Yet Another Leftist Receives a Nobel Prize, This Time Greta Thunberg

/0 Comments/in , /by

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has been nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize by two Swedish lawmakers, a report said on Monday.

Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling, members of Sweden’s Left Party, said the 17-year-old Thunberg “has worked hard to make politicians open their eyes to the climate crisis.”

Her work toward “reducing our emissions and complying with the Paris Agreement is therefore also an act of making peace,” they said.

The Paris accord, from which President Trump withdrew the US in June 2017, seeks to combat the rise in global temperatures by reducing emissions. . .

Thunberg, who was named Time magazine’s 2019 “Person of the Year,” was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year by three members of Norway’s parliament. (Read more from “Yet Another Leftist Receives a Nobel Prize, This Time Greta Thunberg” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

North Korea Stops Reclaiming Escaped Citizens From China Due to Coronavirus Fears

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Breitbart. North Korea on Friday temporarily suspended “all air and train routes” to China due to the coronavirus outbreak, in addition to closing off its land border.

Pyongyang has also taken steps to close its border with South Korea, fearing the virus could spread there from China. According to South Koreans who work with North Korean defectors, the North is also temporarily halting the repatriation of defectors due to infection concerns.

Voice of America News reported that North Korea asked South Korea to close the liaison office in the border town of Kaesong and postpone operations to dismantle resort facilities on Mount Kumgang until the Wuhan coronavirus has been “completely erased.”

South Korea is planning to demolish the Mount Kumgang tourist complex on orders from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who declared the long-unused resort an “eyesore” with “no national character at all” in October. The resort fell into disuse due to international sanctions and the shooting of a South Korean tourist who wandered off the grounds by a North Korean soldier in 2008.

The movement of people and goods across the North-South Korean border has reportedly halted. South Korean pastor Kim Sung-eun, noted for his work with North Korean refugees, said North Korea has asked China to stop repatriating defectors until the coronavirus epidemic has passed. Chinese sources said they expected even black-market shipping into North Korea would be sharply curtailed, despite serving as a major component of the North Korean economy. (Read more from “North Korea Stops Reclaiming Escaped Citizens From China Due to Coronavirus Fears” HERE)

_______________________________________________________

Washington State Businesses Brace for Impact of the Coronavirus

By The Seattle Times. As worries over the spread of the new coronavirus intensify, many businesses in Washington state said they’re monitoring the situation closely, taking precautions to protect their employees’ health and adjusting other plans.

Some major employers are halting travel or postponing opening new offices in Asia. Real estate brokers say they’re seeing fewer Chinese home shoppers.

And local industries already hard-hit by the U.S.-China trade war, like agriculture and tourism, are forecasting continued strain on profits. Nearly 18 months of retaliatory tariffs have cut exports through Washington state to China, its biggest trading partner, by nearly 40% since 2018.

The coronavirus outbreak — which public health experts predict could soon be a global pandemic — may send trade volumes plummeting further, said J. Norwell Coquillard, executive director of the nonprofit Washington State China Relations Council.

The new coronavirus, which seems to be less lethal than SARS but spreads more easily, has infected more than 17,000 people in at least 23 countries, leaving more than 400 dead, as of Monday. Nearly all the deaths are in China, where the new virus originated. (Read more from “Washington State Businesses Brace for Impact of the Coronavirus” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Rush Limbaugh Announces He Has ‘Advanced Lung Cancer’

/0 Comments/in , /by

Talk radio king Rush Limbaugh stunned his 20-million member audience Monday with the announcement he’s been diagnosed with “advanced lung cancer.”

The 69-year-old conservative talk pioneer closed his broadcast with the grim news, saying he will be leaving his golden EIB microphone for treatment, but hopes to return later this week.

“This day has been one of the most difficult days in recent memory, for me, because I’ve known this moment was coming,” Limbaugh said. “I’m sure that you all know by now that I really don’t like talking about myself and I don’t like making things about me… one thing that I know, that has happened over the 31-plus years of this program is that there has been an incredible bond that had developed between all of you and me.”

The radio icon then told his audience that his job has provided him with the “greatness satisfaction and happiness” of his life.

