Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/13/2014

According to the latest polls, a majority of Scottish voters have turned against the Cameron government and are ready to vote for independence from the UK. The new nation will immediately acquire a massive load of debt, which will be only partially offset by revenues from North Sea oil.

In other news, no signals have been detected since last Tuesday from what is thought to be the black box of Flight MH370, and it is possible that the device’s batteries have finally failed.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» Americans Approve: 100 Years IRS Fraud Against Them
» Falling Rates to Save Italy 9 Bln Euros in Interest
» IMF Economist Gives Thumbs Up to Italian Banks
» Italy: Fat-Cat Managers Won’t be Missed Says Renzi
» Italy: Three-Year Treasury Bonds Go for Record-Low Rate of 0.92%
» Scotland Faces £143bn Debt After Independence
» The Cashless Society Almost Here and With Some Very Sinister Implications
 
USA
» Alternative Media Upstages Lamestream Media in World-Class Coverage of Historic Bundy Ranch Showdown
» BATFE Publicly Confirms Administration’s Ammunition Import Ban
» Bears Drag Florida Woman From Garage
» Call to Replace Social Security Numbers With Head and Hand Biometric Scanning
» Fully Vaccinated Patient Behind Measles Spread
» Gun Control Bills on the Move in California
» Homeland Security App: ‘See Something, Send Something’
» Muzzled by Monsanto: How Big Ag is Squelching Scientific Research Showing Its GMOs Could be Dangerous to US
» Navy’s New Railgun Can Hurl a Shell Over 5,000 Mph
» Obama & Catastrophe as Public Policy: Marx’s Revolution Cometh
» Rebuilding the Tower of Babel
» Reid Smelling Anything But Rosy in Ranch Fight
» Report: Mainstream Media Lies About Federal Standoff
» Secret Audio Recording From Bundy Ranch
» Sylvia Burwell, Replacement for Resigning Kathleen Sebelius, Ran Common Core, Bill Gates Vaccines and GMOs in Africa
» The 700 Club Clubbed
» The National Security State: A Symptom, Not a Cause
» The People vs. BLM: Liberty Defeats Govt. Tyranny as Feds Release All Cattle at Bundy Ranch
» The Toddler Who Survived, And the Cop Who Became Her Mom
» TSA to Expand ‘Behavior Screening’ Program Even Though it Doesn’t Work
» U.S. Govt. Bans Air Traffic Over Bundy Ranch in Desperate Blackout Effort to Hide Secret BLM ‘Bovine Concentration Camps’
» Video Recap: Patriots Confront BLM & Show How to Take Country Back
» Woman Jailed for Swede Prof Stiletto Stabbing
 
Europe and the EU
» Denmark: Winegrowing at the Northern Limit — the Art of the Possible
» Dutch ‘Sperminator’ With 99 Children Shares His Secrets
» France: Louvre Abu Dhabi
» Italy: Berlusconi Could be ‘Free’ All Day With Community Service
» Italy: Berlusconi Risks House Arrest if He ‘Defames’ Judges
» Italy: M5S MPs Complain of Little Exposure on State TV
» Italy: PD Rejects Grillo’s Criticism of Women at Top of Party Lists
» Italy: Exor Consolidated Profit Soars to 2 Bn Euros in 2013
» Italy: Southern Waste-Trafficking Gang Busted
» Italy: Ex-Northern League Leader Bossi Indicted for Napolitano Slur
» Italy: Jailed Venetian Separatist Could be Candidate for League
» Italy: Health Ministry Orders Inquiry Into Alleged Embryo Errors
» Italy: Rome ‘Ages’ 200 Years as Archaeologists Discover New Remains
» Only 30 Percent of Italians Will Take Easter Break
» Scotland Likely to Choose Independence, Foreign Diplomats Believe
» Telecom Italia Teaming Up With Rupert Murdoch’s Networks
» The New Eugenics: Bioethicist Pushes Genetic Screening to Eliminate People With IQs He Deems Too Low
» UK: Council’s Links to Radical Islamists Probed by No 10
» UK: More Birmingham ‘Islam Plot’ Schools Inspected
» UK: Nottingham’s First Purpose-Built Mosque Officially Opens
» UK: Roof Installed on New Burnley Mosque
 
North Africa
» 5 Extremists Killed in Security Raid in Egypt’s Sinai
» Egypt: Clashes Break Out Between Students and Security in Cairo — State TV
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Palestinians and Israeli Police Clash at Al Aqsa Mosque
 
Middle East
» 36 Killed in Insurgent Attacks Across Iraq
» Germany Blocks Sale of 800 Tanks to Saudi Arabia
» Iran: Man Sentenced to Have Eyes Gouged Out
» Turkey Wants a ‘Lasting Peace’ In Cyprus
 
Russia
» Ukraine Launches Operation to Drive Out Pro-Russian Activists From Police Building in Slovyansk
» Ukraine Says Russia Waging ‘War’ In Separatist East
 
South Asia
» Militants Who Killed 2 Policemen Shot Dead in Indian-Controlled Kashmir
» Missing Plane’s Black Box Batteries May Have Died
» Pakistan: Mosque Imam Rapes, Kills Girl in Badin
 
Far East
» China to Invest $5bln in Russia’s Far East
» US Corn Exports to China Drop 85 Percent After Ban on GMO Strains — Industry Report
 
Australia — Pacific
» Wollongong Youth Worker Honoured for Refugee Support
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Civilian Deaths in Nigeria Reach 135 Over Four Days
» Kenya: Anti-Terror War Not Negotiable, Says Ruto
» Nigeria: Gunmen Kill 5, Sack More Benue Villages
» Nigeria: Emirs Meet in Kaduna Over Future of Muslims
 
Immigration
» Italy Rescues 6,000 Migrants Over Four Days, Says UNHCR
» Italy: Alfano Says European Union Must Defend Its Southern Borders
» Norway’s to Open First ‘Muslim Only’ School, Replacing Ethics Classes With Islam
 
Culture Wars
» Universities to Teach Students ‘How to be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less’
 

Americans Approve: 100 Years IRS Fraud Against Them

The economy is the number one concern in this country. The slide into destroying our most important job sectors came immediately following passage of the unconstitutional NAFTA (No American Factories Taking Applications). The slimy, smarmy, Newt Gingrich pushed it through with the help of cheer leader, Rush Limbaugh. Millions and millions of jobs gone to Communist China, India and other foreign countries. But, the head of the beast is and always has been the unconstitutional, privately owned “Federal” Reserve fed by the federal “income” tax.

Three horrendous things happened in 1913 and yes, it was a conspiracy.

1. The Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared ratified. The income tax amendment. It clearly was not as Bill Benson proved more than 30 years ago. For uncovering the truth, Bill was hounded, persecuted, prosecuted and thrown into prison by “our” government, kissed and blessed by the Outlaw Congress who have allowed the lie to continue.

I know there is yet another petition to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment but you can’t repeal an amendment that was never ratified. Not to mention, it will go no where as did the one I submitted to the thieves, liars and crooks in the Outlaw Congress on September 29, 1993. One million seven hundred thousand plus signatures on my petition plus another 23,000 we collected the morning of my rally to abolish the privately owned “FED” and the income tax. Twenty-one years ago this September. The new petition circulating to repeal an amendment that was never ratified will end up in the same ‘round file’ as our effort in 1993.

2. The Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared ratified. It was not. I have the proof as does Bill Benson.

3. The unconstitutional Federal Reserve Banking Act of 1913 was passed. The income tax amendment was critical. It was needed to feed the privately owned consortium of banks called the FED. The Seventeenth Amendment was critical to remove the right of the states of the Union to equal representation in the U.S. Senate. Henceforth, those seats were up for the highest bidder. The states are stomped on. The American people are bled to death via heavy progressive taxation and those fruits of our labor go into the coffers of a domestic banking cartel draining the lifeblood of this country and our people.

It was a conspiracy. A provable conspiracy: The Creature From Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin. Griffin’s book is a factual account of the secret meetings at Jekyll Island between powerful bankers to seize and control the monetary system of our country. They were aided and abetted by rotten, corrupt senators who got the bill pushed through.

“This [Federal Reserve Act] establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President [Wilson] signs this bill, the invisible government of the monetary power will be legalized…the worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency bill.” — Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr.

“From now on, depressions will be scientifically created.” — Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh Sr.

“The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people’s money” — Charles A. Lindbergh Sr.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Falling Rates to Save Italy 9 Bln Euros in Interest

Padoan says lower borrowing costs good news for Italian budget

(ANSA) — Rome, April 10 — Falling interest rates mean savings of almost nine billion euros for the Italian budget this year, according to government estimates.

Previous budget estimates made last September by former finance minister Fabrizio Saccomanni provided for 91.5 billion euros in interest rate payments in 2014.

However, his replacement Pier Carlo Padoan now predicts interest payments will come in at about 82.55 billion euros, and he anticipates savings of 15 billion euros on 2015 interest payments.

The latest estimates come the same day as the latest government bond auction, which saw the Treasury sell 7.5 billion euros’ worth of one-year BOT State bonds at an average rate of 0.589% — a new all-time low. The previous low of 0.592% was set at an equivalent auction last month. The country’s borrowing costs have been falling since Premier Matteo Renzi unseated his Democratic Party colleague Enrico Letta in February and took the helm of government promising to revive the economy and reform the country’s slow and expensive political system.

Italy risked a Greek-style financial meltdown late in 2011 when the spread between the interest rates Rome was forced to pay on its 10-year bond in comparison with the ultra-safe German equivalent went over 500 points with yields on Italian paper above 7%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

IMF Economist Gives Thumbs Up to Italian Banks

Financial stability expert says capital levels reinforced

(ANSA) — Washington, April 9 — Italian banks received a strong endorsement Wednesday from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) representative to the Financial Stability Board (FSB).

The IMF’s in-depth study of Italian banks last year revealed robust preparations to face slow economic recovery, said José Vinals, the director of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets department. Italian lenders have done a good job of reinforcing their capital, and now await the outcome of a stress test, Vinals continued. Vinals gave credit to Italian authorities for helping to place Italian banks in a very solid position and called the current path taken by Italian authorities “positive”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Fat-Cat Managers Won’t be Missed Says Renzi

‘Go private, we’ll live with it’

(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — Public-sector managers who try the private sector after a new salary cap will not be missed, Premier Matteo Renzi said Wednesday. He said it was “sacrosanct” to cap salaries at the 238,000 euros that President Giorgio Napolitano gets. The fattest government-employed cats get three or four times that. “Go private, we’ll live with it,” he said.

Rail chief Mauro Moretti recently caused a storm by threatening to quit and offer his services to a private company if his salary of 873,666 euros a year is curtailed.

Moretti said lower pay for the highest-flying civil servants would force them into the private sector, prompting critics of his stewardship of Italy’s troubled railway system to say “good riddance, let’s see what he gets”.

The Ferrovie dello Stato CEO added that he was counting on Renzi’s promise to carry out the pay review “reasonably”.

Some public servants get more than Moretti.

Giovanni Giorgio Tempini, CEO of government saving and loan trust Cassa Depositi e Prestiti takes home 1.035 million euros every year.

Heads of public-private behemoths which are on the stock market, such as fuels group Eni chief Paolo Scaroni and power group Enel boss Fulvio Conti, are paid in the millions of euros.

Renzi has said he would also like to trim their pay, but not as much, acknowledging that market-driven salaries are more acceptable in the private sector.

Their pay should be more performance-linked, he said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Three-Year Treasury Bonds Go for Record-Low Rate of 0.92%

Lowest since Italy joined euro

(ANSA) — Rome, April 11 — The rate on Italy’s three-year bond hit a record low of 0.92% on Friday, down from 1.12% a month ago and the lowest since the country adopted the euro in 1999.

The Treasury sold 7.2 billion euros’ worth of the bond

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Scotland Faces £143bn Debt After Independence

Scotland would be saddled with £143 billion of debt after independence and forced to make deeper spending cuts than seen under the Coalition’s austerity drive, academics have warned. Extra North Sea oil revenues would only cover a third of that shortfall.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Cashless Society Almost Here and With Some Very Sinister Implications

Among the long list of items bundled by consensus reality merchants under the banner of ‘conspiracy theory’, is a world without cash — where technocrats rule over the populace, and everything and anything is exchanged via plastic and RFID chips.

In this sterile and controlled Orwellian hi-tech society, the idea of cash being passed from hand to hand would be as archaic as the thought of carrying around a rucksack of tally sticks today.

Still, despite the incredible penetration of credit and debit card transactions into economic aggregate, and the boom in internet shopping, few will comfortably admit that a cashless society is nearly upon us. In part, it’s a natural denial by many fuelled by the idea our society is indeed on a collision course with the sort of dystopic impersonal future like that depicted in the 1970s sci-fi film classic, Logan’s Run.

Over the years, futurists and commentators alike seemed to agree that a cashless society will be a slow creep, and would automatically phase itself in simply by virtue of the sheer volume of electronic transactions that gradually make cash less available and more costly to redeem, or exchange. This is still true for the most part. What few counted on, however, was how the final push would take place, and why. Some will be surprised by these new emerging mechanisms, and the political and sinister implications they ultimately lead to. Introduction of Parallel Currencies

There has been a lot made about the ‘cashless society’ in media, but this cannot fully happen until there is a cashless currency.

Every revolution needs a good crisis in order to germinate its seed. The cashless revolution is no different. It should be abundantly clear by now that the global financial meltdown has been engineered at every juncture of its unfolding by the very private central banks who expand and contract the money supply. A Dollar or Euro collapse will trigger a global economic crisis, which is a prime opportunity to introduce the next phase.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Alternative Media Upstages Lamestream Media in World-Class Coverage of Historic Bundy Ranch Showdown

(NaturalNews) One of the most extraordinary stories in the history of American journalism took place this last week, and the mainstream (liberal) media was AWOL the entire time. An historical showdown between heavily armed federal agents (BLM) and armed American citizens unfolded near Bunkerville, Nevada, where the Bundy family announced they were taking a stand against a federal land grab and cattle theft operation masterminded by federal agents working at the BLM.

The showdown ended in a complete victory for Citizens vs. government tyranny as the feds effectively surrendered, announced their evacuation and agreed to release all the cattle they had stolen. See the photo below for a snapshot of the history the mainstream media stupidly decided to ignore.

What’s so astonishing about all this is that the mainstream media seems to have dispatched zero reporters to the scene and went to great lengths to downplay the reality of the situation as it unfolded. In doing this, the media lost massive credibility with the U.S. public, because it’s now clear there was a directive — almost certainly from the White House — that commanded media organizations to ignore the story or spin it with outright lies.

Meanwhile, alternative media — citizen journalists — made history by broadcasting live video from the Bundy ranch, posting video updates every few hours and conducting groundbreaking original research that uncovered the real story behind BLM’s cover story that they were “saving tortoises.”

More importantly, alternative media actually helped shape the story by spreading the call for citizens to join the effort while simultaneously appealing for calm. It was this massive citizen response — powered by activists sharing stories across the ‘net — that ultimately led to the defeat and surrender of the BLM. In fact, I was one of the journalists who warned that if the BLM didn’t back down, it could result in a slaughter… of BLM agents. (I also publicly called for calm and asked for cooler heads to prevail.)

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

BATFE Publicly Confirms Administration’s Ammunition Import Ban

On Monday, BATFE issued a “special advisory” indicating the agency’s official position on 5.45×39 7N6 ammunition. The advisory states that “the ammunition is ‘armor piercing’ under [federal law] and is therefore not importable.” We previously reported on our efforts to determine BATFE’s official position on this issue.

Notably absent from the advisory is any mention of the “sporting purposes” exemption provided for in the federal armor piercing ammunition law. The law gives the Attorney General discretion to exempt certain projectiles from being considered armor piercing ammunition. This exemption already applies to 5.56×45 M855 and .30-06 M2AP ammunition. NRA has repeatedly encouraged BATFE to rule that projectiles originally made for rifles and any projectile not designed and intended to penetrate armor when fired from a handgun are exempt from the federal armor piercing ammunition law. Just last year, we sent comments to BATFE that explained how Congress intended for the armor piercing ammunition law to cover a very limited class of projectiles and provided BATFE with guidance on granting “sporting purposes” exemptions to projectiles.

NRA is also working with members of Congress to get more answers from BATFE on how the agency determines if a projectile is “armor piercing ammunition.” The efforts include inquiries as to whether BATFE considers 7N6 ammunition, which has been widely used as an affordable alternative for target shooting and rifle training, a candidate for a “sporting purposes” exemption. Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), and Howard Coble (R-N.C.) have already sent a letter to BATFE Director B. Todd Jones encouraging him to act on other outstanding petitions for “sporting purposes” exemptions.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bears Drag Florida Woman From Garage

(CNN) — A Florida woman is recovering after being attacked by bears who had ambled into her open garage and were sifting through her garbage cans in search of food, sheriff’s deputies said Sunday.

The woman said as many as five bears “of various sizes” were rooting through her trash when she walked into the garage, Seminole County Sheriff’s Lt. Pete Brenenstuhl said. The bears “dragged her from inside the garage out into her driveway,” leaving her with scrapes and cuts to her face and legs, Brenenstuhl said.

The woman escaped and ran back into her home, where her husband called 911, he said. She was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Call to Replace Social Security Numbers With Head and Hand Biometric Scanning

President Barack Obama announced a program called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace in 2011 — an initiative to partner with the private sector to create an online user authentication framework. The plan is to create an ID system, which people could use to interact with multiple government agencies instead of shuffling paperwork that includes private data (like a Social Security number) through the mail. Some countries have turned to biometric identification in hopes of thwarting fraud.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fully Vaccinated Patient Behind Measles Spread

Get the measles vaccine, and you won’t get the measles — or give it to anyone else. Right? Well, not always. A person fully vaccinated against measles has contracted the disease and passed it on to others. The startling case study contradicts received wisdom about the vaccine and suggests that a recent swell of measles outbreaks in developed nations could mean more illnesses even among the vaccinated.

When it comes to the measles vaccine, two shots are better than one. Most people in the United States are initially vaccinated against the virus shortly after their first birthday and return for a booster shot as a toddler. Less than 1% of people who get both shots will contract the potentially lethal skin and respiratory infection. And even if a fully vaccinated person does become infected — a rare situation known as “vaccine failure” — they weren’t thought to be contagious.

That’s why a fully vaccinated 22-year-old theater employee in New York City who developed the measles in 2011 was released without hospitalization or quarantine. But like Typhoid Mary, this patient turned out to be unwittingly contagious. Ultimately, she transmitted the measles to four other people, according to a recent report in Clinical Infectious Diseases that tracked symptoms in the 88 people with whom “Measles Mary” interacted while she was sick. Surprisingly, two of the secondary patients had been fully vaccinated. And although the other two had no record of receiving the vaccine, they both showed signs of previous measles exposure that should have conferred immunity.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gun Control Bills on the Move in California

Assembly Bill 2305 passed out of committee in California last week and “directly conflicts with the constitutional protections for carrying a firearm for self-defense as recently confirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,” according to the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action.

According to a warning by NRA-ILA, AB 2305 “would significantly expand California law by imposing criminal liability if an individual unknowingly carries a firearm on or about his or her person.”

Assembly Bill 1609 passed as well, and it imposes “unnecessary limitations on the transfer of firearms by law-abiding citizens [by] requiring that all transfers be completed through a California gun dealer, regardless of the circumstances,” NRA-ILA notes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Homeland Security App: ‘See Something, Send Something’

Ohio Homeland Security officials are asking smartphone users to “see something, send something” with the release of an app to forward reports and photos of suspicious activity.

The “A Safer Ohio” app for both Apple and Android devices is being released shortly before the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15.

The app now avaiable for free online allows Ohioans to relay both tips and photos of questionable activity to Homeland Security analysts for examination and potential investigation. Here’s a YouTube video on how the app works.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Muzzled by Monsanto: How Big Ag is Squelching Scientific Research Showing Its GMOs Could be Dangerous to US

After nearly 30 years studying how plants use their genes to defend against viruses, Vicki Vance, a professor at the University of South Carolina, doesn’t see genetically modifying plants as a malevolent or arrogantly God-like endeavor. She does, however, have a problem with mega corporations allegedly using their money and power to hide the risks of new forms of genetic technology. “I didn’t use to be an anti-GMO person and I didn’t use to have strong feelings about Monsanto, but …,” she says, her voice trailing off. But that was before the Chinese research, before the calls from Monsanto, before she couldn’t get funding for work that she feels could change the way we treat cancer and other diseases. Her research put her at odds with one of the most powerful corporations in the world. And Vance isn’t a nobody in the world of RNA research.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Navy’s New Railgun Can Hurl a Shell Over 5,000 Mph

The U.S. Navy is tapping the power of the Force to wage war.

Its latest weapon is an electromagnetic railgun launcher. It uses a form of electromagnetic energy known as the Lorentz force to hurl a 23-pound projectile at speeds exceeding Mach 7. Engineers already have tested this futuristic weapon on land, and the Navy plans to begin sea trials aboard a Joint High Speed Vessel Millinocket in 2016.

“The electromagnetic railgun represents an incredible new offensive capability for the U.S. Navy,” Rear Adm. Bryant Fuller, the Navy’s chief engineer, said in a statement. “This capability will allow us to effectively counter a wide range of threats at a relatively low cost, while keeping our ships and sailors safer by removing the need to carry as many high-explosive weapons.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama & Catastrophe as Public Policy: Marx’s Revolution Cometh

Can it possibly come as a shock, given the stunning, leftist trajectory of Obama’s reign — that his current spokesman decorates his house with old USSR posters, and other communist artifacts? In fact, to the extent that Barack’s staff seems to have any ideological bent, it would appear to be communism, and its heroes.

For instance, Anita Dunn — one of Barack’s original Four Horsemen, claimed one of her role models was Chairman Mao, he of the 77 million murdered Chinese. And Obama czars and staffers claiming Mao as a special hero include Van Jones and Financial advisor Ron Bloom.

We should never forget, though, that the name of the game in communism, the engine of change, the purpose of all actions is ultimately the Holy Revolution. For only through a Revolution can hated capitalism be overthrown, and the underclass of America be liberated into socialism and communism.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Rebuilding the Tower of Babel

Nearly everyone recognizes that the world is in the midst of a transition. Powerful forces are at work to bring about world government. Technology facilitates communication and commerce to such a degree that global governance is soon to be a necessity. Recent economic collapses seem to be driving toward a global financial system. For globalism to be successful, the sovereign nation state must go the way of the dinosaur. Conservative analysts have documented a moral decline in Western culture and America specifically. I have noticed it in my lifetime. Former United States Court of Appeals judge, Robert H. Bork, wrote Slouching towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline in 1996. The title is a play on the final couplet of Yeats’ poem, “The Second Coming,” which reads:

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Bork contends that the rough beast of decadence is sending us slouching to our new home, which is not Bethlehem, but rather Gomorrah. He argues that Western culture and specifically the United States is declining as a result of modern liberalism and the rise of the so-called New Left. Bork traces the swift rise of modern liberalism since the 1960s, arguing that this legacy of radicalism shows that the precepts of modern liberalism are antithetical to traditional American thought. He exposes the incoherent nature of simultaneously exalting a thorough-going individualism alongside a radical egalitarianism. His arguments persuade, but something is missing.

While he rightly bemoans increased violence, perversion-saturated media, abortion, divorce, euthanasia, feminism, and the decline of religion as evidence of cultural degeneracy, he does not account for the demonic spiritual assault behind it. British New Testament scholar, Dr. Peter Jones, came to America in the early sixties and then took a teaching assignment in France for nearly twenty years. Upon his return, he marveled at how America had changed during his absence:

“Does the average Christian know what is going on in our ostensibly civilized society? Pagan ideology, sometimes of the most radical and anti-Christian nature, is taught in university departments of religion, theological seminaries, mainline church agencies, feminist networks and wicca covens across the land. It adopts the name of Christianity, but will render our world unrecognizable… If you doubt the success of this revolution (1960s), note the following statistic: in 1994, seventy-one percent of Americans and forty percent of those calling themselves “evangelicals” no longer believed in absolute truth.”

We aren’t turning pagan because we are politically and socially liberal; rather, we are more leftist because we are increasingly spiritually pagan. Jones is correct that the 1960s were the turning point. However, few scholars of his stature will acknowledge the dark spiritual element involved.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Reid Smelling Anything But Rosy in Ranch Fight

Desert showdown blows lid off long-standing plans with the Chinese

NEW YORK — When Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy refused to take his cattle off land the federal government demanded for the habitat of an endangered desert tortoise, it focused the nation’s attention on an arena Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., may have preferred to be kept quiet.

An investigative report published last week by Infowars.com drew a connection between Senate Majority Leader Reid’s involvement with Chinese energy giant ENN, Chinese efforts to build massive solar facilities in the Nevada desert and the showdown between Bundy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, or BLM.

It wasn’t the first report to notice curious dealings involving the Chinese and America’s top Democrats.

On Jan. 20, 2013, WND warned Chinese government-backed economists were proposing a plan to allow Chinese corporations to set up “development zones” in the United States as part of a plan proposed by the Chinese government to convert into equity the more than $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury debt owned by the Chinese government.

The next day, Jan. 21, 2013, WND documented the Obama administration had begun to allow China to acquire major ownership interests in oil and natural gas resources across the USA.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Mainstream Media Lies About Federal Standoff

Fox News blatantly lies about the federal standoff in Nevada by reporting that the BLM stood down and gave back the Bundy’s cattle because they were afraid for the safety of the public. This is pure propaganda, the BLM were threatening to shoot the protestors while hiding behind their vehicles.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Secret Audio Recording From Bundy Ranch

Natural News has obtained and is now releasing a secret audio recording of a conversation that took place Thursday, April 10th, between Daniel P. Love, Special Agent in Charge of Region 3 of the BLM and Guerilla Media Network radio host Pete Santilli, serving in the role as a communications liaison between the armed citizen protesters and the BLM.

In this recording, you can hear Daniel Love and Pete Santilli discussing life-and-death confrontations, during which Santilli says Daniel Love and the Sheriff of the county will be arrested if they do not uphold their oath to the United States Constitution.

This audio gives us all a special look inside the twisted mind of BLM Special Agent Dan Love who functions as an agent of government tyranny operating in complete violation of the U.S. Constitution even while telling himself he’s backed by the Constitution!

Background: The recording was made during a time when armed citizen protesters were only beginning to arrive, and BLM personnel at the time outnumbered armed citizens. (That situation reversed on Friday when armed citizens vastly outnumbered BLM.)

Click here to hear the audio recording (slightly edited for length, but nothing removed that’s inherent to the conversation).

Recording transcript

Note: I typed this in myself (Mike Adams), late on a Saturday night, so I apologize for typos or errors. Doing my best to get this out ASAP for the sake of liberty in America…

[Comment: Drones don’t think for themselves — they just blindly follow orders. Banksters want this — a law enforcement and military that blindly answers to their diktats. This is why Obama has been purging military of senior people who would not give the order to shoot fellow Americans if ordered to do so.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sylvia Burwell, Replacement for Resigning Kathleen Sebelius, Ran Common Core, Bill Gates Vaccines and GMOs in Africa

(NaturalNews) Kathleen Sebelius, HHS Secretary who oversaw the disastrously botched Obamacare website and rollout, has finally resigned. In line with the sheer delusion being invoked to try to call Obamacare a “success,” even this resignation is being called another success story. “Kathleen Sebelius Is Resigning Because Obamacare Has Won,” tweeted the White House (1) — a claim met with sheer derision by nearly anyone who can still think straight.

With Obamacare, all failures are “successes” merely because the White House says so. Even the enrollment numbers are largely faked.(2)

The replacement for Kathleen Sebelius is none other than Sylvia Burwell, “a key aide to Microsoft founder Bill Gates,” reports Breitbart News (3). “Burwell served as both chief operating officer and head of the global development program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The 700 Club Clubbed

by Rabbi Daniel Lapin

The aftermath to my appearance on The 700 Club with my friend Pat Robertson last Monday astounded me. Like noxious mushrooms after a rain, articles suddenly sprang up condemning Pat for something people thought he said, and condemning me for not condemning him. Also, I received a bunch of negative communications, almost all of them from self-proclaimed Jews. I find myself sadly amused by hostile letters written to a rabbi that are filled with Yiddish curses.

They ranged from one or two politely critical ones to the majority, featuring vile and vulgar expletives about me and my family; two contained explicit death threats. I am not complaining, I’m a big boy and can take care of myself. I am accustomed to telling the Truth and living my life accordingly in spite of the anger this occasionally generates among fervent and extremist secular fundamentalists of all ethnic backgrounds.

What drives people with extremely limited data to rush to judgment and quickly criticize, condemn, and excoriate others? What happened to giving people the benefit of the doubt? I think it is collateral damage from the retreat of religion. I believe that it is Biblical wisdom that lubricates human social and economic interaction and when that becomes eroded, people rush to judge one another harshly.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The National Security State: A Symptom, Not a Cause

by Servando Gonzalez

Browsing the Internet a few days ago, I found an article with a quite promising title: “The Evil of the National Security State.” Its author is Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation, a libertarian organization.

I have been studying the national security state for many years, and I agree that it is close to the center of evil in this country, so I was excited about what the author had to say. I was not disappointed. The long article begins with a sharp analysis of the so-called national security state and the evils committed under the guise of protecting “national security.”

Until that point I was impressed with the clarity and precision of Honrberger’s criticism of the evils of the national security state. But then, without a transition, he changed the focus of his article and begins a long comparison between evil America under the control of the national security state and Cuba under Castro’s rule.

“Let’s examine those questions. Let’s start by focusing on Cuba.”

According to Hornberger, “One of the most demonstrable examples of the turn that America took toward empire, militarism, and the national-security state has involved Cuba,” Adding, “Consider the economic embargo that the U.S. government has maintained against Cuba for more than half a century.”

After stating that the embargo “has brought untold economic suffering to the Cuban people,” a point on which I fully agree, Hornberger mentions that “the idea was that Castro would be removed from power either by a citizens’ revolt, a military coup, or abdication by Castro himself. Obviously, the plan has never succeeded.”

But Hornberger is dead wrong.

On the contrary, the so-called U.S. embargo on Castro’s Cuba has been a total success. Its secret goal was not to remove Castro from power, but to provide him with an excuse to blame the embargo for the total destruction of the Cuban economy, and it has worked to perfection. Proof of this is that, despite its lack of effectivity, the embargo has been maintained actively year after year for several decades by U.S. presidents of both factions of the Repucratic party.

That is the reason why Castro loves the embargo so much. Former Spanish president José Maria Aznar mentioned that, during a private conversation he had with Castro in 1998, the Cuban leader himself told him that he “needed the embargo for this and the coming generation.” Even former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reached the conclusion that Cuba’s leaders do not want to normalize ties with the U.S. because then they would lose their excuse for the dismal state of the country…

In another part of his article, Hornberger mentions that, “The efforts at replacing Castro with a pro-U.S. ruler began with the CIA’s invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, an action that took place a few months after John Kennedy assumed office as president.”

Nothing can be farther from the truth.

Before the Bay of Pigs invasion there were more than a dozen anti-Castro organizations in Florida, a widespread anti-Castro clandestine movement was active in the main Cuban cities, and guerrillas had been successfully fighting Castro’s army in the countryside, mainly in the Escambray Mountains in the central part of Cuba. Then, under the pretext of coordinating these groups, the CIA consolidated all anti-Castro organizations in the U.S. into one, and then destroyed it after the invasion. Also, in the months previous to the invasion it stopped supplying the guerrillas with guns and ammo, and left the urban clandestine movement in the dark about the invasion — which Castro used to his advantage to destroy both.

Actually, the secret goal of the Bay of Pigs invasion was not to replace Castro, but to consolidate him in power, and the goal was reached in full. So, contrary to common lore, the Bay of Pigs invasion was a total success.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The People vs. BLM: Liberty Defeats Govt. Tyranny as Feds Release All Cattle at Bundy Ranch

The photo below — one of the most iconic photos of recent American history — — shows armed American citizens in a standoff with BLM thugs (in the white SUVs) who engaged in the felony theft of the Bundy family cattle and committed numerous felony assaults on American citizens.

As you can see in the photo, a brigade of armed Americans — many waving American flags — blockaded the road at a strategic roadway point. BLM, a tyrannical police state gang conducting illegal, illegitimate operations, earlier ordered the FAA to ban all civilian flights over the region in an effort to enforce a media blackout (possibly in preparation for an armed assault on the protesters).

Government thugs had inflamed the situation by ordering attack dogs to attack innocent bystanders and saying, on the record, that they “hoped the protesters were ready to die.”

Outraged by the lawless aggression of an out-of-control government, American citizens banded together to stand up to tyranny, even at the risk of being killed in the process.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Toddler Who Survived, And the Cop Who Became Her Mom

A horrific crime shocked New York City 30 years ago. Ten people, including eight children, were killed in a railroad flat in Brooklyn. Only one little girl, Christina Rivera, a 13-month-old toddler, survived. The police found Christina crawling among the blood and bodies of the dead, including her own mother. The largest mass murder in the city in decades, it became known as the Palm Sunday Massacre.

Police Officer Joanne Jaffe was assigned to stay with Christina that night, a task that was the first link in a bond that grew stronger from the start. Today, Christina is the adoptive daughter of Ms. Jaffe, who has risen to become the Police Department’s highest-ranking female commander.

For the first time, mother and daughter tell their story publicly.

[Return to headlines]
 

TSA to Expand ‘Behavior Screening’ Program Even Though it Doesn’t Work

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was urged by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) to scale back or even eliminate its “behavior screening” program, in which TSA officers try to strike up conversations with passengers and airport employees as a means of discovering would-be terrorists. A study showed little evidence the program worked.

The GAO claimed that the TSA program was a waste of money. The TSA is an agency with the US Department of Homeland Security with the specific task of ensuring the security of the traveling public. The head of the program, John Pistole, even admitted at the time of the report that the program had never caught a single terrorist. However, recent reports suggest that not only has the TSA not cut back on the program, it is expanding it.

Here are the general findings of the original GAO report:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Govt. Bans Air Traffic Over Bundy Ranch in Desperate Blackout Effort to Hide Secret BLM ‘Bovine Concentration Camps’

This aerial video of the BLM compound and concentration camp was taken by a citizen journalist, and it so utterly outraged the BLM — which is rapidly becoming the most tyrannical, anti-American agency in the government — that they claimed emergency authority over the entire ranch, public roads and now the airspace too.

Gary Franchi of Next News Network has also posted this video providing more details on the BLM demand for the FAA to restrict the airspace.

There is, of course, no legitimate reason to deprive U.S. citizens of access to the airspace over the Bundy Ranch. This directive by the BLM has no purpose other than to deprive citizens and journalists their First Amendment rights and block all aerial photos and videography of the BLM compound.

The following photo shows the BLM compound and how they’ve stuffed hundreds of cattle into tiny “bovine concentration camps” that will inevitably result in their deaths: (the rectangular yards with black shapes inside are the bovine concentration camps where BLM has stuffed hundreds of Bundy’s cattle)

There have also been reports of BLM bringing large equipment (excavators and trucks) to the ranch in a move believed to be based on the need to bury the many cattle that BLM has already killed or caused to be killed.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Video Recap: Patriots Confront BLM & Show How to Take Country Back

Infowars reporter David Knight breaks down what happened during the standoff between the coward BLM and the American Patriots.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Woman Jailed for Swede Prof Stiletto Stabbing

A 45-year-old woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a 59-year-old Swedish-born professor who was found dead in his home in Houston, Texas in June 2013, after having been stabbed repeatedly with a stiletto heel.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Winegrowing at the Northern Limit — the Art of the Possible

The number of professional Danish winegrowers is increasing, as is the quality of Danish wine. “It is interesting to produce wine at the limit of where it is possible from a purely climatic perspective,” says one of the Danish winegrowers, who has gained an export order to Japan.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch ‘Sperminator’ With 99 Children Shares His Secrets

By day, Ed Houben is a mild-mannered, 44-year-old bachelor who works as a tour guide in the Dutch town of Maastricht, where he lives.

On nights and weekends, however, Houben comes alive as his alter ego: Europe’s most prolific sperm donor, and one who prefers to contribute the old-fashioned way. “Sperm cells are like candy at Mardi Gras,” Houben says. “The more you throw out, the better you get.”

Houben says he has 99 known children scattered around the globe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: Louvre Abu Dhabi

Birth of a Museum 2 May—28 July 2014

Musée du Louvre Napoléon Hall

75058 Paris France

In the first major display of its collection outside Abu Dhabi, more than one hundred and sixty of the finest masterpieces from Louvre Abu Dhabi’s permanent collection will be showcased in the Musée du Louvre, Paris at the Napoléon Hall from 2 May until 28 July.

