ISIS has implemented their rule of terror: A report from the Al-Hawl camp in Syria

‘What they were doing with ISIS, they’re still doing. Killing, stealing, burning tents, and especially in the foreign families’ section, which is the most dangerous and where no one can enter on foot,” Sarah Derik tells me as we sit in her office at the Al-Hawl refugees camp in northern Syria.

It is a cold and rainy March day. Outside, the rain is battering the canvas of the expanse of tents that house the camp’s inmates. Every so often, a woman in full black Islamic niqab dress can be seen making her way quickly from one tent to another.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia"

Joe Biden’s Approval Rating Has Catastrophically Fallen Over Israel

President Joe Biden was quick to show solidarity with Israel after the October 7 Hamas attacks, but six months on, American voters have become increasingly unhappy with his handling of the Gaza crisis, according to polling for Newsweek.

In the aftermath of the attacks by militants in which over 1,200 were killed and 253 were taken hostage, Biden stood next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said that his country is “not alone.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023", USA

Oregon: Where Libertarianism Goes To Die

On April 1st, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed a bill into law that ended her state’s more than three-year-long experiment with legalization of so-called hard drugs. The choice of day notwithstanding, her decision to sign the bill that reintroduced criminal penalties for the use of those drugs was no joke. It was a badly needed end to a reckless experiment in childish libertarianism with humans as guinea pigs.

Fox News referred to Governor Kotek’s decision as a “U-turn on a short-lived liberal policy,” which is a fair description insofar as the policy move is concerned. However, the big losers here are the libertarians who wanted legalization in the first place. As far as they are concerned, the Oregon reversal raises an existential question for their very ideology.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inDrug Legalization, Drugs

Oprah isn’t welcome anymore

The day after the August 7th fire in Lahaina, Oprah Winfrey brought pillows and blankets at the War Memorial Stadium on Maui. The 1,000 people who sheltered there were grateful. They had escaped the fire with the clothes they were wearing.

Perhaps her largesse caused her to believe that what she had done gave her entree to those who were so devastated, not knowing where their family, friends, or even pets were. “Ohps,” as she is called by some residents, showed up two days later with a CBS camera crew intent on filming the misery of people living in tents. That unsuccessful attempt turned any previous goodwill against her.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inHollywood

The crypto boom could be one big bezzle

Almost 70 years ago, John Kenneth Galbraith explained that during a bull market there is a period when an embezzler enjoys his ill-gotten gains, but the victim does not yet know he has lost out. Think of rich Europeans who invested with Bernie Madoff, and spent their summers in Saint Tropez and their winters in Saint Moritz believing that Madoff was compounding their assets at a steady 12% a year. While the “bezzle” was on, the economies of Saint Moritz and Saint Tropez hummed along nicely, and the world seemed better off. In this interval, there were two engines of “unfounded” economic activity: Madoff bought watches, yachts and holiday homes, while the investors he was conning spent as if their balance sheets were still rock solid.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Digital Currency"

Is it wrong to compliment a man on his speedos?

Is it sexual harassment to say a man looks ‘fit’ in his speedos? Apparently so.

This, at least, was the ruling of an employment tribunal in the UK this week. Nikoloz Papashvili, a male teaching assistant, successfully won a sexual-harassment claim against his female headteacher, Shelagh O’Shea. Papashvili has been awarded £9,309 in damages for the horror of enduring lewd ‘remarks and innuendos’ from the older and more senior O’Shea.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Peak Woke"

Frenchman’s Swiss naturalisation bid rejected for ‘mowing his lawn on public holidays’

Switzerland seems to have stricter citizenship laws than the rest of Europe; one man saw his naturalisation request denied for mowing his lawn during public holidays, allegedly disturbing his neighbours and the public peace.

The French resident of Clos du Doubs in the Porrentruy district was turned down at a communal assembly on April 3, Le Quotidien Jurrasien reported.

The unnamed 50-year-old from Paris has lived in the Swiss Jura area for more than a decade.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inSwitzerland, WTF?

Japan to Embark on an Era of “Mass Foreign Migration”

Japan appears to be transitioning from a homogenous society to embrace ‘diversity and inclusivity’ by ushering in “an era of mass foreign immigration.”

It’s set to be a massive change for a country that was still up until recently 97.5% ethnic Japanese, according to the CIA World Factbook.

A Bloomberg report details how rapidly declining native birth rates, an aging society and a chronic labor shortage is fueling the importation of millions of foreigners who “are changing the face of Japan.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inJapan

Germany: Violent crime reaches 15-year high — report

Germany recorded a large rise in violent crime in 2023, the first year without pandemic restrictions, police statistics published Saturday showed.

Welt am Sonntag, which gained exclusive access to the data, said violent crime climbed 8.6%, to 214,099 cases — a 15-year high.

The newspaper said there was a nearly 7% increase in cases of dangerous and serious bodily harm, with 154,541 cases recorded — the highest number ever.

Cases of intentional simple bodily harm increased by 7.4% to 429,157.

It’s a real mystery apparently.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime, Germany

Foreign Interference Needn’t Determine Election Outcome for Winners to Feel Indebted to China: CSIS Officia

A Canadian intelligence official says while Beijing’s attempts at foreign interference may not have had a decisive impact on Canada’s 2021 election outcome in a specific riding, such covert activities can still leave the elected candidate feeling indebted to the communist regime.

At a closed-door hearing, the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference received a summary of interviews with intelligence officials that said, “even if FI [foreign interference] did not directly lead to the election of a given candidate, that interference could nonetheless have an impact on the relationship with that candidate, and by extension the communities they represent.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Canada's China Class", "China - Communist Slave State", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

David Staples: B.C.’s safer supply of opioids has failed to cut drug deaths, seen increase in drug poisonings

The promise of the “safer supply” program in British Columbia was that it would cut down on opioid overdoses, but so far the opposite has happened.

The first major study comparing population-level results of British Columbia’s approach with that of other Canadian provinces has found “a significant increase in opioid-related poisoning hospitalizations.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inDrug Legalization, Drugs

U.S. ‘unable to step up’ on Ukraine aid, leaving Canada to fill the gap, says Freeland

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada’s commitment to Ukraine has been an important contribution to NATO’s strength at a time when the United States has been “unable to step up” on aid to the embattled country.

Freeland was responding to a question about Canada’s efforts to meet NATO’s military spending target for member nations — two per cent of GDP — in an interview airing Saturday on CBC’s The House.

Asked whether Canada would increase spending in the forthcoming April 16 federal budget, Freeland declined to give an answer either way. She told host Catherine Cullen that Canada’s per capita commitments to Ukraine — which she called “NATO’s most pressing challenge” — had been very significant.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Uniparty of Canada", Canada

Justin Trudeau is beset by a divided party and an angry electorate

“My job is not to be popular.” Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister (pictured), spent much of March explaining himself as he fought a revolt against an increase to the country’s carbon tax. On his own terms, and few others, Mr Trudeau is succeeding. Both his Liberal Party and the tax—which increased from C$65 to C$80 ($59) per tonne of CO2 equivalent on April 1st—are unloved. Mr Trudeau survived a no-confidence vote ahead of the increase, but the debate it sparked has added to the burdens of a prime minister who is staggering through his ninth year in power.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government