“So, I have to tell you something today that I wish I didn’t have to tell you. It’s a struggle for me because I had to inform my staff earlier today,” he said. “I can’t help but feel that I’m letting everybody down. The upshot is that I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.” (Read more from “Rush Limbaugh Announces He Has ‘Advanced Lung Cancer'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Losing the Super Bowl Is the Least of San Francisco’s Problems

/0 Comments/in , /by

The San Francisco 49ers were well on their way to winning the Lombardi trophy more than halfway through the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, but they gave the game away and wound up losing big. In many ways, the Super Bowl is a metaphor for how San Franciso politicians are taking a beautiful city with a lot of potential and running it into the ground … a ground full of feces.

Thanks to the suspension of law enforcement and downgrading of many crimes, there’s a breakdown of public order in the Bay Area with theft, vagrancy, homelessness, and drugs becoming rampant. Last week, police announced there was a 300 percent increase in car thefts last year in the Diamond Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. At a town hall event, one victim described a break-in while he and his family were sitting in the actual car.

Who says crime doesn’t pay? In San Francisco, it certainly does pay for criminals. Who’s paying for it? Non-criminal taxpayers. Say what you want about criminals, but like any market force, they are very logical and respond to the incentives and disincentives placed before them. In San Francisco, they understand that they simply will not face prison time, even for repeat offenses.

The theft epidemic is also taking a toll on local businesses, as shoplifting becomes rampant. San Francisco also leads the nation in “porch piracy,” with burglars stealing packages off home porches. The number two and three cities for porch piracy are Los Angeles and Sacramento, respectively. A California coincidence?

In addition to the black market gangs that openly steal retail merchandise and sell it on the black market knowing that there will be no consequences, there are now “sophisticated network of international dealers who cross the border to buy stolen goods.”

But fear not, taxpayers of San Francisco, your newly elected district attorney, Chesa Boudin, promised to crack down on these criminal networks.

Do you really think a single criminal in the area doesn’t realize Boudin is really on their side? Boudin, who was raised by Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn after his parents were convicted for murder in New York City in the 1980s, spent his life defending criminals and has promised to dismantle the criminal justice system as well as immigration enforcement. He is now working on criminalizing any cooperation with federal immigration agents.

Forget about theft and car break-ins, Boudin won’t prosecute even violent criminals. Last month, Boudin decided to drop charges against Jamaica Hampton, a man who attacked cops with a glass bottle after they confronted him for allegedly committing a burglary. Boudin is instead investigating the cops for shooting Hampton when he smashed a cop over the head with the bottle. This comes as Boudin announced he will mimic New York’s outrageous policy of abolishing bail. He has also fired law-and-order-minded prosecutors from the homicide and gang units who don’t share his public defender mindset. Yes, that will really show those criminals!

Just how sensitive are criminals to disincentives? As Kent Scheidegger points out, neighboring San Mateo County is much stricter on auto thefts and often pursues prison time for repeat offenders. Even though the urban area flows seamlessly across the county border from San Francisco and it’s often hard to tell where the line is, the criminals will make sure to commit the burglaries on the San Francisco side of the line.

Overall, the rate of burglary in San Francisco is twice the national average, while the rate of theft is three times the national average.

Rather than the politicians dealing with the problem of deteriorating public order, homeowners in the Bay Area are being forced to pay for the cleanup from the homeless encampments. One community in Alameda County was forced to pay $20,000 to clean up one of these encampments, even though their tax dollars are supposed to go toward enforcing public order laws so that this won’t be a problem to begin with. (For more from the author of “Losing the Super Bowl Is the Least of San Francisco’s Problems” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Trump’s Updated Immigration Moratorium List: A Good Start

/0 Comments/in , /by

In what is perhaps more important news to the future of our nation than impeachment, the White House announced late on Friday an updated “travel ban,” with a new list of countries from which immigration has been suspended due to national security concerns.

Pursuant to a new DHS global assessment report of how carefully countries share identity-management and national security information with us, the administration has determined a need to suspend immigration visas to nationals of Burma (Myanmar), Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania. The acting DHS secretary has also determined a need to continue the suspension of visas from the countries on the existing list – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, and Yemen.

According to the White House, the determination was based on three criteria: “Whether a foreign government engages in reliable identity-management practices and shares relevant information; whether a foreign government shares national security and public-safety information; and whether a country otherwise poses a national security or public-safety risk.”

