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.
‘Communal Solidarity’: German, 74, Must Vacate Flat to Let Migrants In – Report (sputniknews, Feb 15, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201902151072434221-germany-tenant-migrants-eviction/
“A 74-old senior social worker who helped with Germany’s migrant influx in 2015 must move out of the flat he has lived in for 24 years. A 1990s court ruling allows German municipalities to evict tenants to accommodate refugees if other options are exhausted.
Klaus Roth, a 74-year German national living in the municipality of Neckartailfingen, approximately 20 kilometers south of Stuttgart, must vacate the 150-square-meter apartment he has lived in for 24 years to accommodate Middle Eastern migrants, municipal authorities say, according to the Junge Freiheit newspaper.
Esslingen County has been assigned six new immigrants, in addition to 40 migrants already accommodated in the village.
The local council has reportedly decided to house the migrants in Roth’s flat, Mayor Gerhard Gertitschke said in an interview for Nürtinger Zeitung. In order to allow that, Roth must move to an apartment half as big, the report says.
The senior German reportedly does not understand the municipality’s demands.
“I put a lot of money and work into the apartment. I renovated it from scratch all by myself,” he told Zeitung. Roth also has trouble moving after two intervertebral disc surgeries, the report says.
A ruling by the Göttingen District Court from the early 1990s says a municipality can terminate a rent deal with a tenant in order to accommodate refugees if other options are exhausted. Roth rents the apartment from the municipality, the report says.
“We’re under pressure to take more refugees,” the mayor says. “There is no longer any way to say that we are not accommodating them.”
The municipality offered Roth the assistance of local workers to help with the move, he said.
Despite his age, Roth still works as a driver at a local nursing association and helps look after other elderly people. Roth was actively involved in Working Group Asyl, helping migrants find accommodation when the migrant crisis broke out in 2015, with hundreds of thousands of migrants flocking to Germany.
The district council spokesman refused to provide a comment on Roth’s case for Junge Freiheit.
“The equal distribution of refugees among municipalities into follow-up accommodation is a legal requirement,” the spokesman told the newspaper.
“According to the principle of communal solidarity, the allocations are made according to the number of inhabitants.” Around 1,430 asylum seekers are currently housed in Esslingen County, he said.”
“A 74-old senior social worker who helped with Germany’s migrant influx in 2015 must move out of the flat he has lived in for 24 years.”
Living off Social Housing.
A dish served sweet. A pity then he will still get Social Housing.
But we can only hope he is moved once again down to a bedsit until he thinks that taking free subsidies really is a bad thing for any nation, and moves out to a civilized environment where he will not be mugged.
“A 74-old senior social worker who helped with Germany’s migrant influx in 2015 must move out of the flat he has lived in for 24 years. A 1990s court ruling allows German municipalities to evict tenants to accommodate refugees if other options are exhausted.”
Haw haw! [/Nelson Muntz]
As Leftist bleeding hearts are about to find out, the road to hell—that they’ve paved with all of their do-gooder intentions—has been built almost exclusively for them (and a few independent-minded, racist, xenophobic, populist, Right-wing, Muslim-hating reprobates).
No good deed goes unpunished by ingrates or virtue-signalling EU politicians who could give a damn about anything but achieving their wet dream of worldwide equality—even if it means that all of us plebes will be living in grass huts patiently waiting for for the über-elite to reinvent wattle and daub.
““I put a lot of money and work into the apartment. I renovated it from scratch all by myself,” he told Zeitung.”
This is one of those occasions where it’s important to point and laugh. All of us can serenely rest assured that arriving rapefugees will deeply appreciate every one of Klaus Roth’s costly and diligently installed home improvements as they tear them out to make room for their latest grooming operation.
“The district council spokesman refused to provide a comment on Roth’s case for Junge Freiheit.
“The equal distribution of refugees among municipalities into follow-up accommodation is a legal requirement,” the spokesman told the newspaper.”
Once they’ve ended up in the neo-Nuremberg dock (where they all rightly belong), maybe treacherous apparatchiks like this spokesman will finally remember their oft-repeated lines and blurt out, “But … but … I was only following
legal requirementsorders!.India says will ensure ‘complete diplomatic isolation’ of Pakistan after worst terror attack under Modi (straitstimes, Feb 15, 2019)
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/india-says-will-ensure-complete-diplomatic-isolation-of-pakistan-after-worst-attack
Let the (Trip Down Memory Lane) Games Begin!
(The Donkey Kong kinetic animation is particularly brilliant.)
Malaysia arrests six accused of planning attacks, links to militants (reuters, Feb 15, 2019)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-security/malaysia-arrests-six-accused-of-planning-attacks-links-to-militants-idUSKCN1Q40F4?rpc=401&
“Malaysian authorities said on Friday they have arrested six people, including four foreigners, suspected of planning attacks or being members of militant groups.
Malaysia has been on high alert since gunmen allied with Islamic State (IS) carried out a series of attacks in Jakarta, the capital of neighboring Indonesia, in January 2016.
Police said the six were arrested in five separate raids between December and January, on suspicion of planning attacks or having links to militant groups.
“They include two Malaysians and four foreigners from Singapore, Bangladesh, the Philippines and a South Asian country,” Fuzi Harun, police inspector general, said in a statement posted on social media.
The group included a 48-year-old Singaporean accused of planning to attack a building used by Freemasons in the state of Johor. He is believed to have links with Akel Zainal, a Malaysian identified as an IS fighter in Syria, police said.
Police also detained a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in a separate raid in the eastern state of Sabah, where he worked as a laborer. The 21-year-old suspect is believed have ties with ASG leader Furuji Indama, Fuzi said.
A 28-year-old man from an unidentified South Asian country was arrested during a raid in Selangor state. Interpol had issued a warrant, known as a red notice, for his suspected involvement in criminal and militant activities, Fuzi said.
Malaysia has arrested hundreds of people over the past few years for suspected links to militant groups.
A grenade attack on a bar on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, in June 2016 wounded eight people. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the first such strike on Malaysian soil.”
Stalin was right. Quantity does have a quality all its own!
Bloody hell, somehow the video link repeated. Below is the follow-up auslander sequel:
NOTE: — Sometimes one cannot tell who has fallen prey most to the Domino Effect; Leftists or these end-phase OCD Teutonic Tilers —
PS: Speaking as a principal patron of the Society For Putting Things On Top of Other Things (see next reply), please stayed tuned after these not-too-tedious commercial breaks for a very brief clip of insane beauty.
(T = 00:11:47 + Multiple World Records)
It’s good being
on topKing.(T = 00:02:15)
Note: — Although my Toys & Games collection features one or two sets of dominoes (for actual use), my archives hold a few vintage Tinkertoy and Erector Sets. When it comes to serious building blocks, I don’t own any Lego kits (even though I fry people’s minds with what gets built using their sets). Long ago I succumbed to this Northern European Über Righteous Ober Stacking Insufferable Shite (NEUROSIS). —
Prepare to be amazed by disturbing beauty.
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2019/02/whats-bad-for-media-is-good-for-america.html
What’s Bad for the Media is Good for America
The winter freeze might have shut down entire cities, but it couldn’t slow down job growth as the economy roared through the cold and shattered projections with 304,000 non-farm jobs in January.
There were job gains everywhere from transportation (27,000) to health care (42,000) to hospitality (74,000). Under Trump, construction gained 338,000 jobs in 12 months while manufacturing picked up 261,000 jobs in that same period. There was good news for many industries, but bad news for one.
The media is freezing colder than the polar vortex with thousands of lost jobs in January and February.
Gannett, the giant behind USA Today and many local lefty papers such as the Arizona Republic, the Detroit Free Press and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, fired 400 employees.
McClatchy, another newspaper giant, which publishes the Miami Herald, the Kansas City Star and the Charlotte Observer, among many others, announced voluntary buyouts for 10% of its employees after having fired 3.5% of its staff or 140 employees back in August. Tronc, another publishing giant, has already been making major cuts at newspapers like the New York Daily News and the Los Angeles Times.
Reuters expects to cut 3,200 jobs or 12% of its global workforce, closing 55 offices by 2020. BuzzFeed fired 15% of its staff or 220 employees, wiping out its national security desk, most of its national news desk, LGBT team and entertainment team.
Verizon, which through a series of bad business decisions had inherited the Huffington Post, cut 7% or 800 jobs in its media division. HuffPo dumped its health and opinion section, along with various reporters. Vice Media is laying off 10% or 250 employees from its global staff. Mic’s staff was mostly let go back in November. And the bloodletting isn’t over. It’s just beginning.
