Contributor’s links post for April 30, 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 must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

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

159 Replies to “Contributor’s links post for April 30, 2019”

  1. The only defensive weapon this Jewish vet in Poway had was his voice and his brain and as he says “the hand of God.” A congregant with a gun backed him up to disable the vehicle. The LA Times article mentions the different politics of all involved and avoids mentioning the name of the shooter as much as possible in its reporting.
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/im-going-to-kill-you-veteran-saves-lives-by-charging-synagogue-shooter-forcing-him-to-flee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2q77OslSx8
    https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-diego-synagogue-shooting-hero-20190428-story.html

    • Besides complaining do you have a solution.
      Words are useless at this point we all talk and talk

      • “Besides complaining do you have a solution.
        Words are useless at this point we all talk and talk        ”

        Without knowing how well-informed you are, it’s impossible to gauge how much of the information is already in your possession that Amazing Polly does such a good job of presenting.

        She isn’t just complaining, she’s connecting the dots. That’s something which a lot of people are NOT doing these days.

        Those who watch her work and listen closely can gather data points which will NEVER be provided by the MSM. I call that being a contributor.

        The journey of a thousand miles begins with the Proper Naming of Things … or something like that.

    • No it doesn’t look like Mad Max or the societies of the dystopian SF novels, but that is coming unless we fight back now.

  5. UK: THIS ISLAMOPHOBIA DEFINITION WOULD – IF ADOPTED BY MINISTERS – POSE PROBLEMS FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
    But what worries me now is that the police, the intelligence agencies and Ministers could soon have their hands tied if the Government chooses officially to adopt the All Party Parliamentarty Group on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia. This asserts that “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”. It is my firm view that this deeply flawed definition – which wrongly conflates the religion of Islam with a racial group – could over time cripple the UK’s successful counter-terrorism strategy and counter-terrorism operations. And this warning is at the heart of a research paper that I have co-authored for Policy Exchange, published today. Richard Walton
    https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2019/04/this-islamophobia-definition-would-if-adopted-by-ministers-pose-problems-for-national-security.html

    • “… if the Government chooses officially to adopt the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia.”

      Why don’t they please save everybody heaps of trouble and just SHOOT THEMSELVES instead? There’s no way they could do any more harm, literally. In fact, if this lot topped themselves, our world would likely be a much better place.

      As the old saying goes:

      Some make this world a better place by having entered it. Others by departing.

  6. US: FORMER FBI AGENT: HOW OBAMA OFFICIALS SPIED ON TRUMP
    video – 36 minutes 29 seconds
    Senior investigative reporter of the Epoch Times Joshua Philipp sits down with 27-year veteran of the FBI, Marc Ruskin to discuss his thoughts on how Spygate was able to happen. Marc is a regular contributor at the Epoch and the author of “The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI.” He served on the legislative staff of U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y.

  7. ISRAEL: HAMAS – DOMINIQUE (DOM), BRITISH TERRORISTS & THE MIKE’S PLACE BOMBING
    These two terrorists were not from Gaza or the West Bank. They were not Palestinians. The bomber that killed Dom, Ran and Yanai was Asif Mohammed Hanif. He was from Hounslow in West London. The second terrorist Omar Khan Sharif was from Derby. These two terrorists were brought up and educated in the United Kingdom. They travelled to Israel because they wanted to kill Jews. This is Hamas and this is radical Islamic terrorism. Terrorism that deliberately destroys lives. David Collier
    http://david-collier.com/dom-mikesplace-bombing/

  8. CHILDREN’S INDOCTRINATION: JORDANIAN BOY PLEDGES TO BE MARTYRED FOR JERUSALEM IN VIRAL VIDEO
    video – 1 minute 55 seconds [Arabic with English subtitles]

  10. UAE BUSINESS MAGNATE KHALAF AL-HABTOOR: WE NEED PEACE WITH ISRAEL AND COOPERATION EVEN IN DEFENSE
    video – 1 minute 18 seconds [Arabic with English subtitles]

  11. ECLJ: EUTHANASIA OF VINCENT LAMBERT – NEW INTERNATIONAL PROCEEDINGS GIVE HOPE
    On the same day the decision of the Conseil d’État was released, the media revealed the case of a woman who woke up from a coma after 27 years (Ouest France, April 24th, 2019). She too had been a victim of a car accident and was in a vegetative state, according to her attending physician. Her son wanted to share her story “to tell people not to lose hope for their loved ones”. He said: “Don’t count them as dead when they are in such a state.” This woman received the care her state required, including physiotherapy, contrary to Vincent Lambert who is denied the basic care to which he is entitled because of his disability. He is kept in his bed and locked inside his room in the Reims University Hospital, in spite of several propositions to take care of him in specialized institutions. This unacceptable situation was denounced by 70 doctors specialized in the care of persons in a state of altered consciousness. They deemed that Vincent Lambert was not subject to therapeutic obstinacy and that he must be treated just like any other disabled person in his condition. The UN and the Council of Europe were created after the Second World War, when the memory of the thousands of disabled persons euthanized in Nazi Germany by gradual reduction of food and hydration was still fresh. These practices were clearly condemned at the Nuremberg Trials and by the UN and the World Medical Association. We hope that the ECHR and the CRPD will remember this, while the decision in question not only threatens Vincent Lambert, but also hundreds of people in the same condition in France. Priscille Kulczyk
    https://mailchi.mp/eclj/euthanasia-of-vincent-lambert-new-international-proceedings-give-hope

  12. FUNERAL HELD FOR EIGHT CHRISTIAN CHILDREN KILLED IN EASTER PROCESSION IN NIGERIA
    Off-duty officer rams car into celebration of resurrection. “This incident, no doubt, is motivated by terrorist acts, as the driver deliberately crashed into the procession”… “The driver of the vehicle is a Muslim and an official of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), while his passenger is a Muslim police officer.” Killed were Ruth Samson Samanja, 13; Keziah Amos Kwatam, 13; and Polina Yusuf Samanja, 11 of the Girls Brigade company in Gombe, Kwadang said. From the Boys Brigade, those killed were Sunday Samuel Gurnet, 19; Irimiya Amos Ibrahim, 14; Joseph Daniel, 21; Joseph Danjuma Paul Gavan, 15; and Jesse Markus Baka, 15, he said. The vehicle assault also sent 12 Christians to the hospital for treatment of injuries…
    https://morningstarnews.org/2019/04/funeral-held-for-eight-christians-killed-in-easter-procession-in-nigeria/

  13. HANDS OFF OUR GUNS – TORONTO
    video – 3 minutes 29 seconds
    Toronto Mayor John Tory thinks offering people $350 to turn in their guns will make the streets safer, despite a wealth of evidence proving gun buybacks simply don’t work. The reason why is simple–gangsters who have guns have them because they want them. True North’s Andrew Lawton, who won’t be handing his gun over, explains why this is such a flawed initiative.