The new proclamation indicates that the DHS report recommended “implementing suspensions and limitations on entry for certain nationals of twelve additional countries,” more than the six that were ultimately restricted. It appears that senior administration officials felt that some of the other countries either made improvements to their data sharing in recent months or were left off the list because the U.S. “has experienced a recent deepening of diplomatic ties that generally mark increased cooperation toward achieving key regional and global United States foreign policy goals.”

The new ban is slated to take effect on February 22.

This is a good start for Trump to finally fulfill his campaign promise of ratcheting down immigration from dangerous parts of the world. However, there are some glaring omissions and inconsistencies in the proposal:

1) The ban on these six countries is only for immigrant visas. Nationals of these countries are still eligible for all non-immigrant visas, including student visas. We have about 13,400 foreign students from Nigeria. In the case of Sudan and Tanzania, the only form of immigrant visa that is suspended is the diversity visa lottery. Sudan is embroiled in an Islamic civil war. And according to the White House, all these countries have “deficiencies in sharing terrorist, criminal, or identity information,” thereby creating “an unacceptable likelihood that information reflecting the fact that a visa applicant is a threat to national security or public safety may not be available at the time the visa or entry is approved.” If that is the case, then why is the ban so limited?

2) Nationals of these countries can still apply for waivers. As we’ve already seen from the existing countries on the list, 48 percent of all applications for visas from those countries were approved, totaling 42,000 issuances over the past two years.

3) Nobody in government can say with a straight face that the Chinese share any meaningful information with us. Border agents have told me this firsthand about processing Chinese nationals at the border. China poses the greatest espionage, counter-intelligence, and trade secret theft threats of any country. And immigration is its biggest weapon. The director of national intelligence warned in the latest Worldwide Threat Assessment, “China’s intelligence services will exploit the openness of American society, especially academia and the scientific community, using a variety of means,” Yet we bring in more immigrants (roughly 80,000) and long-term foreign students (roughly 370,000) from China than from any other country.

4) The 800-pound gorilla in the room, based on Trump’s campaign promises, is left off the list. Those are the countries from which there is the strongest element of jihadism and a sharia supremacist mindset among the population. Does anyone really believe we can vet the hearts and minds of those from Iraq and Afghanistan? Just over the weekend, an Iraqi immigrant was arrested in Arizona because of an outstanding warrant in Iraq, where he is accused of murdering policemen on behalf of al Qaeda. Yet our government is putting our “diplomatic relations” there ahead of homeland security concerns.

More fundamentally, as I noted regarding our government’s response to the Pensacola shooting and Saudi military trainees, what ever happened to Trump’s promise of ideological vetting? Sure, we have great relations with countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but what about the people living there? They might not have a criminal record, but many of them could harbor jihadist sympathies, as we saw with the Pensacola shooter, Mohammed Alshamrani.

This paragraph from the proclamation should disturb Trump supporters:

In his report, the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security recognized a close cooperative relationship between the United States and the democratically elected government of Iraq, the strong United States diplomatic presence in Iraq, the significant presence of United States forces in Iraq, and Iraq’s commitment to combating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security considered another similarly situated country and determined that, for reasons similar to those present in Iraq, entry restrictions and limitations would not be appropriate.

Really? This is a pro-Iran government. This is the most vivid illustration of the backward priorities of our national security leaders – send our military to referee Islamic civil wars and then use that as a pretense for bringing in more immigrants to our homeland.

It’s clear the administration is trying to sidestep the issue of ideological vetting, as well as avoid the suspension from countries where the number of immigrants has been significant. In 2018, we only had 838 from Kyrgyzstan and 2,428 from Eritrea. We bring in more from Tanzania (3,186) and Sudan (3,658), but only diversity visas were suspended from those countries. The only countries on the list with significant numbers are Burma (8,182) and Nigeria (13,952). Most of the Burmese are refugees. We’ve admitted a huge number of Burmese refugees in recent years, roughly 170,000 since 2007.

However, if you look at some of the countries with the most jihadists, we continue to bring in tremendous numbers: Iraq (14,351), Afghanistan (12,935), Bangladesh (15,717), Pakistan (15,426), and Egypt (9,668) to name just a few countries. And while we get very few immigrants from Saudi Arabia, we continue to bring in roughly 40,000 foreign students from there, and now will evidently continue the military training program as well.

