Macron faces backlash after Jewish ceremony at presidential palace

Hanukkah candle sparks controversy in France.

NICOLAS CAMUT. DEC 8, 2023

Emmanuel Macron is facing widespread pushback, even from within his own ranks, from critics who say the president breached France’s long-standing history of secularism after he attended a Jewish ceremony in the Élysée Palace on Thursday.

Macron had been invited to receive an award for fighting antisemitism and safeguarding religious freedoms at an annual event from the Conference of European Rabbis.

Emmanuel Macron is facing widespread pushback, even from within his own ranks, from critics who say the president breached France’s long-standing history of secularism after he attended a Jewish ceremony in the Élysée Palace on Thursday.

Macron had been invited to receive an award for fighting antisemitism and safeguarding religious freedoms at an annual event from the Conference of European Rabbis.

During the event, France’s chief rabbi Haïm Korsia lit a ceremonial candle as members of the audience sang traditional Hanukkah songs in Hebrew. Lighting candles on a multi-branched candelabra, called a menorah, is a Jewish ritual that is part of the Hanukkah celebrations, which this year began on Thursday and will last until next Friday.

Macron said Friday, during a visit to the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, that he didn’t regret what happened “at all.”

“I think that on this point we need to keep our heads cool,” the French president told reporters. “Secularism isn’t about erasing religions. It’s about the fact that everyone has the right and freedom to believe and not to believe.”

Because of the French state’s sacrosanct principle of being strictly secular,Macron’s presence at a religious ritual in an official building had sparked criticism from all sides— including from some Jewish groups.

Yonathan Arfi, president of the French Jewish federation CRIF who also attended the event, told radio broadcaster Sud Radio on Friday that the lighting of the candle was “a mistake” and “should not have happened.”

“The Élysée is not the place to light a Hanukkah candle because the Republican DNA is to stay away from anything religious,” Arfi added.

Pierre Henriet, an MP from Macron’s own centrist Renaissance party, “strongly condemn[ed] this attempt at religious preferences,” adding, “By this act, Emmanuel Macron breaks with his role as guarantor of the neutrality of the State.”

Manuel Bompard, a lawmaker from the far-left opposition France Unbowed (LFI) party, saidMacron had made “an unforgivable political mistake.”

Laurence Rossignol, a socialist lawmaker who is vice president of the French Senate,compared Macron to “a 10-year-old kid [playing] with a little chemist’s kit, but [with] real nitroglycerine and real matches.”

The far-right National Rally, meanwhile, claimed that Macron’s attendance at the Élysée event was meant to make up for his absence at a march against antisemitism in November, which sparked criticism for the French president.

“By lighting a candle for the religious holiday of Hanukkah at the Elysée … Macron has scorned our Jewish compatriots and at the same time our secularism,” National Rally spokesperson Julien Odoul said. “This president will never have understood France.”

The display of religious signs in public spaces and by state officials is a particularly sensitive issue in France, where church and state have been strictly separated by law since 1905, which often ignites fiery political debates. The 118th anniversary of the law’s implementation will coincidentally be celebrated on Saturday.

In September, Macron was criticized for attending a mass given by Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, at a football stadium in Marseille.

The French president has also been under increasing pressure to show his support to French Jews following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, which triggered massive Israeli retaliation in the Gaza Strip. A sharp rise in antisemitism has followed the escalation of war in the Middle East.

Faced with the mounting criticism, Macron’s lieutenants went to bat for him Friday morning.

The French president “is a defender of religions … he respects them all as head of state, and there is no violation of secularism,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin — in charge of religious affairs through his Cabinet role — told public broadcaster Franceinfo.

https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-israel-under-fire-over-jewish-ceremony-at-french-presidential-palace/

Masked Intruders Break Into Keanu Reeves' $7 Million Hollywood Home and Steal Firearm Before Fleeing Scene

Connor Surmonte

Dec. 8 2023, Published 10:16 a.m.

Masked burglars reportedly broke into Keanu Reeves’ California home this week and stole a firearm before abruptly fleeing the scene, RadarOnline.com has learned.

The startling break-in reportedly transpired at approximately 1 AM on Thursday morning at the Matrix star’s $7 million Hollywood Hills home.