  14. UPDATE: AUTHORITIES TO ARREST CANADIAN FATHER IF HE REFERS TO TRANS CHILD AS HER REAL SEX
    Clark will be subject to arrest if any police officer has ‘reasonable’ grounds to believe that he’s referred to his daughter as female in public or private. “This is extreme and dangerous,” she said, arguing that the court was forcing Clark to embrace a “delusion” about his daughter’s gender and her “abuse” at the hands of doctors, or else be arrested. Clark’s appeal of the court’s original ruling regarding testosterone injections into his daughter is set to be heard on May 14. Jeremiah Keenan
    https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/29/authorities-arrest-canadian-father-refers-trans-child-real-sex/

    • “Like an increasing number of parents these days, Clark argued that his child had been misled and brainwashed by online activists and school administrators, who began to treat Maxine as a transgender boy at school, without informing her parents, when she was only 12 years old.”

  15. LE PEN: EU HAS ‘SAME GOAL’ AS USSR – TO REDUCE POLITICAL & LEGAL CAPACITIES OF RESISTANCE
    “Have you fought against the Soviet influence for so many years to undergo, from now on, the same yoke of the European Union?” asked Mr Annemans, a Belgian MEP and member of the right-populist Flemish Vlaams Belang party. “Federalists, EU supporters, want the dilution of the Nations for the benefit of an oligarchy of civil servants and experts. On the other side, there are the Patriots of all countries — us!” Ms Le Pen declared. Victoria Friedman
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/29/le-pen-says-eu-same-goal-ussr-reduce-political-legal-capacities-resistance/

  16. ALGERIA: ‘BAD’ RULERS v WEAK RULE
    BOUTEFLIKA’S RESIGNATION – PROBLEMS FOR EUROPE & PROBLEMS FOR FRANCE
    Friday 26th April 2019: As demonstrations against the regime in Algeria continue despite President Bouteflika’s resignation…. If Algeria slips into social chaos, the consequences for the EU could be frightening; if it succumbs to Islamic fundamentalism, Europe will be most vulnerable; and in a worst case scenario, France could be on the front line. Elections are planned for 4 July, but who knows how long popular discontent will retain its composure or the army its restraint. Doubtless Macron’s attention has been focussed on his own fractured society and 23 weeks of ‘yellow vest’ protests. But one can wager that the Quai d’Orsay, the Defence Ministry and France’s intelligence services are seriously gaming scenarios. In the worst of these not just Europe, but France will be on the front line. Since first becoming a colony in 1830 Algeria has been associated with major French political crises including the 1830 fall of the Bourbons, opposition to the Second Empire, rebellion in 1871, the rise of anti-Semitism around the time of the Dreyfus Affair, the clash between the Free French and the Vichy Regime, the fall of the Fourth Republic, the birth of the 5th, the 1961 military putsch and the murderous repression of October 1961 demonstrations in Paris. It may continue to be so. Prof John Keiger
    http://www.politeia.co.uk/bad-rulers-v-weak-rule-bouteflikas-resignation-problems-for-europe-problems-for-france-by-professor-john-keiger/

    • If muslims become impoverished
      They are victims demanding Mercy.
      Or Socialists less abled
      Equal Rights kick in too early.
      And the vapors of elixir
      Immortalize the merely.

    • • euthenasia advocacy,
      • deviants as celebrities,
      • deliberate inducement of world’s-gonna-end hysteria,
      • proxy wars and booming munitions industry
      • …

      Keep your gun clean, your powder dry, and watch your back.
      —R

      • +++ DEFEATIST propaganda, brought to you by the world’s best, _evah_

        Relentless pessimism, check ZeroHedge’s selections any day, every day. Crafty blend of fact and fiction that manages to trend consistently bitter, bleak, down. Compare THAT world view to the one J.E. Dyer offered yesterday.

        Get a hit of “libertarian”-flavored enemy: globalist-banksters-neocons, we’re-being-had by you-know-who. Let’s disarm, curl up in the fetal position.
        Russia's got MY back, anyway.
        ….
        Breathe deeply…. pretend you didn’t miss the historic bull market because you ingested this enemy bull shi’ite.

        Breathe deeply…. float on these toxic fumes, you may not feel a thing….

  20. Why does a major U.S. company partner with communist China? If it is not to secretly spy on and trick the Chicoms is it not treasonous? If working with them is not a ruse what is it? Do you work with them to steal back the technology they’ve already stolen? I’m trying hard here to justify this, I think, but grasping at straws.

    I used to like the science fiction genre. It was always fun and intriguing to get fanciful insights into what could be. Again, it was fiction. Now, digital repression is fact. As a fundamentlally optimistic person I jump to each day eager for its bounty. But this, this binary reliance is like humanity’ crack cocaine. When I was a kid I read Kurt Vonnegut. At first I thought he was cool and funny, then I thought he was just another progressive. Now I’m back to thinking he was alright. Criticism of country for love of country is noble. Where are we now?

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/04/how-ai-systems-could-threaten-democracy.html

    • When science fact surpasses science fiction isn’t wonder lost? In the distant future when robots’ fake intelligence (yes derogatory–I’ve just decided all robots are, and always will be assholes, and I have arrived at this ironic decision–ha,ha–autonomously). Will robots deify we himans? Will they create other gods? If they procreate will they be designated a gender by their gods? Will their children form issues if their parents divorce? Have I just committed hate speech against an AI internet consciousness? Is it preposterous to ask this? For how long will this question be absurd?

      https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-divided-over-robot-ai-artificial-intelligence-personhood/

  22. IT IS NOT FALSEHOOD THAT CAUSES THE GREATEST OFFENCE BUT TRUTH
    To people like me educated in post-war Britain, free speech has been a firm premise of the British way of life. As John Stuart Mill expressed the point, ‘the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race, posterity as well as the existing generation. Those who dissent from the opinion still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right they’re deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth. If wrong, they lose what is almost as great a benefit: the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error.’ . Free discussion is being everywhere shut down so that we will never know who is right – the heretics or those who try to silence them. Roger Scruton
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/it-is-not-falsehood-that-causes-the-greatest-offence-but-truth/

  24. F-35 Project Without Turkey is Bound to Collapse – Erdogan (sputniknews, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201904301074575171-f35-bound-collapse/

    “Relations between Turkey and the US have been strained since Ankara made it clear that it would proceed with purchasing Russian S-400 systems. The move prompted the US to suspend its delivery of F-35 fighter jet parts to Turkey.