Very tellingly, when explaining the rationale for the suspension from Kyrgyzstan, the White House notes the presence of “an elevated risk, relative to other countries in the world, of terrorist travel to the United States.” But doesn’t that apply to several dozen other countries not mentioned? Why pick the one with less than 1,000 annual immigrants?

Clearly, the lawyers and bureaucrats in the administration wanted to avoid making this about vetting out jihadist sympathies and more about technocratic criteria of information-sharing. They also wanted to keep the numbers of those affected to a minimum. However, it doesn’t really speak to the prevalent threats that mass migration from many other countries poses. Given the sweeping victory in the Supreme Court on the president’s power to exclude, the administration could have been more aggressive in its approach.

If this is just the first step, then it’s a good one. But if this will set a precedent of foreclosing any ideological vetting, it won’t effectively keep out most terrorists, spies, or security threats. (For more from the author of “Trump’s Updated Immigration Moratorium List: A Good Start” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

White, Leftist Women Are Paying $2500 to Confront Their Own Racism

/0 Comments/in , /by

Groups of white, liberal women are paying upwards of $2500 to confront their own “racism” and “privilege” over salad and spaghetti carbonara at “privilege” dinner parties hosted by a new group called “Race 2 Dinner,” according to The Guardian.

Race 2 Dinner is designed to “smash your white fragility” and help women confront their “complicity” in “oppression” in a confrontational setting, the group says, but with the added benefit of food and alcohol, and facilitators who are also white, so as not to cause upper crust progressives any undue discomfort.

The program is the brainchild of Regina Jackson and Saira Rao, both of whom are outspoken progressives. Rao even has a track record of social media outbursts (including missives about how the American flag makes her “sick,” and how minorities who disagree with her are examples of “tokenism” and “gaslighting”), and as a failed Justice Democrats candidate.

For $2500, Jackson and Rao will attend a dinner for 8-10 white women and confront the guests about their white privilege. They ask questions like, “What was a racist thing you did recently?” and “What is your racism?” so that the women, most of whom are professed Democrats, can dig deep into their own lives and accept their biases, “however subconscious.”

Jackson and Rao target liberal white women specifically; they’ve “written off” the 53% of white women who voted for President Donald Trump as abject, admitted, racists or the brainwashed partners of Patriarchial leaders. But liberal white women, they believe, are positioned to take on the oppressive, white establishment. (Read more from “White, Leftist Women Are Paying $2500 to Confront Their Own Racism” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Report: Soviet Spy Congratulated Bernie on Prior Election Win, Met in His Office

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Daily Wire. A spy from the former communist superpower, the Soviet Union, congratulated socialist Bernie Sanders in March 1983 for winning re-election as mayor of Burlington, Vermont and for meeting with him in Sanders’ office.

“The documents from the Sanders archives include a letter from Soviet Embassy First Secretary Vadim Kuznetsov in March 1983, congratulating Sanders on his reelection as mayor and thanking Sanders for receiving him in Sanders’s office,” The Washington Post reported on Monday. “Kuznetsov had been in Burlington to attend a conference on nuclear disarmament at the University of Vermont a few days earlier. Neither Sanders nor conference organizers appear to have read a 1976 Time magazine article that identified Kuznetsov as a member of a ‘Soviet intelligence squad’ posing as diplomats to infiltrate U.S. politics.”

The TIME Magazine article that the Post linked to stated: “Posing as diplomats, embassy officials and newsmen, Soviet intelligence agents have been conducting a determined effort to get classified information on Capitol Hill by bribing or compromising staff members in key positions. TIME has learned that in more than a dozen cases in the last decade or so the FBI has stepped in to ‘control’ the relationship, fearing a staffer might begin giving out restricted data.” . . .

Democrat strategist Zac Petkanas posted a copy of the letter and tweeted: “For the love of all that’s holy. The piece links to the actual letter a Soviet official sent Bernie Sanders congratulating him on getting elected. Can you IMAGINE what Trump would do with this?”