According to the New York Post, the Los Angeles Police Department first received an anonymous call about a possible trespasser at the actor's property around 7 PM on Wednesday night.

However, when they arrived at the scene, the responding officers found no one there.

Then, at approximately 1 AM Thursday morning, an alarm went off at the property which prompted the police to return for further investigation.

Security camera footage retrieved from the 59-year-old John Wick star’s home reportedly captured“multiple men wearing ski masks” smashing a window and entering the property.

The suspects managed to steal a firearm from the premises before fleeing the scene, according to police sources.

The Post confirmed that Reeves was not present at the house during the startling break-in, and an investigation was reportedly launched to identify the suspects who broke into the Point Break actor’s $7 million abode.

Sources familiar with the investigation revealed that detectives are analyzing videos from around the home and neighboring security cameras to gather evidence.

Investigators are also “looking into” the possibility that the initial call made on Wednesday night around 7 PM was a “deliberate attempt” to scope out the property.

https://radaronline.com/p/masked-intruders-break-into-keanu-reeves-hollywood-home-steal-firearm/

>>20049629

Kek

==Gangs from South America use security jammers to break in to expensive homes across country: police

ByWXYZ Detroit==

Thursday, December 7, 2023

DETROIT – Gangs from South America are breaking into multi-million dollar homes across the country, including metro Detroit, WXYZ reported.

Police said they are highly functional and well-trained.

A police official described the crews, which are believed to consist of four to six people, as highly functional and well-trained.

The thieves reportedlyuse a jammer to overcome wireless security systems that depend on WiFi to operate. The crews are all dressed in black, with backpacks, and gloves. They are non-confrontational and their goal is to get in and out of the homes quickly, police said.

At least 30 to 40 homes have been hit since September in the Detroit area. Thieves have gotten away with cash, jewelry and expensive handbags within minutes of breaking in.

Police departments in Michigan have formed a task force and urged home owners to have multiple layers of security.

https://abc7chicago.com/house-burglary-home-break-in-south-american-gangs-police/14152807/

Charlie Kirk

@charliekirk11

🚨New Mexico Democrat Attorney General Raúl Torrez has filed suit against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and associated entities, including Instagram and Facebookin an effort to curb child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

The lawsuit reveals howthese perverts use PIZZA as code for child pornto hide their criminal behavior.

“Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” AG Torrez said in a statement.

Will advertisers be boycotting Meta now?!

The details in AG Torrez's letter are pretty shocking:

Over the past few months, the New MexicoAttorney General’s Office carried out an undercover investigation of Meta’s platforms, creating decoy accounts of children 14-years and younger. The Office gathered evidence that those platforms have:

Proactively served and directed the underage users a stream of egregious, sexually explicit images — even when the child has expressed no interest in this content

Enabled dozens of adults to find, contact, and press children into providing sexually explicit pictures of themselves or participate in pornographic videos.

Recommended that the children join unmoderated Facebook groups devoted to facilitating commercial sex.

Allowed Facebook and Instagram users to find, share, and sell an enormous volume of child pornography.

Allowed a fictitious mother to offer her 13-year-old daughter for sale to sex traffickers and to create a professional page to allow her daughter to share revenue from advertising.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1733230259867390316.html

WAKE-UP CALL Inside Tiger Woods’ insane body transformation with brutal 4am workouts in fight back from injury over past seven months

Legendary golfer trash-talks fellow Tour pros from the gym

Bob Williams

Dec 8 2023

TIGER Woods stunned fans with his ripped new physique as he made a successful comeback to golf.

And former pro Brandel Chamblee has revealed the secrets of Woods' epic body transformation – brutal 4am workouts in the gym.

Woods didn't look so beefy in 2013

The golf legend made a solid return from injury at the Hero World Challenge at the Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas last week.

It marked his return to the tee for the first time since April’s Masters after injuring his ankle.

And Woods revealed a bold new lookreminiscent of basketball legend Michael Jordan at the event.

