNN report on weapons in Yemen

    https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/05/middleeast/yemen-us-centcom-weapons-intl/index.html

    ==============================================

    CNN – Top general asked about CNN report on US weapons in Yemen

    Lawmakers are demanding answers after CNN’s Nima Elbagir reported that US weapons are falling into enemy hands in Yemen.

    The top United States military commander in the Middle East suggested that America would continue to back its allies waging war in Yemen, despite new evidence of arms deal violations uncovered by a CNN investigation.

    Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of Central Command (CENTCOM), told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that withdrawing US support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen would remove the “leverage we have to continue to influence them” and could further endanger Americans in the region.

    Votel said the military was “looking more closely at the allegations” in CNN’s report, published Monday, which revealed that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had transferred US-made weapons to al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other groups on the ground.

  40. Sharia Patrols arrive in New York city – complete, with cars identical to police cars:

  41. LONDON BLOODBATH: Teen stabbed on bus in Hackney as violence continues across capital (express, Feb 6, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1083433/london-news-hackney-clapton-common-stabbing-bus-attack-london-knife-crime

    “A TEENAGER has been rushed to hospital after being stabbed on a bus in Hackney, east London, the latest in a series of violent attacks which continue to blight the capital.

    Police and paramedics scrambled to the scene at Clapton Common after receiving reports a young man had been attacked. Officers arrived shortly before 3pm to find the victim, believed to be in his mid-teens, with stab wounds. London Ambulance Service said the teen was taken as a “priority” to a major trauma centre.

    His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

    Pictures from the scene show emergency services personnel working to treat the victim on a pavement next to a busy road.

    A police cordon is in place.

    Today’s attack comes just hours after a teenager was stabbed to death in Battersea last night.

    Eyewitnesses said 19-year-old Lajean Richards was attacked just meters from his front door in Wolsey Court, off Westbridge Road.

    Police said they arrested two men, aged 19 and 27, on suspicion of murder after they turned up at a central London hospital.

    A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Police are dealing with a stabbing in Hackney.

    “Officers were called at 2.47pm on Wednesday, 6 February, to reports of a person stabbed on a bus at Clapton Common, E5.

    “A youth, believed to be in his mid-teens, was found at the location with stab wounds.

    “He has been taken to an east London hospital; his condition awaits.””

  42. EL SALVADOR – Son of Imam hailing from Palestine becomes youngest President of El Salvador

    London: Nayib Bukele, who hails from the occupied Palestinian territories, won El Salvador’s presidential elections. He got more votes than his three rivals combined to usher out the two parties that dominated politics for a quarter century in the crime-plagued Central America nation.

    According to International Middle East Media Center, Bukele was born in 1981 to a family which had migrated to Latin America from occupied Jerusalem in the early 20th century. Bukele’s father Armando Bukele Kattán is a prominent imam in San Salvador. In 2015 Bukele contested the election and was elected as the mayor of San Salvador.

    As he grabbed nearly 54 per cent of the votes, the Supreme Electoral Court declared Nayib Bukele the winner late Sunday. His victory was celebrated in the streets by a jubilant crowd in the capital of San Salvador. El Salvador has a population of just 6.5 million people.

    https://www.siasat.com/news/son-imam-hailing-palestine-becomes-youngest-president-el-salvador-1464344/

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    https://twitter.com/trtworld/status/1092680053652115456

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  43. ROME REPORTS ENGLISH –

    VATICAN – Why Document signed by pope and Muslim leader is so important

    “… I dont think it is fair to identify Islam with violence . It is not fair ”

    • ROME REPORTS ENGLISH –

      VATICAN – Pope meets at spectacular Sheikh Zayed Mosque with Muslim Council of the Elderly

    • ROME REPORTS ENGLISH –

      VATICAN – Pope Francis and Muslim leaders pledge to “demilitarize man’s heart”

  44. Germany: ‘New nationalist hatred’ hijacking German flag – Pres. Steinmeier

    Germany’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave a rousing speech at the National Theatre in Weimar on Wednesday, as part of a ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the enactment of the Weimar Republic’s constitution.

    With Chancellor Angela Merkel in the crowd, Steinmeier reflected on the same event ten years ago and why the public seemed to be more interested this time around.

    “The attention has to do with the rounded nature of the anniversary but also with the current image of liberal democracy, which has changed,” he explained.

    Steinmeier went on to say that the historical achievements of the Weimar Constitution brought about ‘checks and balances, parliamentarianism and the rule of law’ but much of that was under threat across Europe.

    “Ladies and gentlemen, is it not historically absurd if this black, red and gold flag is most strikingly waved today by those who want to spark a new nationalist hatred?” he asked. “Red, black and gold are our colours. They are the symbol of our democracy. Let us never leave them to the despisers of freedom, that I beg of you.”

    Merkel, Steinmeier and Bundestag President Wolfgang Schauble had all attended Herder Church in Weimar earlier on Wednesday for a service celebrating the centenary.

  46. Corrupt Comey Says “Zero Chance” Hillary Will be Prosecuted for Email Scandal

    The Washington Examiner reported that at a town hall event in Sarasota, FL yesterday, Comey said, “There is zero chance, zero chance, on the facts in the Hillary Clinton case, that she would be prosecuted. You are out of your mind if you don’t think the FBI wanted to make a case if we could. The facts weren’t there. Period. Full stop.”

    In July of 2016, Comey announced during a press conference that the FBI would not recommend the Department of Justice charge Clinton for her use of a private email server.

    The former FBI Director said at the time, “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”

    However, as the Daily Caller points out, a federal court recently ruled Clinton must answer more questions about her use of the server.

    In November, federal Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that Clinton must answer th

    https://bongino.com/corrupt-comey-says-zero-chance-hillary-will-be-prosecuted-for-email-scandal/

  47. Another Anti-Trump Democrat Embroiled in Racist Controversy

    Virginia’s Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring admitted today he wore blackface – after a similar admission by Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) and an uncorroborated sexual assault allegation by a college professor against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D-VA).

    Mr. Herring said in a statement that the incident transpired at a party, where the then 19-year-old undergraduate and his friends dressed up like rappers they idolized. (NBC News)
    Read more at http://americanactionnews.com/articles/another-anti-trump-democrat-embroiled-in-racist-controversy#DpHfRfRLw10jV0ZF.99

    • Probably another example is the way the video of the Rodney King case was doctored, I saw the full video once and saw him take two hits from a taser, pull the barbs out and charge the police. After that one time you didn’t see anything until the police started trying to subdue him with batons.

  50. Dutch police kill gunman near Netherlands central bank (abcnews, Feb 6, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dutch-police-kill-gunman-netherlands-central-bank-60892082

    “A police spokesman in the Netherlands says officers shot and killed an armed man on a street next to the country’s central bank.

    Amsterdam police spokesman Ruben Sprong said the suspect was shot on Wednesday night when he approached officers with the gun. He says a person passing by was wounded.

    Sprong said: “There is no big signal of terror or anything like that” from what happened.

    He added: “But of course, everything is unclear. We are still looking into things.”

    Photos published by Dutch media showed local police and military police at the scene. Part of the road remained cordoned off while investigations continued.

    No further details were immediately available.”