Why is the media failing while the rest of the economy is thriving?
It used to be said that what’s good for General Motors is good for America. But what’s good for the media is bad for America. And what’s bad for the media appears to be remarkably good for America.
In 2009, as the economy was tanking, journalism school applications increased sharply. As the economy began to recover, J-School enrollment began to fall. Call it the Vulture Effect. Carrion eaters are attracted to death. When the death rate drops, they have to either learn to kill things or face extinction.
Consider the media’s destructive behavior of the last few years a classic example of CNN carrion eaters trying to trick the predators into fighting each other and making more carrion for them to feast on.
By 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics was projecting a 10% decline in employment for reporters and correspondents. After this winter, the BLS may need to sharply revise its estimates upward. Major media organizations are dumping 10% of their staff as a routine response to business model reverses.
The media does best when things are bad. It’s the same reason why Democrats have their strongest footholds in cities with massive poverty, gun violence and infant mortality. Or why starving children dig through the trash in Communist countries while the red billboards overhead tout Socialism.
Lefties claim that they want to make things better, but they only gain power by making things worse.
The media is terrible at trying to make good news happen. Its shrill insistence that the economy had recovered 5 minutes after Obama took the oath of office on a reflection in the mirror convinced no one. After 5 years, it had become a running joke with the flavor of late Soviet propaganda about wheat harvest percentages. But it can be quite effective at spreading bad news and convincing people it’s true.
Just look at how the media has managed to convince people that the global warming sky is falling, that Facebook trolls are a national security threat and that President Trump gets all his orders from Moscow.
If the media is going to make any money and gain any power, it’s got to go negative. But negativity is a tougher sell when times are good for most people. Except for the brooding vultures of the media.
A winter of Trumpian economic growth has been very bad for those birds.
The January media layoffs actually involve two different tracks of the industry. There’s the dead tree media track of the newspaper giants who have been steadily bleeding jobs ever since their customers realized that they didn’t need to pay twelve bucks a week and get ink smears on their hands just to read the local rewritten versions of the same lefty talking points from New York and Washington D.C.
And then there are the digital media operations fueled by venture capital cash that were going to be the Great New Hope of the mainstream media with slick snarky stories, their own in-house ad shops and lots of millennials writing about social justice outrages trending on social media for other millennials.
That’s the new media catastrophe. And the one that has occasioned the real wailing and tooth-gnashing.
“The BuzzFeed Layoffs as Democratic Emergency,” Farhad Manjoo shrieked in the New York Times. Farhad meant the other kind of “democratic”, but his headline was unintentionally correct. The media is a massive force multiplier for the Democrats. If it didn’t exist, national politics would look very different.
Imagine an America in which Democrats eavesdropping on Republicans, supporting cop killers, ISIS, Iran and infanticide weren’t met with immediate walls of media spin, lies, fake explainers and even more fake fact checks. Then imagine an America with a border wall, voter ID and a real War on Terror.
That’s a “Democratic emergency”. No question about it.
If the media falls, it will be the greatest moment for democracy since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The collapse of the Soviet Union revealed that the Evil Empire was really a bunch of boring bureaucrats who, through the magic of ideology and mass murder had acquired the ability to terrorize millions of people.
The unraveling of the media will reveal that the echo chamber that told us what to do and think, that cost hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars, that stole generations of progress and prosperity from a great nation, was really a bunch of otherwise unemployable Marxist grad students.
The media has blamed Google and Facebook for not giving it enough traffic. It’s redoubled its efforts to demand that the dot com giants give them even more money (Google and Facebook have already pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the media), more privilege for their traffic and more power to censor conservative media under the guise of ‘fact checkers’ fighting a ‘fake news’ emergency.
Hatred has also been hurled at Gannett, McClatchy, Tribune, BuzzFeed, Bustle and Vice management which are pursuing merger and consolidation plans that will cost even more media jobs. They point to the profitability of some of these companies as proof that the layoffs are really capitalist greed.
Sure.
The digital media empires with their fake news, explainers and snarky social justice commentary were built by convincing investors that they could be as profitable as actual tech companies. BuzzFeed and the rest of the gang could have just shrugged and announced that failing to meet expectations would be the new reality. And that if their investors don’t like it, they can go and invest in tech startups.
Then in a year or two, it wouldn’t be a few hundred jobs being cut, but a few thousand.
Digital media is full of millennial socialists with an Ocasio-Cortez level grasp of economics who spend six figures on a useless degree in journalism from Columbia and are convinced that destroying Facebook will save them. Even though Facebook is the only reason that clickbait parasites like BuzzFeed even exist.
Finally, many in the media blame President Trump. In an ocean of economic prosperity, the media has become a desert island full of cannibalistic savages, devouring each other, while praying to Mueller.
But that’s not because of anything Trump did to the media. It’s about what he isn’t doing.
Obama’s divisive policies created social, cultural and economic insecurity across the spectrum. Trump’s politics have brought prosperity and economic security. And the media has refocused on stirring up insecurity among Democrats and Never Trumpers because they are its only remaining demographics.
The good times are here. And the media’s only customer base consists of people who don’t believe it.
A growing media indicates a loss of confidence by Americans. It shows that the divisive leftist tactics of the media are paying huge dividends in fear, uncertainty and doubt among ordinary people. A shrinking media however indicates that we are once again becoming an optimistic and confident nation.
The media’s loss of jobs is a very good thing. It’s a statement of confidence by Americans in America.
Did the German police again hide the sexual harassment of underage girls ?+++
According to a press report, two German girls – 12 and 13 years old – were first threatened and groped by a group of young foreigners at the slide in the Fürstenwald public swimming pool. The two girls then rescued themselves outside and were sexually harassed again by the group.Finally, they fled to the dressing room and called the police. The police brought the girls out of the bathroom and took them to the police station to file charges.The press report of the MOZ states: “Mathias Hellmann, the deputy manager of the Schwapps swimming pool, confirmed that there had been “an incident”, but did not want to comment on it with reference to the “open criminal proceedings”. In the Fuerstenwald fun pool children from the age of seven are allowed to stay unaccompanied by an adult supervisor and use all slides.The two girls had been taken to Fürstenwalde on Friday by the mother of the twelve-year-old, the father said. He then wanted to pick them up again after bathing. After a phone call from his daughter, however, he immediately drove to the police station where the children were to be reported and questioned.”In a press release yesterday afternoon, the AfD Party said that the police had hid the attacks so far. Obviously the police only confirmed the incident at the request of the local press.Birgit Bessin, deputy leader of the AfD parliamentary group, said: “I don’t know what is more shocking to me: That there have again been sexual assaults on minor German girls by an entire group of young, presumably so-called ‘refugees’, or that the police have tried to keep the assaults secret from the public. The police spokeswoman’s statement that the press had not been informed in order to protect the victims is more than flimsy.Since the identity of the victims would never have been published, it can only have been a matter of concealing another case of crime by ‘refugees’. If the girls’ father hadn’t gone public, no one would have known. And we have to ask ourselves: How often does the police hide such attacks from us? Why is the public deliberately deceived and not informed about relevant crime developments?The AfD parliamentary group will question the national government on this issue. I recommend, however, that the police take immediate action and put all the facts of this case on the table: And if the accusations are confirmed and the alleged perpetrators are actually supposed to be “refugees”, I demand rapid punishment with all the force of the law and immediate deportation. Those who grope our daughters no longer have the right to protection”.
Read more:
https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2019/02/did-german-police-again-hide-sexual.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-strike-protest-uk-school-children-london-brighton-bristol-a8780836.html
All that is missing is the waving of “the little red book of chairman Mao”, This shows the degree of indoctrination of schoolchildren in the UK and is extremely depressing while the hatred of May espoused by so many(other sources) points to a Corbyn romp. For the first time in years the Indy allowed comments but not mine so they are skewed selectively. If you cannot handle dissent then eliminate it. WTG Indy!
WATCH what happened when I went to confront a Jihadi
NASA heading back to Moon soon, and this time to stay
Washington (AFP) – NASA is accelerating plans to return Americans to the Moon, and this time, the US space agency says it will be there to stay.
Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, told reporters Thursday that the agency plans to speed up plans backed by President Donald Trump to return to the moon, using private companies.
“It’s important that we get back to the moon as fast as possible,” said Bridenstine in a meeting at NASA’s Washington headquarters, adding he hoped to have astronauts back there by 2028.