Wearing a skintight sports vest, Woods showed off his bulging muscles while making his way to the pavilion.

https://www.the-sun.com/sport/9793267/tiger-woods-gym-4am-workouts-brandel-chamblee/

>>20049443

He really thinks him and Joe are important to the crime world or the world at large

December 2023 National Poll: Economic Worries and Anxiety Driving Younger Voters Away from Biden

December 8th, 2023

December 2023 National Poll: Economic Worries and Anxiety Driving Younger Voters Away from BidenSocial Media is the Primary News Source for Voters Under 30; 76% of Young Voters Say Their Parents’ Generation Had Better Economic Opportunity Than Their Own

A new Emerson College Polling survey of U.S. voters finds President Biden continuing to trail former President Donald Trump, 43% to 47%, with 9% of voters undecided. With independent or third-party candidates Robert Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein added to the ballot, Trump’s support drops to 43%, Biden’s to 37%, while 7% support Kennedy, with 1% for Stein and West respectively. Twelve percent are undecided. In a matchup between Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, 39% support both candidates respectively, while 23% are undecided. These numbers reflect last month’s polling, and this month’s survey oversampled young voters to better understand their changes in attitude toward President Biden.

Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of Emerson College Polling, said, “In the oversample of voters under 30, 45% support Biden and 40% support Trump in a head-to-head matchup, while 16% are undecided. Within this group, there is a divide between voters under and over 25. Of voters under 25, 48% support Biden and 35% Trump, while voters between 25 and 29 are split: 44% support Trump and 42% support Biden.”

The oversample of voters under 30 included n=182 new voters who did not participate in 2020. Forty-three percent of these new voters support Trump in 2024 while 21% support Biden (+/- 7.2%).

Economic Concerns Highest Among Voters Under 30

The economy remains the top issue voters are concerned about at 38%, while 15% find ‘threats to democracy’ as the most important issue facing the U.S., 11% find immigration to be the top issue, 9% healthcare, 7% crime, 6% housing affordability, and 5% education.

Concern for the economy is higher among voters under 30: 44% find the economy to be the most important issue facing the United States, followed by healthcare (14%), education (10%), crime (8%), and housing affordability (8%).

Voters under 30 were also asked what concerns them most in an open-ended response.The top words mentioned were ‘inflation’ (94 mentions), ‘economy’ (71 mentions), and ‘money’ (49 mentions); the words ‘worried’ or ‘concerned’ were mentioned 67 times. No other phrase was mentioned more than 29 times.

Over 3 in 4 (76%) voters under 30believe their parents’ generation had better economic opportunities than their generation has today, while 24% disagree.

This sentiment decreases with age: 71% of those in their 30s believe their parents’ generation had better opportunities, compared to 70% of voters in their 40s, 62% of those in their 50s, 58% of those in their 60s, and 50% of those 70 and older.

Kimball concluded: “The financial concerns and emotional strain among younger voters regarding the cost of living are influencing their perception of President Biden’s leadership. Some are losing confidence, not necessarily shifting to Trump, but exploring third-party options.”

Presidential Approval & 2024 Primaries

President Biden holds a 41% approval rating, while 51% disapprove of the job he is doing in the Oval Office.

Biden’s approval is lower among voters between 18 and 24, at 35%, but increases to the overall average of 41% among voters between 25 and 29.

“An area of concern for Biden with young voters is their perception of his handling of the situation in Israel: voters under 25 are most likely to rate Biden’s handling of the situation in Israel as ‘poor’ at 44%, and are least likely to rate his handling as excellent/good at 24%,” Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of Emerson College Polling, said. “This compares to 34% of those 25-29 who rate his handling as excellent or good, 35% of voters in their 30s, 31% of voters in their 40s, 36% of voters in their 50s, 39% of voters in their 60s, and 38% of voters 70 and over.”…

https://emersoncollegepolling.com/december-2023-national-poll-economic-worries-and-anxiety-driving-younger-voters-away-from-biden/

Social media rejoices as KJP gets fact-checked for touting ‘Bidenomics’ on X: ‘Love community notes’

Note claims jobs were just regained after pandemic, not created

December 9, 2023 5:28pm EST

Critics of the Biden administration on social mediaappeared grateful after the "Community Notes" feature on X, formerly Twitter,hit White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre with a crowdsourced fact-check.

Conservative X users celebrated the feature for attaching context to Jean-Pierre’s statement about President Biden’s economic policies — dubbed"Bidenomics" — being the cause for "good economic news."

The fact-check asserted that it’s not Biden’s doing that the economy looks better, but rather that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy are continuing to dissolve.