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday at a defence industry fair that a multinational project on the development of the F-35 Lightning II would collapse without Turkey taking part in it.

    “When we felt the need for missile defense systems, we turned to the allies, but did not receive the necessary response. Therefore, we reached an agreement with Russia on the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. Now [the allies] are trying to exclude us from the F-35 project. Without Turkey, this project will suffer great damage,” Erdogan said at the opening of the international defense industry exhibition IDEF-2019 in Istanbul.

    The statement comes amid a row between Washington and Ankara over the latter’s decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defence systems.

    Washington has repeatedly voiced concerns that if Turkey acquires both S-400s and F-35s, it will jeopardise US or NATO military equipment, since it would allegedly provide Russian experts with key insights into sensitive information related to the warplane’s technology.

    Ankara, for its part, has maintained that the S-400s were not connected to the security of NATO, the US or the F-35 in any way. Despite Ankara’s explanation on the issue, Washington has decided to stop deliveries of F-35 fighter jet parts to Turkey.

    Russia and Turkey sealed the $2.5 billion S-400 deal in December 2017, having signed a loan agreement for the shipment of a total of four batteries. The first delivery is scheduled for July 2019, according to Turkish authorities.”

    • Erdogan and the Turks have delusions of grandeur, reality is that they are slowing down the rest of us.

      • DeepState got us neck-deep in MB-business. We’ve got a fighter, thank G-d, in PT. It’s up to us to keep our heads up. We’ll have to kick our way free.

  25. EXCLUSIVE Saudi Oil Minister Vows to Substitute Iranian Crude Exports on Market (sputniknews, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/interviews/201904301074571139-saudi-arabia-opec/

    “In an interview with Sputnik Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, Khalid Falih, has spoken for the first time about the current agreement between OPEC member states and non-cartel oil producers, as well as the impact of Iranian oil on the global market, and his participation in the St. Petersburg Economic Forum…”

  26. Christchurch Area Police Responding to an Incident in Phillipstown, NZ- Reports (sputniknews, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/asia/201904301074569696-new-zealand-police/

    “Christchurch police have blocked off a Phillipstown street in the eastern part of the New Zealand city urging local citizens to stay away, the NZ Herald reported citing residents. Police have cordoned off the Newcastle Street area, according to reports.

    A man has been arrested after a report of a suspicious item at a Christchurch property, police said in a statement.

    Police reported that the bomb squad has defused the alleged explosive device.

    Fire department vehicles and ambulances are also present in the area, the reports say. Some residents have also reportedly been evacuated from nearby homes and asked to go to the Linwood College hall.

    he incident comes after a deadly shooting that took place in March…”

  27. 1,000 Muslim refugees flee homes after Sri Lanka retaliation attacks (telegraph, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/30/1000-muslim-refugees-flee-homes-sri-lanka-retaliation-attacks/

    “Around 1,000 Muslim refugees in Sri Lanka have been forced from their homes in retaliatory attacks following the Easter Sunday bombings, according to Human Rights Watch.

    Mobs threatened to destroy the houses of Afghans, Pakistanis and Iranians – most of whom are part of minority Muslim sects such as the Ahmadiyya – who had fled to Sri Lanka after suffering persecution in their homelands.

    Some also reported that they had been beaten up by gangs wielding sticks and stones.

    A small number of Christian refugees from the three countries have also been caught up in attacks through mistaken identity.

    “The people in Pakistan attacked us and say we’re not Muslims,” said Tariq Ahmed, a 58-year-old Pakistani Ahmadiyya told Associated Press.

    “Then in Sri Lanka, people attack us because they say we are Muslims.”

    Around 650 refugees have sought shelter at a mosque in the city of Pasyala, near Negombo.

    Others are believed to be staying in police stations or local schools while 30 Iranians have barricaded themselves inside their homes.

    Human Rights Watch called on the Sri Lankan government to protect its 1,600 asylum seekers as well as the broader population.

    “Sri Lankan authorities not only have a responsibility to apprehend those responsible for the heinous East Sunday attacks but also to protect all those now at heightened risk,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, Director for South Asia.

    “This means providing safe and secure shelter for refugees and asylum seekers, but also taking prompt legal action against anyone who threatens them.”

    Anti-Muslim backlash in Sri Lanka is at an all-time high as a result of the horrific Easter Sunday terror attacks.

    Nine suicide bombers with links to Islamic State blew themselves up in churches and hotels, killing 253 people.

    The Sri Lankan government has declared a state of emergency while it attempts to re-establish control.

    An entire island-wide curfew was in place until Sunday and is still being upheld in three districts of the country.

    A ban on clothing which conceals the face, including the burqa, has also been introduced while police hunt for suspects.

    So far, over 100 people have been arrested in conjunction with the attacks while 15 suspected militants and their families died during a police raid in the east of the country on Friday.”

  28. Switzerland: Over 80 Percent of Somali Migrants on Welfare (breitbart, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/30/switzerland-over-80-percent-of-somali-migrants-on-welfare/

    “According to newly released data, several migrant groups of different national origins in Switzerland have welfare dependency rates well above 50 per cent, with over 80 per cent of Somalis in the country taking state handouts.

    The data was gathered and released by both the Federal Statistical Office and the State Secretariat for Migration and shows that the 4,000 or so Somalis in Switzerland are by far the most prone to being on government benefits with 83.7 per cent relying on state income, 20 Minutes reports.

    While Somalis are by far and wide the largest recipients of welfare, several other nationalities also have rates of over 50 per cent, such as Eritreans at 54.7 per cent and Angolans at 54 per cent.

    The statistics greatly contrast with the number of Swiss nationals on welfare, at a mere 2.3 per cent of the population — although Japanese nationals were the lowest of all at only 0.6 per cent.

    Damian Müller of the Swiss Liberals (FDP) said that the figures show that both far too many asylum seekers not qualified for asylum were living on state handouts and that not enough was being done to integrate those with refugee status into the Swiss economy.

    “Integration is not a one-way street,” he insisted, adding, “refugees are [also] responsible.”

    Bachir Gobdon of the Somali Diaspora association attributed some of the blame for the high rates of welfare in the Somali community to the average family size, saying, “For example, they work in the hospitality industry, where wages are low. A family that has seven children, for example, cannot live on it.”

    The statistics resemble those in other countries like Sweden, where the jobless rate for migrants is much higher than the rate for native Swedes.

    Figures released last summer showed that while Swedes had a rate of only 3.6 per cent unemployment, while the figure for migrants was 19.9 per cent.

