Friday Links

As the latest work week comes to a close, here are some things going on (along with my own $0.02):

From the Mirror, at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony, Trump and Kim impersonators get kicked out.  (via Yahoo Sports)

From National Review, let's have a military parade.  (I don't agree with this.  Do we really need one?)

From the Los Angeles Times, Brazilian women get serious about "no means no".

From LifeNews, which side is Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) on?

From ABC7, a woman gives birth and leaves her baby behind at an airport.  (The story comes via ABC News and Canada Free Press.  H/T Gulf Dogs for Tweeting the CFP article.)

From The Daily Signal, "free speech zones" on campuses are going away, and that's good.

From Breitbart Texas, Mexican Marines arrest a Los Zetas boss who was born in the U.S.

From the Express, U.K. Brexit Secretary David Davis responds to comments by the E.U.'s chief negotiator.  (What do you know?  There's a secretary for Brexit.)

From WestMonster, the Bank of England revises their 2018 economic forecast upwards.  (via Voice Of Europe)

From Russia Today, France wants to spend $45 billion to strengthen their nuclear arsenal.

From Christianity Today, an Afghan seeking asylum in Germany is given a life sentence for murdering a fellow Afghan who converted to Christianity.

From Sputnik International, Belgium will resume deportation of Sudanese migrants.  (The article uses the term "undocumented Sudanese migrants", which in reality means migrants in Belgium illegally.)

From Voice Of Europe, ISIS is still recruiting at U.K. universities.

From E-International Relations Students, "Anti-Smuggling Operations in the Central Mediterranean".

From Reuters, the owner of the Daily Mirror has bought the Daily Express, the Daily Star and OK! magazine.  (The story comes via Breitbart London, who call the Daily Mirror "far-left" and the Daily Express "right wing".)

From Hürriyet Daily News, 603 undocumented migrants are being held in Turkey, as of yesterday.  (Or as they should be called, 603 illegal aliens.)

From Euractiv, the European parliament passes a resolution calling for Turkey to end its emergency powers and crackdown on criticism.  (Turkey is not a member of the E.U., so I don't think this resolution is going to accomplish anything.)

From The Times Of India, clerics in Deoband issue a fatwa against life insurance.

From The Moscow Times, Russia accuses ISIS of running online casinos.  (Wait a minute.  Isn't gambling against Islamic teaching?)

From the New York Post, a "trust-find creep" takes a 10-year plea deal for raping unconscious women.

From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, "weird scenes on the campaign trail".

And from National Geographic, the strange genitalia of reptiles.

A Sasquatch's Dozen

Neither eleven, nor thirteen, but twelve things going on out there:

From FrontpageMag, identify the opponents of illegal immigration.

From The Sun, it was a horrible police sketch, but it worked.  (via HotAir)

From Townhall, even her fellow Democrats were not amused by Nancy Pelosi's quasi-filibuster.

From ANSA, 10,000 asylum seekers in Italy live in "informal settlements".

From Voice Of Europe, although located in Poland, the death camps were German.

From Breitbart London, western aid may have contributed to the next migrant wave.

From El País, 20 masked drug gang members invade a hospital to remove one of their members.

From the Express, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May proposes an "immediate" break from the E.U.

From Flanders News, the alleged terrorist on trial for the attacks in Paris does not show up in court.

From Sputnik International, Corsicans demonstrate for more autonomy.

From the New York Post, the Dow plummets again.

And from Decider, one advisor for the Star Wars movie about Han Solo was someone familiar with the title role.

Wednesday Links

Here are some things going on for Wednesday, a.k.a. hump day, a.k.a. mid-week:

From CBN News, the Senate announces a new budget deal, with big spending increases.

From Townhall, the deal does not include anything on DACA.

From The Daily Caller, the Los Angeles Times will soon get a new, very rich, very left-wing owner.

From TechRadar, Google is working on a game console and a streaming device.

From Fox News, Lisa Page sent a memo to Peter Strzok saying "potus wants to know everything we're doing."  The memo was sent on September 2, 2016, which would mean that "potus" is Obama.

From Voice Of Europe, a set of 34 refugees in Germany got to bring in 130 family members, and European women put out a successful anti-violence video.

From Russia Today, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May draws some anger by blaming London's and Manchester's mayors for the recent rise in knife-related crime.

From Total Croatia News, the E.U. offers €303.4 million for projects in seven Croatian cities.

From Deutsche Welle, European leaders welcome the new German coalition deal.

From Sky News, a British man is charged with "attending a place used for terrorist training".

From Anadolu Agency, Turkey submits documents to the E.U. requesting visa-free travel for its citizens within the Shengen countries.