“This time, when we go to the Moon, we’re actually going to stay. We’re not going to leave flags and footprints and then come home to not go back for another 50 years” he said.
https://news.yahoo.com/nasa-heading-back-moon-soon-time-stay-230656886.html
With Private Industry involved we are in Space to stay, costs are going to go down and reliability go up.
Finally NASA is doing what it was set up to do, develop tech and then turn the tech over to the private sector to fully develop and use. If we had followed the original plans we would have bases on the moon and mars and according to some scientists we would have a working faster then light drive.
The libs hate the idea of space travel because it will let us get away from their interference.
Some aerospace Einstein finally came up with the brilliant idea to site lunar bases down inside craters and then push in regolith to cover the habitats (thereby sheltering them from the sun’s lethal hard radiation).
They’ve already demonstrated how to make a form of cement from the lunar regolith. However, that requires precious water. Instead, after scraping away whatever tritium-rich topside crust, the easily moved underlayer can be back-filled into the habitat sites.
Crews will hunker down in heavily shielded (or partially buried) temporary quarters whilst autonomous construction equipment capers about in the gamma rays constructing ball mills, sifters, separators, extractors, and the secondary vehicles needed to cut ramps, assemble forms, pour habitats and, eventually, bury everything like some proud pooch with a prize bone.
Chinese protest in Madrid against mass bank account freeze
Hundreds of Chinese citizens staged a rare protest Friday at an office of Spain’s BBVA bank in Madrid, angrily denouncing that their personal accounts had been frozen without prior warning.
Waving Chinese and Spanish flags, the protesters shouted “racist BBVA” and “we want justice,” carrying banners reading “stop banking racism.”
Contacted by AFP, BBVA, the second biggest bank in Spain, was not able to detail how many clients had been affected.
In a statement, it said it had frozen accounts to comply with measures to fight money-laundering, adding it was working to resolve the problem.
Protesters said other banks had also frozen accounts of citizens of Chinese origin recently, but to a lesser extent than BBVA.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/chinese-protest-madrid-against-mass-bank-account-freeze-133110617–finance.html
“In a statement, it said it had frozen accounts to comply with measures to fight money-laundering…”
Itinerant Chinese washermen? Involved in money-laundering? Whod’a thunk it?
Beto O’Rourke not only opposes new border wall; says he’d tear down existing one
By Ben Bowles February 15, 2019
When poet Robert Frost wrote more than a century ago “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” little did he expect that he was writing a chapter in the biography of yet-to-be-born Texan Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke. The former congressman on Tuesday told a small gathering of supporters in El Paso, “We know that walls do not save lives. Walls end lives,” explaining:
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/02/15/beto-orourke-not-only-opposes-new-border-wall-hed-tear-existing-one-down/
Time to start calling this nuck fugget, “Beta”.
House changes rules to intensify Dems’ Trump probes
Morgan Chalfant, The Hill February 14, 2019
[Ed. – In the cases of Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, of course, it’s not clear that it would be better to have the congressperson present for witness depositions. But lowering this bar is a bad sign — if you needed one.]
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/02/14/house-changes-rules-to-intensify-dems-trump-probes/
Rule change sharpens Dem investigations into Trump
A change to House rules is putting sharper teeth into Democratic investigations of President Trump and his administration.
The change allows staff of House committees to conduct depositions without any lawmakers present, freeing up the panels to move through witnesses in their investigations quickly without the constraints of the previous Congress.
video at site
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/429934-rule-change-sharpens-dem-investigations-into-trump
Senate passes spending bill, Trump reportedly to declare national emergency to build wall
By J.E. Dyer February 14, 2019
In the last hour, the Senate voted to approve the spending bill that provides some $1.375 billion for constructing 55 miles of “barrier” at the U.S. border, well short of the previous requests made by President Trump and Republicans in Congress. The bill also caps detention beds for ICE, which could result in mandated release of thousands of convicted criminal illegals being held in ICE facilities while they await immigration processing. The House will take up the Senate version for final approval Thursday evening.
(The president has authority to intervene and allow more “beds” for detention, but it’s unlikely that Trump would be able to do that without a challenge in court from activists and/or Democratic officials. As it stands, without Trump’s intervention, the spending bill would result in the release of more than 8,000 illegal aliens from ICE’s interior facilities, where 90% of the detainees have criminal convictions.)
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/02/14/senate-passes-spending-bill-trump-reportedly-to-declare-national-emergency-to-build-wall/
Richard: I want to know if the poison pills are still in the bill, right now I am assuming they aren’t because I can’t see PT signing the bill with them still in it. Having said that I think he is doing the right thing with the National Emergency, we know that terrorists are crossing the borders. We know illegals from all around the world are crossing the border and a lot aren’t planning to be good citizens. We also know that massive amounts of drugs are crossing the border.
No the wall/barrier won’t stop all of the above, but it will slow them down. If we don’t massively reduce the number of illegals that cross the border and massively reduce the amount of drugs that cross the border.
Yes the drug lords will change the way they are moving the drugs but we have to continue to fight. Yes the illegals and terrorists will work hard to find a new way into the US but once again we have to fight. Scary times ahead.
Crunch time is coming so keep your musket clean, your powder dry and watch your bac.
Amsterdam Mayor Says How Tourists Treat Prostitutes Is ‘Humiliating’ (sputniknews, Feb 15, 219)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201902151072454422-amsterdam-mayor-prostitution-criticism/
“The Dutch capital city has garnered international fame among seekers of pleasures, outlawed in many countries, – legalised prostitution and recreational drugs. However, Femke Halsema, who became the first female mayor of Amsterdam, has branded the way travellers treat workers in the famous red light district as “humiliating” and “unacceptable”.
Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema, appointed in July 2018, has told the city outlet Het Parool that the city’s tradition of open prostitution needs legal changes and voiced her intention to address the problems with a package of reforms, drawn up no later than summer 2019. According to her, this city tradition has been “increasingly linked to the humiliation of women by large groups of tourists”.
The official criticised the situation whereby prostitutes had been turned into a stop for guided tours in Amsterdam with onlookers swarming the red light district, which she defined as “humiliating” and “unacceptable”.
“The circumstances in which women have to do their work have worsened. So I can understand why a lot of Amsterdammers think: this is not the way we want prostitution to be or how it was supposed to be”, she stated as cited by DutchNews.nl.
While the unlicensed prostitution that goes hand in hand with human trafficking remains a problem, it is believed that the safety and working conditions of prostitutes in the red light district have been worsened because of the influx of prying travellers.
“I find it unpalatable. First and foremost we need to ensure that they are more independent and empowered, and are not being abused or used as commodities”, the mayor said.
Incidentally, Halsema’s reform itch echoed the recent demand by multi-partisan young activists, who called on the authorities to put an end to the exploitation of sex workers and eradicate the humiliating “public meat market”.
The open letter, signed by the conservative Christian Democrats (CDA), the liberal D66 group and the right-wing VVD, proposed, among others, to ban women, who have been in the Netherlands less than a year to become a sex worker.”
Pence Claims Iran Plotting ‘Another Holocaust’ to Wipe Israel off the Map (sputniknews, Feb 15, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/world/201902151072452462-pence-iran-holocaust-israel/
“During a key conference on the Middle East in Poland, US Vice President Mike Pence called Iran “the greatest threat to peace and security” in the region.
Speaking at a conference of European and Middle Eastern countries in Poland, US Vice President Mike Pence claimed that Iran was plotting to “erase Israel from the map”, and sought to unleash “another Holocaust”.
“The authoritarian regime in Tehran… openly advocates the destruction of the State of Israel. The Ayatollah Khamenei himself has said, ‘It is the mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to erase Israel from the map’. […] Beyond its hateful rhetoric, the Iranian regime openly advocates another Holocaust and it seeks the means to achieve it”, Pence said.
Reflecting on the US decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Pence blasted a new mechanism by France, Germany, and the UK to allow European businesses keep operating in the Islamic Republic in the face of US sanctions.
“It’s an ill-advised step that will only strengthen Iran, weaken the EU, and create still more distance between Europe and the United States. […] The time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and join us as we bring the economic and diplomatic pressure necessary to give the Iranian people, the region, and the world the peace, security and freedom they deserve”.
As Iran celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on 11 February, Pence vowed to exercise maximum pressure on the country.
“Forty years ago this month, the mullahs seized control of that country. [….] Today, America’s economic sanctions on Iran are the toughest in history and will get tougher still unless and until Iran changes its dangerous and destabilising behaviour”.
Pence’s speech came on the heels of remarks by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who told reporters that “confronting Iran” is a necessary step for any nation that wants to “achieve peace and stability” in the Middle East.
Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dove into the limelight over accidentally mentioning a “common interest of war with Iran” that Israel and a number of Arab nations could potentially share.
Whether the remark was mistranslated from Hebrew or not, the PM’s Office Twitter account was quick to replace the “war” part by simply “combating Iran”.
Simmering Tensions
The conference on the Middle East comes amid tumultuous relations between Iran and Israel, with Tel Aviv concerned over Tehran’s alleged attempts to expand its clout in the region and establish a permanent military presence in Syria.
Tensions between the two countries reached their climax when the Israeli Defence Forces started conducting airstrikes on what they claimed were Iranian military targets in Syria. Tehran, which has consistently stressed that it has only been providing military advisers to Damascus, said that “if Israel takes any action to wage a war against us, it will definitely lead to its own elimination and freeing of occupied territories”.
“Iran’s strategy is to remove the Zionist regime from the political map, and the Israelis contribute to this by their criminal activities”, said IRGC second-in-command Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami.
In a parallel development, tensions between the US and Iran have exacerbated since President Donald Trump, who proved to be a strong supporter of Israel, chose to leave the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly referred to as the Iran nuclear deal, last May.
Describing it as a “terrible” and “one-sided” agreement, he subsequently announced the decision to re-impose sanctions on Tehran, thus subjecting other countries, including signatories to the deal – Russia, France, the UK, China, Germany, and the EU – to secondary restrictions.
Since the aforementioned nations decided to preserve the agreement, European countries have worked out a worked out a mechanism, called a “Special Purpose Vehicle”, that would allow its companies to keep operating in Iran, bypassing US sanctions.”
Fed Up With London, US Could Send British Jihadists to Guantanamo Bay – Report (sputniknews, Feb 14, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/world/201902151072456118-British-jihadists-Guantanamo-bay/
“The development emerges from widespread reports that the UK government has only prosecuted about 40 of 400 Daesh returnees to the country. Such statistics have further enflamed anger directed at London that it is simply not doing enough to mete out justice.
British Jihadists who fought in Syria may be sent to Guantanamo Bay as Washington grows frustrated that London is doing too little to sufficiently punish them itself, it has been revealed by the Daily Telegraph.
Senior US officials are said to believe that the US military base and prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can still house upward of 50 fighters from Daesh* who battled in Syria. The Telegraph’s report says that this could include the two remaining British members of the so-called ‘Beatles’ cell that executed Western captives, including American journalist James Foley.
The Telegraph reports that there is increasing frustration in US government circles that the UK and other European nations are not doing enough to punish citizens returning home from Syria and that 1 in 10 returnees to the UK have been put on so-called rehabilitation programmes, rather than facing justice in a court of law.
Reportedly, the rehabilitation schemes are run by the British Home Office, and include mental health treatment and housing accommodation.
There are allegedly concerns within the Trump administration that if British Daesh fighters are allowed to return to the UK from Syria, then they will not face harsh enough punishment for fighting with the terrorist group, possibly evading justice altogether. An anonymous source has been quoted by the Times as saying that, “these guys have American blood on their hands.”
The renewed concerns over what to do with returning Daesh fighters and their families were ignited after a schoolgirl from Bethnal Green in London who fled to Daesh’s caliphate in 2014 has been discovered alive in a refugee camp in northern Syria and has appealed to return to the UK.
Shamima Begum, who is now 19-year-old, married a Daesh fighter in Syria after running away from the UK with friends Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana. Miss Begum, now nine months pregnant with her third child, told the Times in an interview that she has “no regrets” about joining the caliphate and described how seeing the severed head of a hostage dumped in a bin “didn’t faze me at all.”
Whether or not the UK will take back Miss Begum and others like her remains to be seen. While her family have implored the UK government to bring her home, Security Minister Ben Wallace declared this week that the UK would not be rescuing her, or others, from Syria.
“I’m not putting at risk British people’s lives to go and look for terrorists or former terrorists in failed states. The message this government has given for many years is that actions have consequences,” Wallace said.”
Islamism Incompatible With Norway’s ‘Laid-Back Tolerance’- Prof (sputniknews, Feb 15, 2019)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201902151072450321-norway-islamism-democracy/
“While describing Norwegian democracy as a “reliable buffer against all sorts of extremism”, professor and historian of ideas Øystein Sørensen has suggested that the rise of uncompromising Islamism poses challenges that Norway has never experienced before. “It could get pretty grim”, he concluded.
Islamism is a foreign element with no rooting in Norwegian culture and is therefore the biggest enemy of Norwegian democracy, Professor Øystein Sørensen maintained in an evening program by national broadcaster NRK.
According to Sørensen, the author of the book “Norwegian Democracy and Its Enemies”, Norway’s political culture has always been characterised by negotiations and willingness to compromise by both the left and the right. This “laid-back tolerance” marks a stark contrast with Islamism, he argued.
“Islamism, which is a political ideology based on Islam, rather an interpretation of Islam, and certainly not identical to the religion itself, is a line of thought that has no foundation whatsoever in traditional Norwegian political culture. And what we have seen of Islamist groups in Norway, they are not interested in legitimising themselves in the same way that the traditional Norwegian political extremists to the right and left have done before”, Sørensen stressed.
Sørensen ventured that the contemporary situation poses a “different kind of challenge”, which Norway hasn’t faced before. Consequently, the rise of Islamism and its consequences are the biggest threat against Norwegian democracy, despite its ability to work well as a reliable buffer against all sorts of extremism, he argued.
“Islamism on the one hand and various types of militant so-called counter-jihadists on the other hand”, he said, answering the host’s question. “It could get pretty grim eventually”, Sørensen concluded.
Earlier in February, an annual report by the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) identified Islamist extremists as the single largest threat against Norway. However, the media’s attention was drawn to a subsequent report by the Norwegian Intelligence Service (E-Tjenensten) that focused on the espionage threat allegedly posed by China and Russia, which somewhat overshadowed PST’s report.
Journalist Helge Lurås of the Resett website called Sørensen’s “unambiguous statements” about Islamism in Norway unusual in an academic context. However, Lurås ascribed this to the fact that Sørensen is 64 years old and does not have a long academic career in front of him to worry about.
Øystein Sørensen, 64, is a Norwegian historian of ideas and a professor at the University of Oslo. He has authored many books on Norwegian nationalism and national identity, as well as National Socialism, the history of World War II and totalitarian ideologies. His most recent work, “Norwegian Democracy and Its Enemies”, was released in 2018.”
Feltham stabbing: Woman arrested after man in 30s stabbed in Hounslow (express, Feb 15. 2019)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1087861/feltham-stabbing-hounslow-metropolitan-police-heathrow-airport
“A MAN has been rushed to hospital in a “serious condition” after being stabbed in a residential area near Heathrow Airport, police have confirmed.
The man, in his 30s, was taken to a central London hospital with stab wounds after the incident in Bertelli Place in Feltham, Hounslow. Metropolitan Police have arrested a woman in connection with the south west London stabbing which happened just after 12.30pm. Local reports said an air ambulance landed on a school playing field close by.
No details about the arrested woman have been released…”
‘She’s heavily pregnant… what threat will she be?’: Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner defends ISIS bride wanting to come back to Britain from Syria (dailymail, Feb 15, 2019)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6708265/Former-Guantanamo-Bay-prisoner-defends-ISIS-bride.html
“A British former Guantanamo Bay prisoner has called for ISIS schoolgirl Shamima Begum to be allowed to return to Britain because she is heavily pregnant and not a ‘threat’.
The 19-year-old girl fled east London to join ISIS four years ago but the terror group has been reduced to a tiny patch of land and Ms Begum is now in a refugee camp in Syria.
Her family have appealed for Ms Begum to be shown mercy but the Government has indicated it will not allow her to return.
On Good Morning Britain former U.S. prisoner Moazzam Begg came to her defence, as debate rages over her future….”
Don’t let her back, she is a source of infection that can and probably will infect others with the jihad virus.
‘Education, not indoctrination’: Muslim parents lead group of 300 in protest outside school gates against equality lessons on homosexuality and gender (dailymail, Feb 15, 2019)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6706337/Muslim-parents-lead-group-300-protest-outside-school-gates-against-equality-lessons.html
“More than 300 parents and children gathered outside of a primary school yesterday to protest against lessons on homosexuality and gender.
Some Muslim demonstrators said they would rather leave the UK than allow their children to continue attending Parkfield Community School in Birmingham.
Pupils were kept out of lessons for the first hour of the day. Some joined in with the chants and held placards reading: ‘Education not indoctrination.’ One child carried a handwritten sign which said: ‘Let kids be kids.’