(Read more from “Report: Soviet Spy Congratulated Bernie on Prior Election Win, Met in His Office” HERE)

_____________________________________________________

Bernie Sanders’s Foreign Policy Is a Risk for Democrats Against Trump

By The Washington Post. . .For decades, the Vermont senator has bucked the foreign policy establishment by championing a foreign policy aligned with socialist regimes around the world. While the other apparent front-runner in the race, former vice president Joe Biden, is running on a familiar, center-left foreign policy approach, Sanders’s vision would represent a stark departure from the platform Democrats have embraced since the end of the Cold War.

Sanders’s opposition to the war in Iraq, preferred trade status for China and the Saudi war in Yemen seem prescient to many voters today. But his history of making common cause with socialist authoritarian regimes dating back to the 1980s has some Democrats worried he would be vulnerable on these issues.

Sanders’s congressional record puts him at odds with the mainstream positions of the Democratic Party. Since being elected in 1990 — he served eight terms as a House member before becoming a senator — Sanders has consistently voted to limit U.S. military interventions abroad, opposed bills that take Israel’s side in the Middle East peace process and argued against sanctions on Iran. (Read more from “Bernie Sanders’s Foreign Policy Is a Risk for Democrats Against Trump” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Embarrassing: Bloomberg Ad Uses Obama-Era Footage of Caged Migrants to Criticize Trump (VIDEO)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City and contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, released an anti-Trump campaign advertisement that included footage of caged migrants in 2014 — during the Obama era.

The Bloomberg campaign released an ad that was meant to highlight unflattering events that have occurred during the Trump administration, such as the white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, the aftermath of a Florida school shooting, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, and immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“America demanded change and change is what we got,” a narrator said in the ad, which then led to a montage of footage, supposedly all taken during the Trump presidency.

The campaign took direct aim at the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement measures, clipping images of Border Patrol agents doing their job and featuring footage of detained migrants. However, a review by the Daily Caller News Foundation found that one still image used in the ad was taken in 2014 — during the Obama administration. (Read more from “Embarrassing: Bloomberg Ad Uses Obama-Era Footage of Caged Migrants to Criticize Trump (VIDEO)” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Airline Drops Chocolate Supplier Over Owner’s Affiliation With Pro-Life Christian Group

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Swiss Air Lines has dropped chocolate manufacturer Läderach over its owner’s affiliation with a pro-life, pro-family Christian organization.

For more than 10 years, Läderach had supplied the airline with small boxes of chocolates that were given to some passengers as a token of appreciation.

Following months of negative headlines, Swiss Air Lines decided to cut ties with the chocolatier that recently has expanded into North America, running stores in both New York City and Toronto. Sweets made by Läderach will be phased out by April 2020, the airline announced. . .

Jürg Läderach, owner of the chocolate manufacturer, is the president of “christianity for today” (cft), an evangelical organization based in Switzerland. CEO Johannes Läderach also serves on the board of cft.

Among other things, cft is one of the sponsors of the March for Life taking place in different locations in Switzerland every year. Last year, more than 1,200 pro-lifers marched in Zurich, the largest Swiss city. (Read more from “Airline Drops Chocolate Supplier Over Owner’s Affiliation With Pro-Life Christian Group” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

WATCH: Woman Says She Was Recruited as Teen to Be Powerful Church Leader’s ‘Sex Slave’

/0 Comments/in , , /by

A California woman, Sochil Martin, has told the federal agents and California prosecutors that the men who ran her church recruited her as a high school teen in Los Angeles to become a “sex slave” for the leader of the Light of the World Church, which claims to have five million members in the United States, Mexico and 50 other countries around the world.

“Everything that I was taught to do for him, it wasn’t wrong, it was a blessing,” Martin said in an interview on the Law&Crime Network Program Brian Ross Investigates.

She says as she grew older she helped to recruit other underage girls to participate in group sex scenes that the church leader, known as the “Apostle” by his followers, would record on his phones and electronic tablets. . .

She said she left the church after being beaten by Garcia who was angry when she refused to perform a sex act in front of him with a 14-year-old boy. . .

Martin’s account comes as the church leader, Naason Joaquin Garcia, is already in custody, facing trial on sex trafficking charges brought by the California attorney general. He was arrested last June as he arrived on a private jet in Los Angeles and has pleaded not guilty to the charges. (Read more from “WATCH: Woman Says She Was Recruited as Teen to Be Powerful Church Leader’s ‘Sex Slave’” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE