Free Republic

Using Agitprop and elements of the Delphi propaganda method (3), lethal Home Owners Associations (HOAs) are moving north out of huge Miami-Fort Lauderdale territories up along Florida’s I-95 corridor to take over more and more personal property rights of unsuspecting homeowners in gated, HOA communities. And the effects are not pretty! “Resetting the default position. . .exploits the structure of the choice to encourage a more desirable option,” says Cass R. Sunstein, author of the book NUDGE. (1) Employed by the Obama Administration as a regulatory czar, it was Sunstein’s job to have the American people do what the government...

KYIV, February 16 /Ukrinform/. Russia will try to "push" through the UN Security Council its own version of the resolution on Donbas, which does not coincide with the Minsk Agreements, Press AV journalist Andrei Vasilyev has told Ukrainian television's channel Hromadske.tv. According to him, Russia is trying to place all responsibility for the peace process on Ukraine only. The Russian version of the resolution also requires that Ukraine should be the first side to withdraw its troops 50 kilometers back from the front line after the ceasefire. In addition, Moscow also wants to completely absolve itself of promises made in...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sparked derisive laughter and indignation among the audience at a security conference in Munich by defending Moscow's actions in the Ukraine conflict and accusing the West of fomenting unrest in the crisis. In a testy question-and-answer session following his February 7 speech at the conference, Lavrov elicited scattered howls from an audience that included Western officials by claiming that Ukraine's Crimea territory willingly joined Russia in line with the United Nations Charter. "I guess it's funny. I also found many things [said here] funny as well, but I controlled myself," Lavrov, who spoke in Russian...

Economic Systems: The alarmists keep telling us their concern about global warming is all about man's stewardship of the environment. But we know that's not true. A United Nations official has now confirmed this. At a news conference last week in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism.

(Reuters) - A Belarusian delegate at a United Nations disarmament forum warned fellow diplomats about an unusual type of weapon: jars of mayonnaise being thrown by topless women during discussions about war and peace. The delegate issued a statement of concern during the Geneva-based U.N. Conference on Disarmament's discussion on Tuesday about improving its transparency. Belarus asked whether there was a plan to open up the meetings to members of the general public. (snip) "What if there were topless ladies screaming from the public gallery throwing bottles of mayonnaise, asked Belarus," the official summary said. The record added that the...

Economic Systems: The alarmists keep telling us their concern about global warming is all about man's stewardship of the environment. But we know that's not true. A United Nations official has now confirmed this. At a news conference last week in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism. "This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change...

The United Nation’s climate chief says that reordering the global economy to fight climate change is the “most difficult” task the international body has ever undertaken. “This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history,” Christiana Figueres, who heads up the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, told reporters. “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that...

NEW YORK, January 6 (C-Fam) A group of U.S. senators is urging President Obama to fund the UN’s controversial population agency despite its ties to abortion and coercive population control programs, and its new push for countries to legalize prostitution. “We are disappointed that despite UNFPA’s critical work around the world, a number of misperceptions about the organization persist,” wrote Senator Barbara Boxer and 21 of her Democratic colleagues. “UNFPA does not promote abortion as a method of family planning and does not condone coercion in family planning, coercive abortion or forced sterilizations,” according to the senators, each an ardent...

The United Nation’s top climate change official Christiana Figueres announced this week that the group is actively working to "intentionally transform" the world's economic development model, a task she called the "most difficult" one the group has ever undertaken. "This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history," UNFCCC Executive Secretary Figueres stated at a press conference in Brussels Tuesday. The "intentional" reordering of the global economy, she told reporters, "will not happen overnight" due to the "depth of the transformation":...

Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants are selling abducted Iraqi children at markets as sex slaves, and killing other youths, including by crucifixion or burying them alive, a United Nations watchdog said on Wednesday. Iraqi boys aged under 18 are increasingly being used by the militant group as suicide bombers, bomb makers, informants or human shields to protect facilities against US-led air strikes, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said. "We are really deeply concerned at torture and murder of those children, especially those belonging to minorities, but not only from minorities," committee expert Renate...

Canadian William Schabas resigned from leading the UNHRC “war crimes” probe of Israel on Monday, after new revelations regarding consulting work he did for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist organization in 2012 joined previous allegations his blatant bias against Israel. Speaking with Yedioth Aharonot on Tuesday, after a former Goldstone Report judge was named in his stead, Schabas had harsh words of condemnation for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “Even if there was another committee, Netanyahu would come out against it. People like Netanyahu will accuse any committee of being anti-Israeli,” said Schabas—who back in 2013 said he wanted to...

A former Environmental Protection Agency regulator warns that while the Obama administration now has coal in its crosshairs, natural gas is next in line. David Schnare cites a proposed rule on methane emissions as one of the ways President Obama and the EPA will clamp down on natural gas. The 33-year EPA veteran, who once sued utilities for coal-fired plants that didn’t meet Clean Air Act standards, is director of the Center of Energy and Environmental Stewardship at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Schnare said the EPA — as part of its “Clean Power Plan” rule that would...

Canadian law professor William Schabas, who was appointed to head the UN committee tasked with probing Israel’s alleged “war crimes” during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, announced on Monday evening he was stepping down. According to the Reuters news agency, Schabas cited Israeli allegations of bias due to consultancy work he did for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the reason for his resignation. In a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which appointed him to head the inquiry, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Schabas said he would step down immediately to...

The African Union’s rotating post of chairman has gone to Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe’s veteran president enjoys respect across the continent, but faces travel bans from both the US and EU for harassing opponents. Mugabe assumed the largely ceremonial role on Friday at an African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa as it leaders and UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for global action against Boko Haram in Nigeria. […] Western nations accuse Mugabe, a former guerrilla leader who fought against white-minority rule in former British-ruled Rhodesia, of crushing political dissent and ruining Zimbabwe’s rural-based economy. For many in Africa, however, he...

A bit of scatalogical satire about Russia’s behavior at the latest UN security council meeting on Ukraine. The illustration is a bit crude, but very spot on and makes the point clearly. Enjoy and share! TRANSLATION: Transcript of the 30th session of the UN Security Council on the Ukraine crisis. UN Security Council President: Are there any motions? Churkin (Russia’s Ambassador to the UN): May I crap on the table? Everybody: NO!!! Churkin: (while crapping on the desk of Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Klimkin) Thank you! Ukraine: You all saw it, didn’t you?! Russia just crapped on our desk!...

Evgeny Buryakov, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobny allegedly conspired to gather intelligence on behalf of Russia and to recruit Americans. Federal prosecutors in New York have unveiled criminal charges against three men for their alleged involvement in a spying scheme for Russia’s foreign intelligence service. According to a criminal complaint, Evgeny Buryakov, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy conspired in the United States to gather intelligence on behalf of Russia and to recruit New York City residents to help. The conspiracy ran from 2012 to the present, and during that time, Buryakov worked at a bank, Sporyshev was a Russian trade...

A leading Islamic organisation has called on the United Nations to make "contempt of religions" illegal and urged the West to protect Muslim communities following the attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo. The Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars, headed by influential preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi, appealed to Muslims to continue peaceful protests against images of the Prophet Mohammed but "not to resort to any violence".

Invasion biology theorists, Government land grabs and Agenda 21, the UN-sponsored Wildlands Project, Reserve and Corridor System Homeowners along the coast, beware! Anti-exotic advocates (invasion biology theorists), aka nativists, are in control at State Parks and the California Coastal Commission. They also control the National Park Service. They’re implementing Agenda 21’s land- grab goals by tearing out sand dune-stabilizing non-native grass proven by a 1960s USDA study to be the only sand stabilizer capable of withstanding heavy tourist abuse that destroyed most of Northern California’s native grass and foliage beginning in the mid-20th century. This grass removal in Point Reyes,...

Germany’s top human rights official has urged Israel to cooperate with the International Criminal Court probe into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories. After the investigation was announced last week, Israel’s government immediately said it would not work with The Hague-based court and called for its funding to be cut. The government’s human rights commissioner, Christoph Strässer, said in an interview published Tuesday that Israel’s reaction was counterproductive. …

The U.N. Security Council condemned the recent escalation of attacks by the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram on Monday and expressed deep concern that its activities are undermining peace and stability in central and west Africa. The statement was sponsored by Nigeria, which had been reluctant to have the council discuss the Islamic militant group despite being a member of the Security Council. The Security Council has previously responded to specific terrorist acts by Boko Haram with press statements that do not become part of its official record. The militant group seeks to impose Islamic Shariah law across Nigeria, Africa's...