    In Germany, a report from the German Federal Employment Agency last year revealed that more than half of those on the Hartz IV welfare programme were migrants, with migrant welfare recipients increasing by 69 per cent since 2010 while Germans on welfare declined by 20 per cent.”

    • Maybe they had better get 1000 typewriters and produce the works of Shakespeare for something to do.

  29. Drunken Migrants Trash Italian Church in Viral Video (breitbart, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/30/film-intoxicated-migrants-vandalized-italian-church-viral/

    “A video of two intoxicated migrants near-totally destroying a church in Italy over Orthodox Easter has gone viral across social media.

    The Romanian nationals entered the Roman Catholic church of the Madonna della Misericordia del Lugaresi in Cesena over the weekend on Sunday following celebrations of Orthodox Easter.

    Initial speculation on social media was that the incident involved Islamic extremists, Italian newspaper Il Resto del Carlino reports — but it seems this was not the case.

    Marco Censi, director of the Istituto dei Lugaresi, a local youth centre, said of the incident, “they broke glass and some benches, they cut themselves… But Islamic extremists have nothing to do with it. We should not give the incident connotations that it does not have.”

    “Whoever made the video is a policeman who intervened immediately after the episode,” Censi said, going on to add, “the celebrations for the Orthodox Easter went on until late at night. Those two people had drunk too much.”…”

  30. Migrant Prison Rampage Injures Nine Guards, Two Suffer ‘Serious Cranial Trauma’ (breitbart, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/30/migrant-prison-rampage-injures-nine-guards-two-with-serious-cranial-trauma/

    “A total of nine prison officers were injured, including two with serious cranial trauma, after a migrant prisoner violently attacked them, leading to major complaints being lodged by the Autonomous Penitentiary Police Union (SAPPE).

    The incident took place at Dozza prison in Bologna, Italy, on Sunday morning, and saw the migrant, whose identity and national origin was not reported, lash out at the guards and go on a rampage that required two of the victims be transported immediately to a local hospital due to the extent of the head trauma they suffered, Il Giornale reports.

    The extent and seriousness of the injuries prompted a response from the national secretary of SAPPE, Francesco Campobasso, and the deputy secretary general, Giovanni Battista Durante, who released a joint statement warning “there are increasingly frequent attacks on penitentiary police personnel, caused at times by inmates with mental health problems, but so many times by people who do not accept the rules imposed by law.”

    “If it is true that the same detainee, even at other times, had already made himself responsible for similar episodes, we ask the administration to put in place adequate and appropriate initiatives, in order to prevent the personnel from continuing to pay the consequences of an absolutely inadequate level of organization,” they added.

    The incident is not the first time prison officers in Italy have faced threats of violence or actual violence from migrant detainees. Earlier this year in January, radical Tunisian imam Mahmoud Jebali threatened to kill prison officers, saying, “Sooner or later you will all die, we will go into your houses and kill you and eat your corpses.”

    Regular police in Italy have also been on the receiving end of migrant violence as recently as last week when a Senegalese man attacked a pair of officers in Turin while allegedly yelling “Allahu Akbar”, with one of the officers also suffering head trauma during the attack…”

  31. Charity: Iraq excludes 45,000 children born under IS rule (abcnews, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/charity-iraq-excludes-45000-children-born-rule-62721347

    “An estimated 45,000 children in Iraq who were born under the rule of the Islamic State group are being excluded from society because the government denies them documentation and ID papers, an international charity said Tuesday.

    Jan Egeland, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s secretary general, is warning that these children — most of whom are in camps for the displaced today — are a “possible human time-bomb.”

    “Undocumented children risk remaining left on the margins of society if this issue is not addressed immediately. This seriously undermines future prospects of reconciliation efforts,” said Egeland.

    “We urge the government to ensure that undocumented children have the right to exist like any other Iraqi citizen,” he added, citing the organization’s 38-page report “Barriers from Birth.”

    The children were born during IS’s 2013-2017 rule, when the militant group controlled nearly a third of Iraq. The Iraqi government today considers their birth certificates invalid because they were issued by IS.

    After U.S.-backed forces defeated the IS and the militants lost their self-styled “caliphate,” many IS families and those of civilians who lived under the group’s rule were put in camps for the displaced.

    The Norway-based group said its legal teams receive on average 170 requests for help each month in cases of unregistered children, children whose fathers are undocumented, are on one of the government’s security databases or are perceived to be affiliated with IS.

    Egeland said the chance of obtaining ID documents for children from families accused of IS affiliation is nearly impossible, resulting in collective punishment of thousands of innocent children.

    “Children are not responsible for crimes committed by their relatives, yet many are denied their basic rights as Iraqi citizens,” he said.

    Without ID papers, these children have no access to education or health care, they are not allowed to enroll in schools and their mothers cannot get badly needed aid — they are denied “simply the right to exist,” Egeland said.

    Providing these children with such basic rights to education and health care is “key to ensuring a sustainable future for them and for the country,” he said.

    “A society cannot be at peace if it allows a generation of stateless children in its midst.””

  32. Islamist financier, 6 others get life sentences in Egypt (abcnews, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/islamist-financier-life-sentences-egypt-62724711

    “Egypt has sentenced seven Muslim Brotherhood members, including one of the group’s top financiers, to life in prison on charges of joining and funding a terrorist group.

    The Supreme State Security Emergency Court sentenced three others to 10 years, while acquitting 14. The verdicts can be appealed.

    Those sentenced to life include Hassan Malek, a businessman who owned stores that imported computers and electronics, and his son.

    The Muslim Brotherhood won a series of elections after the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. Mohammed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure, became Egypt’s first freely-elected president the following year.

    The military overthrew Morsi in 2013 amid massive protests against his brief rule. Authorities have since branded the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and arrested thousands of its members.”

  33. Rights group: 3,000 prisoners on hunger strike in Turkey (abcnews, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/rights-group-3000-prisoners-hunger-strike-turkey-62722606

    “The number of prisoners who have joined a hunger strike to press Turkish authorities to end the isolation in jail of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has increased to close to 3,000, a human rights group said Tuesday.

    Human Rights Association head Ozturk Turkdogan told The Associated Press that a total of 2,983 people in 90 prisons across Turkey are refusing food in protest of jail conditions for Ocalan, whose family members and lawyers have reportedly been denied visits.

    Pro-Kurdish legislator Leyla Guven launched the hunger strike from prison in November. She has since been released and is continuing the strike at home. Two former pro-Kurdish legislators are among the thousands of prisoners who have joined Guven’s strike over the following months.

    Hunger strikers in Turkey traditionally refuse food but take vitamins and salt and sugar solutions, which help prolong life.

    Turkdogan said 15 of the hunger strikers are now also refusing vitamins.

    Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has been serving a life prison term on Imrali island, near Istanbul, since 1999. His group is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its western allies.

    Turkdogan’s group says Ocalan has not seen his lawyers since 2011 while pro-Kurdish legislators last visited him in 2015. His brother was allowed a half-hour visit on Jan. 12.

    Ocalan has in the past conveyed messages to his rebel group through his lawyers.

    Hundreds of Kurdish inmates ended a similar hunger strike in 2012, heeding a call by Ocalan.

    Turkish authorities have not commented publicly on the hunger strikes.”

  34. Rights group: 3,000 prisoners on hunger strike in Turkey (abcnews, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/rights-group-3000-prisoners-hunger-strike-turkey-62722606

    “The number of prisoners who have joined a hunger strike to press Turkish authorities to end the isolation in jail of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has increased to close to 3,000, a human rights group said Tuesday.

    Human Rights Association head Ozturk Turkdogan told The Associated Press that a total of 2,983 people in 90 prisons across Turkey are refusing food in protest of jail conditions for Ocalan, whose family members and lawyers have reportedly been denied visits…”

    • The Chetnicks were the non communist fighters against the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia.

      • If they love Serbia so much why do they not fuck off back there,they are NOT anzacs,just grubby little balkan shits.

  39. Heavy gunfire breaks out and terrified civilians run through clouds of tear gas for cover after Venezuela’s Juan Guaido calls for military uprising to overthrow President Maduro

    Heavy gunfire crackled through the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Tuesday after opposition leader Juan Guaido called for a military uprising to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

    Guaido urged protesters and members of the military to join what he called the ‘final phase of Operation Liberty’ in a video taken at La Carlota airbase in the capital Caracas while surrounded by heavily-armed soldiers.

    The troops then fanned out to set up defensive positions around the base before Maduro’s forces arrived and opened fire with teargas followed by live rounds, according to witnesses.

    Guiado, who has the backing of the US and most Western governments, has been trying to oust Maduro for months using largely non-violent protests.
    ADVERTISING

    American National Security Adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence have since tweeted their support for Guaido, saying: ‘The United States stands with the people of Venezuela.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6975871/Venezuelas-Juan-Guaido-calls-military-revolt-final-phase-overthrowing-President-Maduro.html

    • Venezuela says it is confronting small group of traitors attempting coup

      1 Min Read

      CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government is confronting a small group of “military traitors” that are seeking to promote a coup, Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said on Tuesday on Twitter.

      A Reuters journalist saw opposition leader Juan Guaido standing near an air force base in Caracas surrounded by a group of men in uniform.
      Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

      More From Reuters

      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-minister/venezuela-says-it-is-confronting-small-group-of-traitors-attempting-coup-idUSKCN1S60ZU

    • SOTIRI is doing a good job covering it. Many video clips.

      Sotiri Dimpinoudis ??
      @sotiridi
      ·
      7m
      #Breaking: Just in – State run media outlets and radio stations in #Venezuela have been ordered to stop broadcasting the #OperacionLibertad “Operation Freedom” in the country by the Maduro regime, multiple radio stations in #Caracas who are owned by Maduro stopped broadcasting.

  40. Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign donation bait and switch
    By Jeff Dunetz April 30, 2019

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/04/30/ocasio-cortezs-campaign-donation-bait-and-switch/Despite freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s frequent displays of ignorance on significant issues and her tendency to say the dumbest thing at the least opportune time, it has taken her only four months inside the Beltway to transform herself into a “swamp” creature. As first reported by the New York Post, Ocasio-Cortez pulled a campaign fundraising bait and switch as participants in a fun run she organized were unaware that their registration fee was going towards her campaign.

    The event this past Saturday was billed as a family fun run supporting Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal,” but a spokesman later revealed it was a campaign fundraiser.

    “The site says it’s to benefit her environmental plan,” said one supporter who would not give his name. “If it is going to go directly to her campaign they should have said so.”

  41. Families with ‘extra kids’ beware: Bill Nye is gunning for you
    By Ben Bowles April 30, 2019

    Shades of Barack Obama, who said in 2012 during a budget battle with House Republicans:

    I do not want, and I will not accept, a deal in which I am … able to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income that I don’t need, while a parent out there who is struggling to figure out how to send their kid to college suddenly finds that they’ve got a couple thousand dollars less in grants or student loans. [Emphasis added]

    That highlighted phrase came to mind when I read that the thirteenth and final installment of Bill Nye Netflix series, “Bill Nye Saves the World,” dealt with the problem of extra kids that you don’t need. The term, which is no doubt scientific — Nye, after all, calls himself “the Science Guy” — arose during a panel discussion that included an abortionist, an expert in “population development,” and an ethicist.

    “Should we have policies that penalize people for having extra kids in the developed world?” Nye asked, after the ethicist, Travis Rieder, of the Berman Institute at Johns Hopkins University, claimed that children in developed countries use 160 times more resources than their peers in developing countries.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/04/30/families-with-extra-kids-beware-bill-nye-is-gunning-for-you/

    • Are the Democrats doing to go to the one or two child policy of Communist China, and if they do will this apply to all ethnic groups?

    • “Travis Rieder, of the Berman Institute at Johns Hopkins University, claimed that children in developed countries use 160 times more resources than their peers in developing countries.”

      And those bloodsucking kids “in developing countries” LIVE 160 TIMES BETTER AND 160 TIMES LONGER than most of those poor little Third World sods. In fact, I’d wager that Western children probably have better (post-infant mortality risk) life expectancies than any related adults of either gender back in those benighted shitholes.

      Maybe intense corruption or throwback beliefs and superstitious practices are holding them back and NOT WESTERN PEOPLE USING A TINY FRACTION OF THE PLANET’S AVAILABLE RESOURCES. That these Third World peons cannot build themselves some cars to drive out and extract those resources (that so many of their countries abound in) is NOBODY’S FUCKING FAULT BUT THEIRS.

      Pricks like Travis Rieder use Magical Thinking to persuade themselves that all those natural resources would just crawl right out of the ground and cuddle up in the laps of these Noble Savages like Shmoos if only us EXPLOITATIVE WHITES WOULD JUST STOP IMPROVING THEIR WORLDS WITH TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICAL ADVANCES.

      EXACTLY like the MME, ALL THE NATURAL WEALTH WOULD STILL BE UNDERGROUND IF IT WEREN’T FOR WESTERN INTERVENTION. So, please, Mr. Rieder, keep calm, sit down, and pour yourself a tall, cool, foamy, refreshing glass of SHUT THE FUCK UP.

      Too fucking bad the room temperature IQs of these savages prevent them from figuring out that their corrupt elite could be cooked and eaten in less time than it takes these hapless shits to starve to death.

      What’s more, those little vampires “in developing countries” ARE 160 TIMES MORE LIKELY to make a discovery that will save 160,000 LIVES IN THE THIRD WORLD before 160,000,000 of them figure out how to design a fucking cell phone. Like every one of them has glued to their face or ears at all times.

      So, FUCK TRAVIS RIEDER TO HELL WITH SOMEONE ELSE’S DICK. Smarmy little assholes like him would “level” out human opportunity (OUTCOMES, really, but they will NEVER admit that) until EVERYONE ON EARTH HAS THE SAME OPPORTUNITY TO FIGHT OVER THE SAME GRUBS TO ROAST FOR DINNER.

  42. What time is it? Time to blame Trump for the California synagogue attack, of course
    By Jeff Dunetz April 30, 2019

    On Shabbos, the last day of Passover, 19-year-old John Earnest of San Diego walked into the Chabad of Poway synagogue and opened fire, killing one person and injuring three others, including a child. The liberal media almost tripped over their underwear rushing to politicize the shooting by blaming it on “right-wing hate sites” and President Trump.

    For example, during Brian Stelter’s Sunday show on CNN, the Baltimore Sun’s media critic David Zurawik said:

  43. ‘Matter of security’ v ‘Islamophobic’: Sri Lanka bans face coverings after Easter bombings

    Eight bombs went off in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday killing over 250 people. In a move ‘designed to boost public protection’, the Sri Lankan government has banned female face coverings in public, angering the country’s sizeable Muslim community.

  44. Names revealed in SNC-Lavalin election scheme

    A confidential document sent to the Liberal Party of Canada in 2016, and obtained by CBC/Radio-Canada, reveals how top officials at SNC-Lavalin were named in a scheme to illegally influence Canadian elections.

    • CBC – Names of SNC employees, executives behind thousands of dollars in illegal Liberal Party donations revealed

      Former attorney general of Quebec denies involvement in scheme that broke Canadian election law

      A confidential document sent to the Liberal Party of Canada in 2016, and obtained by CBC/Radio-Canada, reveals how top officials at the embattled engineering firm SNC-Lavalin were named in a scheme to illegally influence Canadian elections.

      The list of names, compiled in 2016 by federal investigators probing political party donations and leaked to CBC’s The Fifth Estate and Radio-Canada’s Enquête, raises new questions about an agreement by the Commissioner of Canada Elections not to prosecute the company.

      The federal Liberals were sent the list in a letter marked “confidential” from the Commissioner of Canada Elections — the investigative branch of Elections Canada — on Aug. 5, 2016. But for nearly three years, neither Elections Canada nor the Liberal Party shared that information publicly.

      The investigation reveals that over a period of more than five years between 2004 and 2009, 18 former SNC-Lavalin employees, directors and some spouses contributed nearly $110,000 to the federal Liberals, including to four party leadership campaigns and four riding associations in Quebec.

      According to the letter, the investigation found that SNC-Lavalin reimbursed all of those individual donations — a practice forbidden under the Canada Elections Act.

      SNC also made indirect donations to the Conservative Party of just over $8,000, according to investigators.

      Since 2004, corporations have not been allowed to make donations to federal political parties in order to prevent corporate influence over election campaigns.
      “Money is an enormous advantage in an election campaign,” said Jeff Ayotte, a defence lawyer with expertise in Canadian election law.

      “I don’t know SNC-Lavalin’s intent, but certainly, the benefit to the candidates is enormous.”

      The illicit SNC-Lavalin operation went undetected for nearly a decade. Despite the evidence collected by investigators, the Commissioner of Canada Elections decided not to bring charges against the company, which is headquartered in Montreal but operates around the world.

      “We know that the decisions to take part in this scheme took place at the very highest levels of SNC-Lavalin,” said Ayotte. “‘[It] seems to all suggest to me that there should have been a prosecution.”

      Only 1 SNC executive charged

      SNC-Lavalin avoided charges by signing what is known as a “compliance agreement” in 2016 with the Commissioner of Canada Elections after promising not to break the law in the future.

      That was not the case for Conservative Peterborough MP Dean DelMastro, who was charged by the commissioner over $21,000 in spending violations in the 2008 federal election and was represented by Ayotte at his 2014 trial.

      “You would think that the more serious, more deliberate, more long-term, more sophisticated scheme involving more money and more candidates and more elections would be prosecuted,” said Ayotte.

      “But just the opposite happened.”

      Ayotte said the compliance agreement effectively amounts to letting SNC-Lavalin off the hook. Only one SNC-Lavalin official was charged in the scheme.

      The Commissioner of Canada Elections sent the letter to the Liberal Party in 2016 in order to have the $110,000 in improper donations returned to the federal treasury.

      The Liberal Party repeatedly refused to provide the names of those involved when asked by reporters for CBC/Radio-Canada. The Conservative Party, which received $8,187.73 in the same scheme, immediately provided its list of SNC-Lavalin names to CBC/Radio-Canada when asked.

      Both parties reimbursed the money to the receiver general in August 2016.

      Some of those whose names appeared on the list told The Fifth Estate/Enquête that they were not involved in any illegal reimbursement scheme.

      However, in his letter to the Liberal Party, the Commissioner of Canada Elections stated that all those donations listed were made, indirectly, by SNC-Lavalin itself. The commissioner stated that the SNC-Lavalin contributions were “ineligible” — meaning they violated the law — and had to be paid back.

      SNC-Lavalin did not return calls from CBC/Radio-Canada. The firm’s current president, Neil Bruce, who signed the 2016 compliance agreement, stated in that agreement that all of the senior people involved in the scheme had left the engineering firm by 2016.

      Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the revelations on his way in to a Liberal cabinet meeting Tuesday morning.

      “We recognize that 10 years ago there were issues around political financing that have been raised,” he said. “When we came to power and when I became leader of the Liberal Party, we made significant changes to the fundraising regime. We have moved forward on transparency and openness, and that is not what happens anymore.”

      ‘I never acted as a straw donor’

      The leaked documents show that among the group donating to the Liberals was Kathleen Weil, the spouse of former senior SNC-Lavalin executive Michael Novak. Weil is a former Quebec justice minister and attorney general and a sitting member of the Quebec National Assembly.

      The list shows that on June 30, 2004, four years before she was first elected to the Quebec National Assembly, Weil made a $5,000 donation to the federal Liberals that the Commissioner of Canada Elections found was “reimbursed” by SNC-Lavalin.

      The letter states Weil made the contribution on the same day that nine other SNC-Lavalin executives or their spouses made similar donations.

      In a phone call with CBC/Radio Canada, Weil denied any knowledge of the scheme.