From Hürriyet Daily News, E.U. leaders will meet Turkish President Erdoğan in Bulgaria.

From iNews, under a newly-proposed plan, foreign workers in Scotland would not be permitted to travel to other parts of the U.K.

From The Local DK, the Danish government has proposed a ban on full-face veils in public.

From the NL Times, the Dutch party ChristenUnie wants harsher penalties for religious and racist violence.

From Sputnik International, according to a group of AfD lawmakers, German people have become more opposed to sanctions against Russia.

From The Straits Times, according to the chief of Malaysia's party PAS, if they take power, "only Muslims" will make policy.

From FrontpageMag, Sweden appoints a Muslim to be the head of their National Heritage Board.

From National Review written by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), freedom of speech needs to be protected on college campuses.  (I almost typed "protested", which seems to be closer to reality these days.)

From the New York Post, three girls involved with a racially offensive photo have been kicked out of their sorority.

And from Lonely Planet, how airlines deal with snakes (and hedgehogs and peacocks) on a plane.

Links For Reagan's Birthday

On February 6th, 1911, lifeguard/actor/politician Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois.  Today on his birthday, here is some stuff going on out there:

From Fox News Radio, Representative Todd Rokita (R-IN) realizes one obvious truth about the car crash that killed a football player and an Uber driver.

From The Daily Signal, a program that stops terrorists from entering the United States.

From CNS News, after winning the Super Bowl, the Eagles coach leads the team in the Lord's Prayer.

From the New York Post, a fraternity at Cornell is suspended over a sex contest called a "pig roast".

From Space Daily, a progress report on space in 2018.

From CBS News, the SpaceX Falcon launch, which includes a car, is successful.

From the Daily News, an Amtrak Acela train's cars separated near Havre de Grace, Maryland.

From Channel News Asia, an earthquake strikes Taiwan, killing two, injuring over 200, and tilting buildings.

From Voice Of Europe, a Polish man Tweets out some facts on the Berlin wall.  (His username includes the Polish word wolny, which means "free".)

From the Express, some Poles are angry at the E.U.'s "nuclear option" against their judicial reforms.

From Sputnik International, the leading violator of E.U. rules is, shall we say, not Poland.

From France24, during a 21-month period after the U.K. leaves the E.U., the latter will still be able to punish the former for certain rule violations.

From Breitbart London, U.K. police arrest 21 suspected migrant smugglers.  (As I keep saying, the "migrants" aren't just migrating.  They're being trafficked.)

From the Daily Mail, more on the police anti-trafficking raids.

From the NL Times, very few Dutch who joined ISIS have returned to the Netherlands.

From The Straits Times, an Indonesian terrorist gets 10 years for procuring guns in the Philippines.  (TST actually used the word "terrorist".)

From Gatestone Institute, is the CBC serving Canadians or Islamists?  (The last two links come via The Religion Of Peace.)

From FrontpageMag, how President Trump has changed Saudi attitudes.

From National Review, "Robert Mueller is no Ken Starr".

From Townhall, one Senator wants to ban the SOTU address.  (Presidents are not required to give a SOTU speech, but may instead send Congress the SOTU statement in writing.)

And from KTLA, a Girl Scout selling cookies puts the old adage "location, location, location" to good use.

More Stuff For Monday

Some things, other than the previously noted illegal alien-caused fatal car crash, going on out there:

From Jerusalem On Line, the terrorist who committed a murder by stabbing in Ariel, Israel is an Israeli Arab.  (H/T Global Patriot Radio for the Tweet)

From the New York Post, the Dow has its worst day ever.

From the Daily Mail, a Tweet by President Trump criticizing the U.K. NHS draws a fierce backlash.

From Defend Europa, a report on the Visegrád group.  (Yes, I need to put an accent on the "a" to type the group's name correctly.)

From Voice Of Europe, police in Malmö, Sweden are now armed with machine guns.

From Reuters, former prime minister Berlusconi gets blamed for Italy's migrant crisis.

From the Express, Italy might get a political crisis similar to what's going on in Germany.

From Breitbart London, a British government study of sharia faces one of its unpleasant truths.

From France24, Denmark's largest political party wants to place finite limits on "non-western" asylum seekers.  (This party, the Social Democrats, are described as "left-wing".  This flies in the face of the epithet "far-right" sometimes hurled as most westerners who desire such limits.)

From WestMonster, Germany's AfD party is just two percentage points behind the left-wing SPD party.

From Russia Today, the Netherlands withdraws their ambassador to Turkey, and protesters near the Vatican denounce Turkish President Erdoğan's meeting with Pope Francis.