The protest comes amid a campaign against lessons on equality at the school, with parents in the predominantly Muslim area saying they promote homosexuality. Christian evangelists joined them to protest yesterday in a show of solidarity.
Parents’ anger is aimed at the school’s assistant head Andrew Moffat, who is behind the ‘No Outsiders’ lessons. He created the scheme to teach children about the Equality Act and British values.
Pupils at the school – rated outstanding by Ofsted – have five of these lessons a year, covering areas outlined in the Act: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
The programme was first piloted at the school in 2014 and is now also taught at dozens of other schools in the country.
Mr Moffat, who is in a civil partnership, was made an MBE for services to equality and diversity in education in 2017. He is currently shortlisted for a ‘world’s best teacher’ award.
He resigned from a previous teaching post at another school after a row with Christian parents over lessons challenging homophobia – and is now facing even more vocal complaints from parents at Parkfield, where 98 per cent of the 750 pupils are said to be from an Islamic background.
Protester Mariam Ahmed, whose four-year-old daughter attends the school, has organised a petition against the No Outsiders project.
She said yesterday: ‘What they are teaching is not right, they are too young. There are nine parts of the Act and they only seem to be focusing on one, homosexuality, and that is wrong. They need to have an ethos which reflects the area.
‘It’s not just because we are Muslims, there are Christians here too. We don’t have a vendetta against homosexuals and we respect the Act. We respect that Mr Moffat is gay and we are happy for him to teach.’
She said she would consider taking her daughter out of school full-time if the lessons continued, claiming children were being affected ’emotionally and psychologically’.
One father, whose six-year-old daughter attends the school, said his wife wanted to leave the country rather than let her daughter attend the lessons.
The man, who did not want to be named, said: ‘My daughter has been asking questions my wife did not know how to answer.
‘She is too young for this. A family who live near me have already returned to Pakistan because of it.’
Some of the protesters said Islam did not accept homosexuality, while others said they were not against it but accused the teacher of promoting ‘personal beliefs’.
Mr Moffat said he tried to meet parents but stopped when they became ‘personal and aggressive’. He has described receiving threats from parents online. He told the BBC: ‘I have felt very threatened … it’s been a challenging couple of weeks.
However, what keeps me going is the support from the school which is absolutely brilliant, Ofsted [and] the city council.’
Currently, Year Five children, aged nine and ten, are taught about puberty and reproduction. Many under-11s currently learn about relationships in Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) classes but this is not mandatory.
The Government is, however, bringing in new compulsory ‘relationships’ education which will include teaching tolerance of same sex couples and transgender people.
Parkfield Community School has said it wants pupils to be ‘accepting and to welcome anybody’.
In a statement it said it was ‘disappointed’ by the protest but had ‘no plans’ to drop the ‘successful’ No Outsiders programme.”
‘Yellow vest leader’ Drouet facing charges for organizing rallies
A prominent figure in the YellowVest movement, Eric Drouet is facing a suspended sentence and 500 euro fine for failing to declare the organising of protests.
CBC – Captured foreign members of ISIS in Syria face uncertain future
Thousands of captured foreign ISIS fighters face an uncertain future in Kurdish prison camps as some want to return home, including several Canadians.
Hungary: ‘Fighting Illegal Migration Not Possible Without Physical Barriers at Border’ (breitbart, Feb 15, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/15/hungary-fighting-illegal-migration-not-possible-without-barriers/
“The Hungarian prime minister’s spokesman has said that “fighting illegal migration is basically not possible without physical infrastructure,” and that failing to do so is a “sign of weakness”…”
Farage: Viktor Orbán ‘Represents the Future of Europe’ (breitbart, Feb 15, 2019)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/15/farage-viktor-orban-represents-future-europe/
“Brexit architect Nigel Farage has said that Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán represents “the future of Europe” and predicted the EU will become more focused on nationhood, rejecting the domination of Brussels.
“He actually believes in things. He does not sheepishly, slavishly go along with the European project as he firmly believes in the concept of the nation state,” the Brexit Party MEP said in an interview with VáslaszOnline.
“He clearly is a strong defender of, as he sees, the Hungarian culture and he is not afraid to say and do these things despite huge criticism from the European Union.”
The British politician also backed Mr Orbán on his condemnation of political interference by open-borders advocate George Soros’s, whose “influence,” Mr Farage said, “is all across the Western democracies.”
This is not the first time the MEP has openly condemned the speculator-philanthropist, having denounced 226 fellow MEPs identified by leaked documents as “reliable friends” of Soros on the floor of the European Parliament in 2017, and exposed Guy Verhofstadt MEP for “lobbying on behalf of Mr Soros… in a battle that is going on with Viktor Orbán.”
The politician raised the issue of the EU’s legal actions against Hungary and Poland for their failure to adhere to the bloc’s progressive “European values.”
The bloc is using Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty to attempt to punish Hungary over its laws against supporting illegal migration and Poland for its judicial reforms. The mechanisms of Article 7 could result in both countries being sanctioned or losing voting rights.
There is “a lot of Communism alive” across much of the former Soviet bloc, Mr Farage said, and “leaders in Hungary and in Poland are trying desperately to get rid of those old legacies.”
Mr Farage equated the Soviet Union to the European Union — however, noting that “at least this one did not kill people” — and when asked whether, when he looked from his European Parliament office window in Strasbourg if he saw the same kind ‘oppressed people’ that existed under Communism, he replied, “I can assure you when you go into Article 7 procedures, you effectively are not free people.”…”
europravda – Meet the Akyuz family. Turkish, German and proud
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europravda – How does switching between languages impact your body?
UK students march for climate change awareness
Yale Climate Connections – A Swedish Teenager’s Compelling Plea on Climate
Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swede, makes a moving plea for climate action, and scientists explain the rationale for it.
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DAILY MAIL – UK – Class warfare! Children climb on statues in Parliament Square and roads are brought to a standstill as thousands of protesting pupils descend on Whitehall during a nationwide day of ‘strikes’ against climate change
Thousands of youngsters go on strike from school as part of a global youth action over climate change
Youth Strike 4 Climate strikes take place in 60 towns and cities across UK from Cornwall to the Highlands
Students want the Government declare a climate emergency and take active steps to tackle the problem
But school leaders and Education Secretary Damian Hinds warn students they should not miss lessons
Pupils began to slope off at 3.30pm – usual time for the school bell – after bringing Whitehall to standstill
But in wake came cabbies to cause gridlock in protest at plans to ban black cabs from certain roads
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6707907/Youth-Strike-4-Climate-protests-place-Britain.html
India warns of ‘crushing response’ to Kashmir suicide attack (abcnews, Feb 15. 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/death-toll-deadliest-car-bombing-kashmir-climbs-41-61092631
“India’s prime minister warned Friday of a “crushing response” to the suicide bombing of a paramilitary convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir which killed 41 people and was the deadliest in the divided region’s volatile history.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi placed the blame for Thursday’s bombing squarely on neighboring Pakistan, which India accuses of supporting rebels in Kashmir.
“Our neighboring country thinks such terror attacks can weaken us, but their plans will not materialize,” he said, adding that government forces have been “given total freedom” to deal with the militants.
“Security forces have been given permission to take decisions about the timing, place and nature of their response,” he said.
Pakistan’s ruling party rejected Modi’s allegation, saying India’s ruling party was blaming Pakistan for the attack for political gains in the upcoming national election.
“The Indian allegations against Pakistan over yesterday’s incident are part of the election campaign,” said Naeemul Haq, a senior leader of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which came to power in last year’s parliamentary election.
He said the violence in Kashmir was “the result of the brutalities of Indian occupied forces in Kashmir.”
The attack has ratcheted up already high tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who both administer parts of the disputed territory but each claim it entirely.
Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced Friday that New Delhi was withdrawing the most-favored nation trade status given to Pakistan and would take all possible diplomatic steps “to ensure the complete isolation from international community of Pakistan of which incontrovertible evidence is available of having a direct hand in this gruesome terrorist incident.”
India’s foreign ministry also summoned the Pakistani ambassador to protest the attack.
Pakistan’s foreign mMinistry said the country condemns acts of violence anywhere in the world and denied any involvement.
“We strongly reject any insinuation by elements in the Indian media and government that seek to link the attack to Pakistan without investigations,” it said in a statement.
Rebels, many of whom want Kashmir united with Pakistan, have been fighting Indian control since 1989. But the Muslim-majority region has experienced renewed attacks and repeated public protests in recent years as a new generation of Kashmiri rebels, especially in the southern parts of the region, has challenged New Delhi’s rule with a mixture of violence and social media.
In Thursday’s attack, a local Kashmiri militant rammed an explosive-laden van into a bus traveling in the paramilitary convoy. In addition to the dead, the attack wounded nearly two dozen other soldiers, India’s paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force spokesman Sanjay Sharma said.
Police said the bus was destroyed and at least five other vehicles were damaged.
The Greater Kashmir newspaper reported that militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility. A pre-recorded video circulated on social media sites showed the purported attacker in combat clothes and surrounded by guns and grenades.
Authorities imposed a security lockdown in the southern Kakapora area to stop people from assembling at the home of the militant who allegedly attacked the convoy. Still, hundreds of people were able to reach his home by crossing rice fields and orchards, and offered prayers there.
Authorities suspended security convoys in the Kashmir valley on Friday and Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Srinagar to review the security situation. He said civilian traffic would be stopped during the movement of convoys in Kashmir.
Meanwhile, three top Kashmiri leaders known as the Joint Resistance Leadership who challenge India’s sovereignty over Kashmir said they regretted the killings. They said in a statement that India’s “muscular military approach to counter an essentially political and human problem is wreaking havoc in Kashmir, especially on the next generation.”
“Those who are here to execute this policy are also under stress and paying a price with their lives,” they said.
The attack has raised tensions elsewhere in Hindu-majority India. Hundreds of residents carrying India’s national flag in Hindu-dominated Jammu city in the Muslim-majority state burned vehicles and hurled rocks at homes in Muslim neighborhoods, officials said. Authorities imposed a curfew and appealed for restraint.
Some people were reported injured in the mob attacks.
Nearly 100 protesters chanting slogans such as “Pakistan down, down!” and “Attack Pakistan, Attack,” burned an effigy of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in a park close to India’s Parliament in New Delhi. They later dispersed.
The U.S. singled out Pakistan in a statement condemning the attack.
“The United States calls on Pakistan to end immediately the support and safe haven provided to all terrorist groups operating on its soil, whose only goal is to sow chaos, violence, and terror in the region,” the statement from the White House press secretary’s office said.
It said the attack strengthened U.S. resolve to bolster counterterrorism cooperation with India.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947 and regularly exchange fire along their highly militarized border in Kashmir.
Indian soldiers are ubiquitous in Kashmir and local residents make little secret of their fury toward their presence in the Himalayan region.
Most Kashmiris support the rebels’ demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control.
Since 1989, about 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian crackdown. Last year’s death toll was the highest since 2009, with at least 260 militants, 160 civilians and 150 government forces killed.”
Protest breaks out in Kashmir after suicide bombing takes lives of 44
The suicide bombing of a paramilitary convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir raised tension across India on Friday. In Jammu, in Jammu and Kashmir state, protesters took to the streets to chant anti-Pakistan slogans and wave Indian flags.
US: Time to expand the international coalition against IS (abcnews, Feb 15, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-time-expand-international-coalition-61096734
“The top Pentagon official said Friday he foresees a “bigger and stronger” American-led international coalition combatting the Islamic State group globally as the U.S. withdraws its troops from Syria.
Pat Shanahan, on his first trip abroad as the acting secretary of defense, made his comment after meeting in Munich with representatives of the dozen or so countries that provide troops in Iraq and Syria.
“While the time for U.S. troops on the ground in northeast Syria winds down, the United States remains committed to our coalition’s cause, the permanent defeat of ISIS, both in the Middle East and beyond,” Shanahan said in remarks to reporters.
The U.S. has about 2,000 troops in Syria and about 5,200 in Iraq.
President Donald Trump’s decision in December to pull out of Syria angered some allies, confounded U.S. military officials and prompted Jim Mattis to resign as defense secretary.
Gen. Joseph Votel, who as head of U.S. Central Command is overseeing military operations against IS in Syria and Iraq, said last week that he was not consulted before Trump made his decision.
In an interview with CNN on Friday, Votel went a step further, saying, “It would not have been my military advice at that particular time … I would not have made that suggestion, frankly.”
CNN quoted him further as saying IS “still has leaders, still has fighters, it still has facilitators, it still has resources, so our continued military pressure is necessary to continue to go after that network.”
Votel is leaving his post shortly.
Shanahan said the United States will “continue to support our local partners’ ability to stand up to the remnants of ISIS,” but he did not explain how that will be done.
A senior defense official, speaking later, said Shanahan did not discuss a timetable for the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, which other officials have said is expected to be completed in April. The coalition partners did not take issue with the U.S. withdrawal, indicating they see it as an irreversible decision, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.
The focus of the meeting, on the topic of Syria, was how to avoid a security vacuum once U.S. troops are gone, the official said. No representatives committed to keeping troops there after the U.S. leaves, raising the possibility of clashes between Turkey — a U.S. NATO ally — and the U.S.-backed Syrian fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, which suffered heavy casualties in fighting IS. The Turks view the Kurdish members of the SDF as terrorists and a treat to Turkey.
In his public remarks, Shanahan said that in Syria, IS has lost most of its leadership and resources — though he didn’t say it’s lost 100 percent of its territory.
“Together, we have eliminated the group’s hold over 99 percent of the territory it once claimed as part of its so-called caliphate,” he said. “We have ensured ISIS no longer holds the innocent people of Syria or Iraq in its murderous iron fist.”
IS militants are holed up in the last sliver of land in eastern Syria as U.S.-backed forces are closing in.
As IS retreats in Syria, some worry that substantial numbers of its fighters could migrate beyond the Middle East, to Africa, for example.
Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of U.S. Africa Command, said in an interview with a small group of reporters Friday that he is not yet seeing evidence of IS movements into Africa, although he said this cannot be ruled out.
Shanahan said he and his counterparts discussed the future of their coalition, which was developed during the Barack Obama administration after U.S. forces took on IS directly in 2014 with a return of U.S. troops to Iraq as advisers and the start of a bombing campaign against IS in Syria.
“I, for one, envision an even bigger and stronger coalition going forward — one that has evolved to meet the global threat posed by ISIS’s offshoots and its murderous ideology,” he said. It needs to look beyond Syria and Iraq to face the militants’ broader threat in other parts of the world including Afghanistan and the Philippines, he said.
The senior defense official said Shanahan was not referring to increasing the number of members in the coalition — now totaling 79 — but rather adding to the quality of their contributions, including non-military offerings.
Ursula von der Leyen, the German defense minister and host of the Munich meeting, said there was agreement among participants that the fight in Iraq and Syria is not over.
“IS is changing its face at the moment, going more underground and building up networks there, including with other terror groups, partly in a global network that they are trying to expand underground,” she said.”
Egypt official: Home-made bomb explodes near mosque, 3 hurt (abcnews, Feb 15, 2019)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-official-home-made-bomb-explodes-mosque-hurt-61097495
“An Egyptian security official says a home-made bomb has exploded near a mosque in Cairo’s district of Giza, leaving three people wounded.
The official says the blast took place during Friday prayers near al-Istaqama mosque in a busy square in the heart of Giza.
Police sealed off the entire district and diverted traffic as security forces searched for the culprits.
An Interior Ministry statement blamed members of the Muslim Brotherhood for the attack, which it said targeted a security checkpoint. The Islamist group has been banned in Egypt since 2013.
The official says the wounded, including a policeman, were rushed to a nearby hospital. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.”
Only Turkey must be inside Syria border buffer zone – Turkish Defence Minister (ahvalnews, Feb 15, 2019)
https://ahvalnews.com/buffer-zone/only-turkey-must-be-inside-syria-border-buffer-zone-turkish-defence-minister#
“Addressing the two other major powers in Syria, Russia and the United States, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Friday that only Turkey should control a proposed 20-mile security zone on its border in Syria, pro-government daily Yeni Akit reported…”
Women of Iran Continue to Fight for Equality (ncr-iran, Feb 15, 2019)
https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/women/25864-women-of-iran-continue-to-fight-for-equality
“The 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution is being celebrated by the clerical regime in Iran. During the past four decades, the people of Iran have lived under extreme suppression that most people in free and democratic countries can simply not fathom.
Women in Iran have particularly been targeted by the regime and the oppression of women has affected society as a whole.
The NCRI’s Women’s Committee has highlighted the plight of women and works to improve the rights for women in Iran in conjunction with women’s rights organisations across the world.
It has drawn attention to the regime’s ideology, showing that the misogyny dates back to well before the Islamic Revolution. In 1962, Khomeini wrote to the Shah advising that the “interests of the state are better served by preserving the religious teachings of Islam and calmness of the heart”, concluding that the right for women to vote should not be allowed.