      “I would never have and I never acted as a straw donor.”

      In an emailed statement, Weil said, “My donations to political parties have always been made in good faith and on a personal basis without compensation or consideration and without reimbursement or promise of reimbursement from whomsoever.”

      Weil’s husband, Michael Novak, also firmly denied he received bonuses to compensate him or his wife for their political donations.

      The Commissioner of Canada Elections states in the letter that Novak made three donations, adding up to $5,672.91, for which he was compensated by SNC-Lavalin in 2004 and 2008.

      In a phone interview, Novak said he met with the commissioner’s investigators in 2014 and that he told them they were mistaken.

      “We were never reimbursed,” Novak told CBC/Radio-Canada.

      Novak said he received numerous bonuses from SNC-Lavalin throughout the years, but as far as he knew, none was linked to his political donations. If investigators found evidence of SNC-Lavalin repayments in the form of bonuses, “it would have been done without my knowledge,” he said.

      Novak said that SNC-Lavalin actively encouraged company officials to make donations, and even collected the cheques to deliver to the Liberal Party.

      Novak insisted there was “nothing … untoward” about making donations like this and that he was unaware that there was an illegal reimbursement scheme going on.

      Most of the senior executives on the list contacted by CBC/Radio-Canada declined to be interviewed.

      ‘We were given a bonus’

      But two non-executive SNC-Lavalin employees who agreed to speak with The Fifth Estate/Enquête about the scheme said they were definitely told their political donations would be reimbursed in the form of bonuses from SNC-Lavalin.

      One of those was Jean Lefebvre, who worked for the firm as an engineer. Contacted at his home in Saint-Bruno, Que., Lefebvre said he was specifically asked to donate to the Liberal Party.

      “We were given a bonus that was double the amount donated,” he said.

      He explained that the size of the bonus was intended to compensate him for the taxes he would have to pay on the bonus.

      Lefebvre said he understood that the president of the company at the time, Jacques Lamarre, initiated the scheme and that the legal department at SNC-Lavalin had signed off.

      “Normally, our legal advisers would be informed of the practice that the president wanted to put forward, which was to help political parties to receive donations despite the limits imposed on companies regarding political donations,” Lefebvre said.

    • Despite the findings of the Commissioner of Canada Elections, only one person was charged. Normand Morin, a former SNC vice-president, was charged in May 2018. Last November, he pleaded guilty to violating two counts of the Canada Elections Act by “acting in collusion with certain senior officials of SNC-Lavalin” and for soliciting contributions “on behalf of federal political entities.”

      He received fines of $2,000. Three other charges were dropped.

      That guilty plea avoided a trial that may have exposed more details of the SNC-Lavalin scheme.

      In a phone interview, Morin said he did not know why he was the only one held responsible. “It’s a mystery for me,” he said.

      Morin declined to name his contacts at the federal Liberal Party.

      “It was many people,” he said. “You should aim your investigation towards the parties.”

      Name included ‘in error’
      According to investigators with the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Pierre Anctil, a former SNC-Lavalin vice-president, was paid $4,462.88 by SNC-Lavalin as compensation for his donation to the Liberal Party of Canada on June 30, 2004.

      Reached at his home in Westmount, on the island of Montreal, Anctil denied he had been compensated by SNC-Lavalin for that donation.

      When shown a copy of the letter from the Commissioner of Canada Elections to the Liberal Party with the 18 names, Anctil said that his name was included “in error” and that he was never reimbursed.

      In an affidavit in 2015 filed with the Charbonneau Commission, which was probing corruption in the Quebec construction industry, Anctil stated he knew the firm was running a similar political donation scheme at the provincial level. He said he was initially reluctant to get involved but went ahead after his boss, SNC-Lavalin president Jacques Lamarre, insisted.

      Anctil said he was asked to solicit employees to make donations. Anctil said while he never received any of the bonuses personally, he told other employees they would get compensated by SNC-Lavalin if they asked.

      Lamarre told CBC/Radio-Canada there was never any illegal funding scheme happening at SNC-Lavalin and that Anctil and others are mistaken.

      Marylynne Campbell, a former senior vice-president at SNC-Lavalin who appears on the leaked list of names, also denied knowing about the scheme.

      According to the elections commissioner, Campbell made improper donations of $5,000 to the federal Liberal Party in 2005, as well as $5,000 in 2006 to Bob Rae’s Liberal leadership campaign. Campbell also donated $3,137.73 to the federal Conservative Party.

      Reached by phone, Campbell said Morin had “pressured” her and others to make donations to Quebec and federal political parties. Still, Campbell said she told investigators when they interviewed her she did not receive any compensation from SNC-Lavalin.

      All of the former SNC-Lavalin employees and spouses named in the list who spoke to The Fifth Estate/Enquête said they were not contacted by the Commissioner of Canada Elections to let them know their names were on the document.

      Compliance agreements for ‘minor’ infractions
      Ayotte said Canadians need to know more about why SNC-Lavalin was granted a compliance agreement that avoided any criminal charges.

      He said the decision to lay charges against Del Mastro — and his cousin David Del Mastro, who was also charged in 2014 for using corporate money to compensate private election donations but was later acquitted — but not SNC-Lavalin may appear to be a double standard.

      “Given the facts of [the SNC-Lavalin] case, it seems to be completely out of line with … the way in which Elections Canada have treated other people in similar situations,” Ayotte said.

      According to an academic paper written in 2005 by David Brock, who would go on to become the chief electoral officer of the Northwest Territories, compliance agreements were not intended to be used for serious violations of the Canada Elections Act.

      “The primary reason for enacting this new method of enforcement was to provide an alternative to prosecution, and thus deal more effectively with so-called ‘minor” infractions of the Canada Elections Act,” he wrote.

      Still, the law allows the commissioner wide discretion as to when to offer a compliance agreement or when to prosecute.

      The commissioner’s own guidelines on whether to prosecute campaign violations state that investigators must consider how serious the offence was, whether it was part of a deliberate “scheme” or an isolated event and would a prosecution help “maintain public confidence in the electoral system.”

      The Commissioner of Canada Elections, Yves Côté, declined an interview request. His spokesperson, Michelle Laliberté, said the commissioner “conducted a thorough investigation using all of the tools that were available to him.” She said the evidence gathered supported the laying of charges against Morin and that the reasons for the decision to offer a compliance agreement to SNC-Lavalin are stated publicly on the commissioner’s website.

      The Liberal Party’s revenue chair, Stephen Bronfman, did not return voice messages left by CBC/Radio-Canada. Party spokesman Braeden Caley wrote in an email that “The Liberal Party of Canada fully complies with the Canada Elections Act and all Elections Canada regulations for fundraising and donations and expects all people donating to our party to do so lawfully and to follow the same rules.”

      Conservative Party spokesperson Cory Hann said his party “expect[s] people donating to the Conservative Party are doing so truthfully and by the letter of the law in accordance with Elections Canada rules and regulations, and the Elections Act.”

      Donations to Liberal Party by SNC employees, executives, spouses

      https://i.cbc.ca/1.5116313.1556621466!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_780/snc-table-1.jpg

      https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/snc-lavalin-liberal-donors-list-canada-elections-1.5114537

  45. VENEZUELA – Looks like this might be the day.

    Sotiri Dimpinoudis ??
    @sotiridi

    #Breaking: Just in – Maduro regime forces have announced to suspend all public transportation services in #Venezuela due to security reasons… #OperacionLibertad

    #Update: Venezuelan government officials are joining with interim president Juan @jguaido
    , and are urging the military and police officer to do the same thing. #Venezuela #OperacionLibertad
    ·
    1h
    #Update: Just in – Video of more and more Venezuelan National guard troops defecting over to interim president Juan @jguaido
    forces in #Venezuela. #OperacionLibertad

  46. europravda – With neo-liberal capitalism you cannot change climate goals,’ says EU top job hopeful Tomic

    Violetta Tomic —the European Left candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker told Euronews “we have to change the system” in order to fight global warming

    • This is an ugly bastard,even by commie standards,”orange womyn bad”

    • “Why doesn’t Dear Leader fight back against the dictatorship he so admires?”

      [Judge Roy Bean]

      Asked and answered!

      [gavels for silence]

      I know the law… I am its greatest transgressor.

      [/Judge Roy Bean]

  48. Jordan National Pleads Guilty of Smuggling Aliens Into US – Justice Dept. (sputniknews, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/us/201904301074591853-jordan-guilty-aliens/

    “A 31-year-old citizen of Jordan has pleaded guilty to charges of smuggling Yemeni aliens into the United States by illegally crossing the US border with Mexico, the Department of Justice said in a press release on Tuesday.

    “[Mohammed] Aldairi admitted his role in transporting the aliens from Monterrey, Mexico to Piedras Negras, where he directed them to cross the Rio Grande River into the United States,” the release said.

    Aldairi provided construction hard hats and reflective vests to some of the aliens in an effort to enable them to blend in after crossing, the release said.

    According to the plea agreement, during the second half of 2017, Aldairi conspired with others to smuggle at least six Yemeni nationals across the Texas border and into the United States in exchange for a fee, the release said.”

  49. German Right-Wing Party Clashes With US Museum Over Using Art in Campaign (sputniknews, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201904301074588058-germany-art-afd-poster/

    “Ahead of May’s Elections to the European Parliament, the Alternative for Germany party has launched a campaign called “Learning from Europe’s history”. It uses pieces of classical art to make a point about current events in Europe, including criticism against migration policies.

    The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, US, has lashed out at the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD) for using the 1866 painting “Slave Market” by Jean-Leon Gerome for posters of their European election campaign. The work of art, kept in the US museum and depicting a Muslim-looking dark-skinned slave trader with a lighter-skinned, apparently enslaved, young woman, appeared in Berlin’s streets with the captions “Europeans vote AfD!” and “So Europe doesn’t become Eurabia!”

    “We strongly condemn the use of the painting to advance AfD’s political stance and have written them insisting that they cease and desist from using this painting”, museum director Olivier Meslay stated, adding the Clark institute owns the work of art and “did not supply this image to the AfD Berlin”.

    However, he also admitted that “there are no copyrights or permissions that allow us to exert control over how it is used other than to appeal to civility on the part of AfD Berlin”, Meslay noted, as cited by the German outlet Deutsche Welle.

    Spokesman for Berlin’s AfD branch Ronald Glaeser has blasted the demand as “a futile attempt to gag the AfD”.

    “The German public has the right to find out about the truth about the possible consequences of illegal mass immigration”, he said, also complaining about vandals destroying this and other posters time and time again.

    His fellow party members have had to repeatedly replace the posters or get creative, mending them with stickers reading “Those who have no arguments, destroy posters”.

    The “Slave Market” is only one of several classical pictures being used in the “Learning from Europe’s history” campaign ahead of the European elections, outlining the party’s hard-line stance on immigration policy, global warming, and the EU. The AfD was elected to the German parliament with calls to restrict refugees.

    The country’s migration policy has long been a source of discord in Germany, with tensions peaking a year ago. Last year, protests against Angela Merkel’s refugee policy shook several towns. They were prompted by acts of violence, including gang rape and murder, allegedly perpetrated by migrants.”

  50. Verhofstadt hints at plan to transform EU into ‘EMPIRE’ in pitch to become Commission boss (express, Apr 30, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1120627/European-elections-Guy-Verhofstadt-Maastricht-debate-European-Commission

    “EUROPHILE Guy Verhofstadt hinted he would fight to create a European “Empire” if he was elected as the new European Commission President, to counteract China, Russia and US “domination” in the future.

    Speaking at a Politico’s debate in Maastricht, the Belgian MEP claimed the future will see the world dominated by “empires” and pledged to create a “stronger European Union” to counteract them. The European Commission President candidate for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) claimed China, India, the US and Russia will dominate the world in the form of “empires” and urged people to support his plan for a “united Europe”.

    He said: “I think the youth have to understand – and they understand it – that the world of tomorrow is a completely different world to the world of today.

    “It will be a world of empires. The world of China dominating, India dominating, the US and the Russian Federation.

    “And living in such world is completely different than 20, 30 or 40 years ago.

    “It will be a world in which our standards, our way of living, our values, our way of thinking of our youth are under the threat of these empires.

    “So we need to create a strong Europe, a united Europe as a counterweight for that.

    “And for that, we also need a new force in the European Union and in this European Union debate.

    “A centrist, pro-European force, a little bit away from the old tired parties of the Socialists and the EPP.”

    Mr Verhofstadt also stressed on the importance of the Paris Climate agreement arguing “it is necessary for trade deals to include the Paris agreement”.

    Asked whether he believes the EU should not agree to a trade deal with the US under that condition, he said “yes”.

    EU countries will elect a new batch of MEPs between May 23-26, forming the make-up of the Parliament until 2024.

    Mr Verhofstadt’s Open VLD party are only expected to return two seats in the European Parliament, which will put him in a significantly weaker position when negotiating his future role.

    According to an EU Parliament sources, the high-ranking MEP will be discarded by Mr Macron as he installs an En Marche candidate as the institution’s liberal leader.

    The French President’s party are set to merge with Mr Verhofstadt’s ALDE group in the new Parliament.”