From The Local FR, the only surviving suspect in the 2015 Paris shootings declined to answer questions at the opening of his trial in Brussels.  (The trial is over his alleged offenses against police before his arrest in Brussels.)

From the NL Times, a Dutch survivor of the Paris attack is in Brussels to attend the trial mentioned immediately above.

From The Sun, the terrorist defendant says that he will "put his trust in Allah".

From Chronicle Live, an asylum seeker who murdered his British ex-girlfriend will be released after serving 11 years.

From Philly(dot)com, former Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN) will not run for Al Franken's Senate seat.

From Politico, the Defense Logistics Agency lost track of more than $800 million.  (via Fox News)

From FrontpageMag, and with apologies to Mick Jagger, the Democrats are having their "nineteenth nervous breakdown".

From Townhall, normal Americans like those so-called "crumbs".

From Al Arabiya, 11 protesters have reportedly been tortured to death in Iran since this past December.

From Arutz Sheva, the leader of an illegal Islamic group in Israel says that Jerusalem will be the capital of the caliphate.

From Fox Business, "the good, the bad, and the weird" Super Bowl ads.

From Science News, a "weird in-between" form of ice.

And from Digital Spy, and with a spoiler alert, an explanation of the mirror scene in The Last Jedi.

Suspected Killer Of Football Player Is An Illegal Alien

This story was noted by HotAir, and comes from the New York Post.

The suspected drunken driver accused of killing two people, including Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson, on Sunday morning has been living in the United States without documentation, Indiana State Police announced Monday.

Manuel Orrego-Savala, who was going by the alias Alex Cabrera Gonsales, was arrested Sunday after allegedly striking and killing Jackson and ride-sharing operator Jeffrey Monroe, who were out of their vehicles on Interstate 70 in Indianapolis when Orrego-Savala allegedly veered his truck onto the shoulder.

Yesterday, I included this story in my list of links, so this might be considered a follow-up.  To some extent, I was unclear as to what happened.  The other person killed, Jeffrey Monroe, has been described as a "ride-sharing operator", who stopped to help Jackson.  I had thought that Monroe might have been giving Jackson a ride, in the manner of Uber or Lyft.  The above excerpt uses the word "vehicles" in the plural, thus implying that each man had been driving his own car.

I had previously read somewhere that the driver was subject to an ICE detainer.  This would either mean that he was in the United States legally, but had committed a serious crime which would result in the revocation of his green card, or that he is in the country illegally.  As the term "without documentation" indicates, the latter is true.

The NYP story indicates that the allegedly drunk driver is a Guatemalan citizen, who has previously twice been deported from the United States.  In other words, he is a living reason why the wall should be built, and that it is perfectly non-racist to do so.  Read the full story.

Various And Sundry

As usual, I feel like posting some various and sundry items.  And as usual, "sundry" should not be confused with "sun-dry", especially since it's too cold and rainy for the sun to dry anything around here.  So here we go:

A German journalist says that her people are waking up.

Germany's chancellor misses her own deadline.

A far-right extremist in Italy appears to show no remorse for his shooting spree.

His shooting spree was allegedly triggered by the murder of an Italian woman.

Will the BBC again ignore rape grooming gangs in Britain?  (intermediate source)

Some Greeks can't tolerate Macedonia being called Macedonia.

Forty asylum seekers from Syria have been housed in Zadar, Croatia.  (I've visited the place myself.  Stayed there a few days before moving on to other parts of the country.)

The leader of Poland's ruling party urges their president to sign a bill criminalizing the blaming of Poland for Nazi crimes.

Netanyahu speaks out against Soros.

President Trump reacts to this morning's Amtrak crash.

An Indianapolis Colts player was one of two people killed by a suspected drunk driver.

Contrary to previous reports, there will not be a hologram of Prince during tonight's Super Bowl halftime show.

I'll just quote the title of this one.  "The NFL still doesn't get it".

Facebook includes a non-existent country, and excludes one that actually exists.

Three Iranian Christians appear in court to appeal their convictions.

The real estate market "is acting a little weird".

And to finish, the world's deepest-dwelling fish.

UPDATE:  Here's one more, which is more recent that everything above.  BLM idiots protesters block a light rail line whose trains were carrying fans to the Super Bowl.  (intermediate source)

Amtrak Collides With Parked Freight Train

This morning at around 2:35 a.m., an Amtrak passenger train collided with a parked freight train southwest of Columbia, South Carolina.  The Amtrak train was moving on the wrong track.  The Amtrak's engineer and conductor were killed.  Up to 116 people were reportedly injured.  Depending on the severity of their injuries, the passengers were taken either to a hospital or to a nearby school, where a shelter was set up.  No one was on board the freight train at the time of the collision.