In 1979, almost immediately after the February revolution, Khomeini abolished the Family Protection Law – the law that gave women family rights. Very soon after, social services for women were cancelled and female judges were stopped from working in the judiciary.
Over the years, the regime cracked down on the obligatory veiling allowing women who were deemed improperly covered to be attacked in the street. The Women’s Committee recalled that in 2014 there were a number of acid attacks and stabbings of women. Worse, these attacks were carried out by gangs backed by the government.
Since current President Hassan Rouhani took office, it is believed that at least 87 women have been executed. During the eighties, tens of thousands of women – members of the PMOI – were killed. Simply for carrying out their right to freedom for expression. Many of these women were elderly mothers and grandmothers, some were pregnant and others were just teenagers.
Despite the regime’s attempts to silence women, the women of Iran have made it very clear that they will continue to make their voices heard despite the consequences. Iranian society as a whole benefits from the input of the strong and determined Iranian women.
The NCRI also values women, with the female leader – Mrs. Maryam Rajavi – ensuring that they will never be excluded from being heard and treated as equals. Women in Iran, with the full support of the Iranian Resistance, are “paying the price for freedom and turn the page of history in their homeland”. They are ensuring that their daughters and granddaughters in years to come will be able to enjoy a rightful place in society alongside their male counterparts.
The Women’s Committee and the women, and men, on the streets in Iran are fighting against violence towards women, against forced marriages of young girls, and for the protection of women.
Khomeini said that equality between women and men is “in fundamental violation of some of the most crucial rulings of Islam and in defiance of some of the explicit commandments of the Quran”. The NCRI has criticised the regime for such a misogynistic interpretation of Islam.
Under the rule of clerical regime in Iran violence against women and other forms of misogyny is still systemic in many places.
To the rest of the world, the Iranian Regime pretends that they are committed to women’s rights but this could not be further from the truth. In reality, misogyny runs rampant, women are considered the property of their closest male relative and have no legal rights.”
europravda – City with a conscience: Dubai’s desert utopia
In this episode of Focus we travel to the outskirts of Dubai to visit a community at the forefront of environmentalism and sustainability.
Dubai – Truckers say long queues leading to illegal sewage dumping around Dubai
Dubai poop snake
Where does all the poop go in Dubai? Millions of people and no sewers, just holding tanks and “poop” trucks. We found this lineup out on the highway and never found the end of it. We asked the drivers and they had been there for 3 days. Maybe why they now just dump it in the ocean and the beaches are closed.
Bangladesh hosts world’s second largest gathering of Muslims
Bishwa Ijtema, the world’s second largest congregation of Muslims after Hajj, kicks off amid tight security in the Bangladeshi town of Tongi, with up to three million Muslims set to participate at this year’s four-day-long gathering.
EAR-WORM trigger!
nonononononoWould YOU want them as neighbors?
(They may be calling themselves “Rohingya”. Canada: Just say NO!)
Trump spars with CNN’s Acosta: You have an agenda, you’re fake news
MEMRI – Lebanese Philosopher Dr. Ali Harb: Colonialism Brought Arabs Out of Middle Ages into Modernity
Lebanese philosopher Dr. Ali Harb was featured in a two-part series on Al-Hurra TV (U.S.) that aired on February 3 and 10, 2019.
He said that while colonialism had its drawbacks, it created great opportunities for the Arab world and Arab societies to join modernity and emerge out of the Middle Ages.
He said that Pan-Arabism, left-wing thought, and other ideologies caused an overall decrease of freedom in Arab societies relative to the era of liberalism and enlightenment, and that the return of religion brought about the hijab, civil wars, the age of terrorism, and the return of colonialism.
Dr. Harb said that the Arab world does not produce knowledge or participate in the creation of civilization and added that Arabs needs to change the way they think, see the world, and deal with their heritage and religion.
MEMRI – Egyptian Researcher El-Zoghby: We Should Erect a Statue of Hitler Because of What He Did to the Jews
Egyptian researched Mohamed Gad El-Zoghby was asked in a February 9, 2019 interview on Safa TV (Saudi Arabia/Egypt) who was worse: Adolf Hitler or Imam Khomeini.
He answered: “Objectively speaking, Hitler wins. But as far as we’re concerned, we should erect a statue of Hitler for what he did to the Jews.”
El-Zoghby accused Imam Khomeini of collaborating with the Jews and praised Hitler for supporting the Arab cause in Palestine.
El-Zoghby is a researcher and a poet. He has a master’s degree in shari’a and law from Ain Shams University.
Rep. Omar’s Anti-Semitism is Just CAIR’s Anti-Semitism
Pull on the string of Rep. Omar’s anti-Semitism and you go right back to the Muslim Brotherhood.
February 15, 2019
Daniel Greenfield
Rep. Ilhan Omar defended the anti-Semitic Black Israelites hate group in January. In February, she was originally scheduled to speak at an Islamic Relief USA dinner alongside IRUSA’s Yousef Abdallah who had endorsed violence against Jews and described former Governor Chris Christie “down on his knees before the jewish lords and masters… only money makes stuff like this happen.”
Abdallah’s comments were very similar to the anti-Semitic Twitter slurs that got Omar in trouble.
That’s not a coincidence. Omar’s worldview, including her anti-Semitism, was shaped by a familiar network of Islamist organizations which control life for most Muslims in the United States.
In March, Rep. Omar is headed to California to speak at CAIR’s Los Angeles dinner. There she will appear alongside CAIR’s Florida boss Hassan Shibly who has defended Hamas and vocally praised Hezbollah. “Israel & it’s supporters are enemies of God and humanity!” he had tweeted.
Shibly has vocally defended Rep. Omar over her comments about Jews.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272879/rep-omars-anti-semitism-just-cairs-anti-semitism-daniel-greenfield
SKY Pravda – Is Sir Winston Churchill a hero or villain?
Los Angeles City Council Creates Republican Contractors Blacklist
February 15, 2019
Daniel Greenfield
This is wildly illegal and un-American. It’s also the new normal. Especially in the one-party state of California where democracy goes to die. And it will be defended by Democrat judges. The only way to fight back against it may be with the same treatment.
Blue cities are now openly creating political blacklists and making them law.
In a unanimous decision, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday passed an ordinance that requires companies who do work with the city to disclose if they have any ties to the National Rifle Association.
The ordinance – which follows similar ones passed by the council requiring contractors to disclose any involvement in the construction of President Trump’s proposed border wall and any past investments in or profits from slavery – has already drawn protests from gun rights activists and threats of a lawsuit.
The wall was at least a boycott based on a specific contracting project. Support for the NRA is a purely ideological boycott. It’s no different than Republicans refusing to give contracts to anyone who donates to the ACLU or the Southern Poverty Law Center.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272883/los-angeles-city-council-creates-republican-daniel-greenfield
“ In a unanimous decision, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday passed an ordinance that requires companies who do work with the city to disclose if they have any ties to the National Rifle Association.
The ordinance – which follows similar ones passed by the council requiring contractors to disclose any involvement in the construction of President Trump’s proposed border wall and any past investments in or profits from slavery – has already drawn protests from gun rights activists and threats of a lawsuit.”
Yet more proof that the McCarthy-hating Left is congenitally immune to irony (much less humor) in all of its contemporary manifestations.
(T = 00:01:18)
Sports Hijab Created By Brunel University In The UK For Muslim Women
Trump To Formally Declare Border Emergency
The battle over America’s security heats up.
February 15, 2019
Matthew Vadum
A defiant President Trump promised yesterday to declare a national emergency to get the wall he promised to build constructed on America’s porous southern border, as Congress gave him funding –with plenty of strings attached– to build 55 miles of border barriers.
“President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action—including a national emergency—to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border[,]” the White House tweeted Thursday at 3:44 p.m.
Trump, who said he was “not thrilled” with the omnibus spending bill, is nevertheless expected to sign “and declare the national emergency in an appearance Friday morning, according to a senior White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity,” the Washington Post reports.
On the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said declaring an emergency was “a very wrong thing to do.”
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272878/trump-formally-declare-border-emergency-matthew-vadum
Richard: This is the only way we are going to get enhanced border security, the Dems aren’t going to allocate enough money for enhanced security. As for the notion that this will give the Dems ideas about declaring a national security emergency when they are once again in the White House. 1) They have already used this power when they were in the White House, 2) Whit what is happening in the Democrat Party we don’t know if it will survive long enough to once again elect a President. Either way we need the barriar/fencing and we need it as of yesterday, we can’t let fear of the future stop us from defending the US now.
“Green New Deal” – And Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Ocasio-Cortez and her comrades travel backward toward “Year Zero”.
February 15, 2019
Lloyd Billingsley
Democrats led by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey have rolled out their “Green New Deal,” a 14-page House Resolution that would replace air travel with trains, eliminate gasoline-powered cars and get rid of “farting cows” that emit methane.
“Almost everything about Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal is wrong,” explained Ed Ring in American Greatness, with accompanying detail. He also called Ocasio-Cortez and company the “watermelon people,” because they are green outside and red inside. That comparison has been around for a while, but the red is deeper than ever before. The left has always been at odds with Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, but the Green New Deal Democrats also have a beef with Orville and Wilbur Wright.
On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers took flight in the first successful power-driven airplane. The brothers gained fame as the “fathers of modern aviation,” which grew at a rapid pace. In 1927, Charles Lindberg became the first to fly across the Atlantic, and soon airplanes were transporting passengers across the oceans. Propeller aircraft gave way to jetliners such as the Boeing 707, which made its first flight on July 15, 1954, only six years after Orville Wright passed away, and went on to “popularize jet travel.”
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272830/green-new-deal-and-planes-trains-and-automobiles-lloyd-billingsley
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Celebrates Loss of 25,000 Jobs
February 15, 2019
Daniel Greenfield
Socialists thrive on making things worse. The more jobs lefties destroy, the more supporters they gain.
So it’s no wonder that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is celebrating Amazon’s pullout from New York. Nearly every city in the country had courted Amazon. New York City won, and then lost, because of its domestic Left.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tweeted, “Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world.”
The average lefty screaming about the deal wasn’t an “everyday” anything or even from New York.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272881/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-celebrates-loss-25000-daniel-greenfield
The left has turned California into a Third World Hell Hole that is driving everyone who wants to work out of the state. They have turned Illinois into a financial disaster with people fleeing daily. New York is losing jobs and people at an alarming rate, and AOC is celebrating forcing 25 tousand high paying jobs out of NYC.
Many people (me included) keep saying the world is spending itself into a massive world economic crisis that will crash all currencies and destroy a lot of nations. Could AOC’s handlers be trying to crash New York City and State economy thinking it will start the economic crash that they hope will let them take over?
The Dan Bongino Show
Ep. 917 The Down and Dirty on the Budget Deal
https://bongino.com/ep-917-the-down-and-dirty-on-the-budget-deal/
Trump to Sign Spending Bill, Declare National Emergency for Border Wall
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) said today that President Trump will sign a border security bill to avert another government shutdown and declare a national emergency to build the border wall.
“He’s prepared to sign the bill, he will also be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time,” said McConnell. “I’ve indicated to him that I’m going to support the national emergency declaration.”
The Senate passed the border bill 83-16 and it now heads to the House for a vote.
https://bongino.com/trump-to-sign-spending-bill-declare-national-emergency-for-border-wall/
CBC – Crown appealing military centre stabber Ayanle Hassan’s bid to attend college classes
Ali has made ‘tremendous progress’ his lawyer says
Prosecutors say a man found not criminally responsible in a knife attack at a Toronto military recruitment centre should not be allowed to take college classes on his own, but his lawyer has told CBC News that Ayanle Hassan Ali can’t be rehabilitated by simply locking him up and “throwing away the key.”
The Crown is appealing a decision by the Ontario Review Board (ORB), which last year granted Ali permission to attend Mohawk College unaccompanied while he is detained at a secure Hamilton hospital.
It is also challenging the board’s decision to ban Ali from attending known military installations or recruitment centres, arguing he should face a more restrictive condition prohibiting contact with any uniformed military personnel.
The arguments are set to be heard at the Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto on Friday.
“A very careful approach was warranted in addressing the respondent’s mental condition, reintegration into society, and other needs, in a way that would not imperil the safety of the public,” the Crown argues in its submissions.
“The board, however, only cited the needs of the accused and his reintegration when addressing indirect supervision in the community for educational purposes, and failed to advert to, or give adequate consideration to, the paramount factor of public safety.”
But Ali’s lawyer Nader Hasan told CBC News the board carefully considered all the relevant information and the ORB ruling should stand because his client is no longer a safety risk.
“He’s been making tremendous progress,” said Hasan,
“He has responded very well to medication and treatment … so he’s now at the point where he moves about the hospital grounds with a little bit more freedom particularly on the locked unit, and he has started taking distance learning classes.”
Hasan pointed out the ORB ruling does not mean his client will be going to college unaccompanied anytime soon.
“It is entirely possible that Mr. Ali won’t get to the point over the course of the next year where he is going to school off campus. The disposition simply provides his doctors with the discretion to make that decision.”
Ali attacked several uniformed military personnel with a large knife in March 2016 and wounded several people before he was overpowered and subdued.
He was charged with attempted murder, assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon, as well as carrying a weapon, all for the benefit of a terrorist group.
Ali didn’t act for terror group, judge found
Last spring, an Ontario judge ruled that while there is no doubt Ali carried out the attack based on his extremist beliefs, the formation of those beliefs was precipitated by mental illness.
What’s more, the judge found Ali was not acting on behalf of or for the benefit of a terrorist group.
As a result, Ali was cleared on the terror element of the charges and found not criminally responsible on the lesser included offences.
Months later, Ali appeared before the review board, which annually evaluates the status of anyone found not criminally responsible or unfit to stand trial for criminal offences due to mental illness.
According to documents filed ahead of this week’s hearing, the board found Ali constitutes a significant threat to the public and should continue to be detained at a Hamilton hospital.
However, it also granted Ali privileges to travel through the hospital and grounds, first with staff, then progressing to an approved companion, then under “indirect supervision,” which means being unaccompanied. 🙂 🙂 🙂
The board said Ali could then follow a similar progression into the community for education purposes, namely to go across the street to Mohawk College.
Board’s decision ‘unreasonable,’ Crown says
Prosecutors said the board’s decision was “unreasonable” given that it was Ali’s first review and he has no track record with such privileges.
Hasan argues the panel made the right call.
“This wasn’t a situation where the five members of the Ontario Review Board were split as to what to do,” he told CBC Toronto.
“This is a situation where the treating physician, one of the most renowned psychiatrists we have in Ontario, made a recommendation having treated Mr. Ali for nearly three years … and the Ontario Review Board unanimously adopted those recommendations”
Not criminally responsible: 6 cases
The crown accepts that Ali has been compliant with his medication and has generally followed the rules in his highly restricted hospital ward, but argues that is not the same as having “unsupervised access” to the college.
It noted that since military personnel could be at the college, the board should have imposed a condition barring Ali from contacting any of them, particularly in light of his “residual symptoms.”
But Ali’s lawyer wrote in documents obtained by CBC News that the disposition includes a no-contact order with any of the stabbing victims, and that the hospital doctor is to “notify the local police at such times as he or she exercises his or her discretion to permit the accused to enter the community and to advise the local police
Ali ‘accepts he has schizophrenia,’ doctor testifies
Ali’s psychiatrist testified at the board hearing that his patient accepts that he has schizophrenia and knows the symptoms of his illness, except for residual thoughts that he is being monitored by the Canadian government, which he is not convinced stems from his illness.
The doctor added Ali still has concerns about the Canadian government’s actions overseas towards Muslims but has not expressed any more desire to achieve martyrdom by attacking Canadians.
Hasan will argue rehabilitation and public safety go hand-and-hand so society is better off if people like Ali are rehabilitated.
“That’s what the ORB has in mind when they fashion these dispositions,” he said.
“People don’t get rehabilitated by sticking them in a hospital in a locked secure unit and throwing away the key … There has to be room to rehabilitate; there has to be room to grow.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/crown-appealing-military-centre-stabber-ayanle-hassan-s-bid-to-attend-college-classes-1.5020513
Trump Declares National Emergency — Accuses Chuck and Nancy of “Con Game”
Univision newscast uses video game soldier to SCARE Hispanic viewers over POTUS Trump’s border security proposal
The Arizona affiliate of Spanish-speaking network Univision featured a story about POTUS Donald Trump’s border security objectives that was pure propaganda aimed at scaring the Hispanic population the station serves.
Yes, that’s right, Hispanic Arizonans; a fictional Navy SEAL — or operatives like him — are preparing to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border, heavily armed and under instructions from the president to shoot any illegal crosser on sight.
https://thenationalsentinel.com/2019/02/14/univision-newscast-uses-video-game-soldier-to-scare-hispanic-viewers-over-potus-trumps-border-security-proposal/