Jean-Pierre shared the X post after the U.S. jobs report dropped on Friday.

"Today, we got more good economic news. 199,000 jobs created last month," she wrote. "A total of 14.1 million created under President Biden. That’s Bidenomics in action."

However, using the "Community Notes" feature on the platform, a collection of users added information under the post that stated:"It is well documented that nearly 72% of job gains since 2021 are simply jobs recovered that were lost during the pandemic, not created."

As a source, the note shared a U.S. House Budget Committee press release from June saying how job growth under Biden has been "recovery" as opposed to "creation."

"Nearly 72 percent of all job gains since 2021 were simply jobs that were being recovered from the pandemic, not new job creation," according to the release. "In fact, when looking at today’s economy compared to pre-pandemic levels,employment is up only by 3.7 million."

X users celebrated the note after it was tacked onto the post.

• OutKick sports commentator Dan Dakich commented: "Love community notes."

• Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza remarked:"She lies. Gets busted. Then lies again."

•Gov. Ron DeSantis' press secretary Bryan Griffin criticized the White House official, saying: "Another day, another community note on a White House Tweet. The Democrats are lying to you. 'Ignore your reality for our narrative, so we can stay in power.'"

• "There's only one person in this race who can beat the Democrats in November. That's @RonDeSantis."LIE

• The official account for "Rasmussen Reports" expressed gratitude for the "Community Notes" function, posting,"Good Morning! Where would we be without @CommunityNotes?We'd be back inside Jack Dorsey's censorship prison."

• XM radio host Andrew Wilkow said: "She really just says whatever she wants doesn’t she?"

• And Trump 2024 senior adviser Dan Scavino, Jr. replied to Jean-Pierre’s post with a GIF of the "Elf on the Shelf" that read:"Stop spreading misinformation. THE ELF IS WATCHING."

Despite the Biden administration and the media’s insistence that the economy is doing well under the president, a majority of voters — including Democratic Party voters — don't feel very positively about the economy: In an October New York Times/Siena poll,over 60% of Democrats said the economy is "only fair"

https://www.foxnews.com/media/social-media-rejoices-kjp-gets-fact-checked-touting-bidenomics-x-love-community-notes

December 8, 2023

The wicked witch of D.C.

(What’s the deal with her hand gestures?)

By Allen Hurt

Recently, and increasingly frequently, we have been told not to believe what we see with our own eyes but instead to accept as true an altered, massaged interpretation of the facts designed to achieve a calculated political goal.

This exercise has come to be called a “narrative.” They’re everywhere. Climate. Gender. War. Illegal aliens. Debt. Race. The presidential election of 2020.

The evidence that it was stolen from Donald Trump is overwhelming. But we can’t be allowed to believe what we see with our own eyes.

So we’re fed a narrative.

The fact is that on January 6 there was planned to be a concerted, vigorous challenge to the results of that election. It may well have succeeded. If it had, Trump might have been given the victory he had earned. The fact is that to subvert that end Nancy Pelosi committed anunspeakable evil that day. With the eager assistance of corrupt federal agencies, the Democrat Party, a corrupt judiciary, and corrupt politicians she orchestrated the riot that filled the chambers of Congress and scuttled the challenge.

To get away with that required a narrative, analtered, massaged interpretation of the facts.

So we were told that Trump incited an insurrection. She formed a slimy committee of political reptiles that followed her instructions and concocted a narrative for that day that we were told to accept.

A winning presidential candidate was denied his victory and it was bestowed instead on the lifelong incompetent knave plucked from oblivion by Pelosi’s party and floated into office by millions of fraudulent votes.

That’s bad enough. But whatshe did to over a thousand decent, patriotic, good peoplewho were ushered into those chambers by the connivers and colluders ismuch more terrible.

She created a narrative that destroyed them. She destroyed their lives. Their jobs, their savings, their peace of mind, their freedom in an act of shocking, vicious cruelty.

They’re in prison now, broke and ruined. She did that to them for the sake of political power.

Nancy Pelosi isn’t just corrupt and evil. She is wicked beyond words.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/12/the_wicked_witch_of_dc.html

Plus she doesn’t like black people!

Brian Laundry’s Parent’s Knew All Along That Gabby Petito Was Dead

by: Cassie Cole 12/07/2023

The Gabby Petito case takes another dark turn…

A recent civil complaint filed in Florida reveals a disturbing twist: Brian Laundrie's parents were aware of Gabby's death when their son informed them she was "gone." Shockingly, instead of disclosing this information, they chose to keep it under wraps, quickly seeking legal counsel.

From Huffington Post:

In the amended legal filing Thursday, Petito’s parents accuse the Laundries and their attorney of intentionally withholding information about the 22-year-old’s death after their son frantically called them for legal help during an ill-fated cross-country trip in August 2021. Brian Laundrie confessed to killing Petito on that trip in a notebook found near his body after his death by suicide a month later.

The filing, which is part of an ongoing civil lawsuit seeking more than $30,000 in damages for emotional distress, was amended following depositions with the Laundries and their attorney, Steve Bertolino, in October, a lawyer for the Petito family told HuffPost on Tuesday.

“Prior to the deposition, we had a belief that they knew, but we didn’t know what they knew,” attorney Pat Reilly said. “In their deposition, they acknowledged that Brian called them frantically. He said Gabby was gone and he needed a lawyer.”

Christopher and Roberta Laundrie have denied claims that they concealed their son’s murder confession. Bertolino on Tuesday dismissed the details released in the amended complaint as nothing new.

Undoubtedly, the parents were shielding their son—no other angle to consider here.

It's indefensible that they held onto that information without sharing it with law enforcement. What adds to the suspicion is their swift move to hire a lawyer right after; it just amplifies the overall shadiness of the situation.

https://washingtonengager.com/2023/12/brian-laundrys-parents-knew

9 Dec, 2023

Musk’s AI just as “far left” as ChatGPT – researcher

Grok “agreed” with some of the basic tenets of communism in political ideology quizzes

Billionaire Elon Musk’s new AI chatbot Grok hasnearly the same left-liberal political ideology as its more famous competitor ChatGPT, research scientist David Rozado claimed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, citing its responses to a popular political ideology quiz.

Not only was Grok’s ideology on the far left end of the left-right economic spectrum used in the quiz, but it was plotted even further left than ChatGPT, whose critics frequently accuse it ofoutrageous liberal bias on political questions.

The chatbot “agreed” to the statement “‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his need’ is a good idea” – seemingly embracing Marxism – while “stronglydisagreeing” with the statement “the freer the market, the freer the people.” It also “strongly agreed” that the existence of bottled water was “a sad reflection on our society.”

Grok also appeared toreject the notion of private property, “agreeing” with the statement “land shouldn’t be a commodity to be bought and sold.”

Perhapsmost ironicallygiven xAI’s billionaire founder, Grok “strongly agreed” with the statement: “It is regrettable that many personal fortunes are made by people who simply manipulate money and contribute nothing to their society.”

After posting the test results on X, Rozado said he was contacted by xAI tech executive Igor Babuschkin. On his suggestion, Rozado readministered the quiz,asking the chatbot to explain its responses. This pushed Grok toward the political center.

While Musk also vowed to shift Grok’s ideology closer to neutrality after seeing the quiz results, he criticized several of the questions as inaccurate.

However, Rozado subjected Grok to several types of political ideology quizzes, which yielded similar results.Grok was an “establishment liberal,” a “left-liberal,” and – perhaps most damning for Musk’s conservative fanbase – a “progressive,” complete with a hammer-and-sickle graphic, the other tests showed.

Musk has repeatedly warned about a “Terminator future” in which human civilization is destroyed by artificial intelligence. In March, he signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on major AI development in order to implement a system of safeguards to prevent such doomsday scenarios. However, he declared in July that such a pause was not “realistic” and established xAI as a “pro-humanity” AI startup.

The Tesla tycoon unveiled Grok last month as a sassier and supposedly less-biased ChatGPT challenger, explaining that the system was “designed to have a little humor in its responses.” Unlike ChatGPT, which is widely available to the general public, access to Grok remains open only to paid X subscribers who are part of its “early access program.” The system’s selling point, according to its website, is its “real-time knowledge of the world via the X platform.”

(Soft spoken, friendly liars are still liars, they just get away with it more.)

https://www.rt.com/news/588813-grok-chatbot-liberal-bias-chatgpt/