Read more at CNN, CBS News, Reuters (via AOL), NBC News and Quartz.

The Memo, And Other Things

Following a good amount of public outcry, the House Intelligence memo has been released.  What is the memo and what information does it contain?  And why did some people on the left and in the media (if you'll forgive the redundancy) not want it released?  To learn some things along those lines, read the following stories:

From The Daily Wire, five things you need to know about the memo.

From the Washington Examiner, a report on, and a copy of, the memo.

From ZeroHedge, the "never Trump" press is in a near-panic mode over the memo.  (written by Pat Buchanan)

From Fox News, when it comes to the memo, the media are suddenly not interested in transparency.

From Townhall, the memo proves that the Trump dossier was used to obtain a FISA warrant.

From FrontpageMag, "who really created the Trump dossier?"

From BBC News, the memo accuses the FBI of abusing their power.

From The Federalist, the memo shows the politicization of the Obama administration.

And from CNS News, according to then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, the Obama administration would not have sought the warrant without the dossier.

****

Here are some other things going on out there:

From USA Today, a student at George Washington University goes bananas.

From The Washington Free Beacon, Hillary Clinton has transferred over a million dollars from her "resistance" group to other such groups.

From Voice Of Europe, an Afghan seeking asylum in Greece is arrested for allegedly possessing detonators and gas canisters.  (Something worth pointing out when someone says "They are not dangerous.  They are in danger.")

From Russia Today, the leader of Italy's 5-Star Movement says that the U.K. should stop being "punished" over Brexit.

From the Express, according to the European Investment Bank, the E.U. will go on a "budget diet" because of Brexit.

From Swissinfo, the E.U. pressures some Swiss cantons over the documents required for working there.  (Switzerland is not a member of the E.U., but has a treaty with them dealing with this matter.  The story comes via Voice Of Europe.)

From El País, the ousted Catalan government reportedly had plans for an army.

From Euractiv, the E.U. wants Serbia and Kosovo to have normal relations before Serbia can join the bloc.

From The Times Of Israel, a man accused of killing his Jewish neighbor will not be charged with a hate crime.

From Space War, China is reportedly seeking a military base in Afghanistan.

From MomZette, Whole Foods new inventory system is driving employees crazy.

From WFMY, a man uses an airline voucher, even though it's 20 years old.  (via the New York Post)

From Accuracy In Media, the media have downplayed the stories of some SOTU guests.

From The Baltimore Sun, police in Maryland find a large ammo stash.  (The story comes via Fox News.  Can I get a around of applause for my state's LEOs?)

From the New York Post, the Dow falls by 550 points.  (Something that our president or his supporters might want to think about when giving him(self) credit for rises in the stock market.)

From Reason, Frederick Douglass and the Constitution being "at war with itself".

From Boise State Public Radio, "the Idaho legislature is weird and likes pie".  (Full disclosure:  I've been accused of both these things, too.  I unreservedly plead guilty to the latter, while the former is a matter of opinion.)

And from Variety, a musical based on the life of Donna Summer finds three actresses to share the title role.

Links To Start February

I've been out dealing with my non-blogging life, so today's set of links is going to be somewhat shorter than usual.  Here then, are a few things going on (with my own $0.02 thrown in):

From the Express, the Irish flag will be banned from this year's St. Patrick's day parade in Strabane, Northern Ireland because it might (gasp!) offend some people.  (It's Northern Ireland, not Ireland itself, but this is a departure from tradition.)

From The Telegraph, a review commissioned by Prime Minister Theresa May recommends that sharia marriage be recognized in British law.  (You'll have to register or log in to read the entire article.)

From the Daily Star, gang violence erupts among migrants in Calais, France.

From France24, more on the violence in Calais.

From Deutsche Welle, three jailed Catalan leaders take their case to a UN panel.

From the NL Times, a hand grenade was found tied to the door of a sisha lounge in Amsterdam.

From Russia Today, the European Union is saddled with lots of "secret" debt.

From Arutz Sheva, "how the Muslim Brotherhood" is taking over France".

From The Star, Canadian MPs sing the new gender-neutral version of their anthem, but their Speaker is not impressed.

From The Daily Signal, what we lose by removing statues of people like Columbus.

From Breitbart Jerusalem, Israel builds a wall, and it works.

From the Mirror, the Chinese have a nickname for the above-mentioned Theresa May.

From Newsweek, Melania Trump (or more precisely, an actress portraying her) quacks like a duck.

From The Incline, the weird history of Groundhog Day.

From the New York Post, a pervert is banned from every farm in Britain.

And from The Babylon Bee, a blogger condemns himself as a heretic.