The exhibition titled Birth of a Museum will provide visitors to Musée du Louvre, Paris with a preview of the museum that is set to open late next year in the Saadiyat Cultural District, also the home to the Zayed National Museum and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Situated in the Cultural District in Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi is a universal museum designed to house aesthetic expressions of different civilisations and cultures from the most ancient to the most contemporary…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Berlusconi Could be ‘Free’ All Day With Community Service

Significant liberty in ‘standard’ cases, judicial sources say

(see related) (ANSA) — Milan, April 11 — If a Milan court were to order Silvio Berlusconi to serve a 10-month sentence for tax fraud by doing community service, the ex-premier and leader of the center-right opposition Forza Italia party would likely be free to be out and about from 8 am until 11 pm, judicial sources said Friday.

The sources said that in “standard” cases in which a convict is ordered to serve a sentence doing community services, rather than under house arrest, judges give few limits to freedom of movement and action and Berlusconi would probably only need to seek permission to leave the Lombardy region around Milan or neighboring regions.

A court sets limits according to specific cases, the sources said.

Both the prosecution and defence have applied for community service and the Milan court is expected to rule on the case within the next two weeks.

Berlusconi’s most pressing concern is to be allowed to campaign for Forza Italia before May 25 European elections, a key test for his party — something which the court’s ruling could facilitate or make virtually impossible.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Berlusconi Risks House Arrest if He ‘Defames’ Judges

Ruling expected in 5-15 days, community service expected

(ANSA) — Milan, April 11 — The prosecutor who asked a Milan court to let Silvio Berlusconi serve a 10-month sentence for tax fraud doing community service has warned that the ex-premier will be put under house arrest instead if he defames magistrates, reports said Friday.

The ruling on what kind of punishment the center-right leader will receive, which is expected within the next two weeks, will be key in determining what role Berlusconi will play in the coming year.

If he has to do house arrest, it would seriously curb his ability to lead his center-right opposition Forza Italia (FI) party ahead of May 25 European elections, a key test for it.

The choice is between house arrest or community service as the charismatic 77-year-old is too old to go to jail under standard Italian legal practice. The media magnate has repeatedly blasted judges in the past.

He says the tax-fraud ruling, which led to him being ejected from the Senate in November, is part of a two-decade campaign by left-wing elements in the judiciary to sweep him out of Italy’s public life.

On Wednesday he complained that the left had used its “judicial arm” to stop him running in the European elections.

Lamanna reportedly told the court that, under standing legislation, community service “can be revoked” if the three-time premier defames “individual judges”.

If Berlusconi is allowed to do community service, he would likely be free to be out and about from 8 am until 11 pm, judicial sources said Friday. The sources said that in “standard” cases in which a convict is ordered to serve a sentence doing community service, judges give few limits to freedom of movement and action and Berlusconi would probably only need to seek permission to leave the Lombardy region around Milan or neighboring regions. Berlusconi has already had his passport confiscated.

On Thursday Berlusconi’s defence team asked the court for him to be able to campaign for FI for the European elections, which he cannot vote in as a result of the conviction. Berlusconi was sentenced to four years in prison in the tax-fraud case, but only 10 months of that remain to be served as the rest was covered by amnesties.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: M5S MPs Complain of Little Exposure on State TV

Claiming it is dominated by government ahead of European vote

(ANSA) — Rome, April 11 — MPs with the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S) on Friday sent an expose’ to Italy’s media watchdog Agcom complaining about the “shameful violation of pluralism” on State broadcaster RAI’s news programs which they claim are dominated by Premier Matteo Renzi and his government ahead of May 25 European elections.

“It is no coincidence that just before upcoming European elections, a worrisome, almost regime-style servility towards the government has been reported at RAI”, the M5S said.

“Renzi has become a sort of moving showman: he is everywhere”.

The party of comic-turned politican Beppe Grillo, which ranks second behind Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) in the most recent polls sounding out voters’ preferences before the May vote, quoted data from the media Observatory in Pavia on RAI, which has traditionally been subject to political influence.

According to the data, 45.1% of RAI’s newscasts on March 22-28 focused on the government while 7.2% was dedicated to the M5S, which is in the opposition.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: PD Rejects Grillo’s Criticism of Women at Top of Party Lists

‘M5S leader is scared’

(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, April 10 — The center-left Democratic Party (PD) of Premier Matteo Renzi on Thursday rejected accusations by anti-establishment 5-Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo that five women heading PD lists in upcoming European elections had been chosen like “showgirls” in “the best Berlusconi tradition”.

“Grillo is increasingly showing he is afraid of the PD for its choice to pick five women at the top of its party lists,” said PD spokesman Lorenzo Guerini.

“His statements reveal what opinion he has of women, we have a different one and we increasingly want them to be protagonists,” added Guerini.

Grillo has previously slammed Renzi’s decision to put magistrate Caterina Chinnici and four MPs — Alessandra Moretti, Alessia Mosca, Simona Bonafe’ and Pina Picerno — at the top of party candidates’ lists for Italy’s five constituencies in the May 25 European vote.

“Being a woman is not a value in and of itself,” Grillo said, calling the five women “showgirls” who were being used “for marketing purposes”.

Senator Isabella De Monte, a prominent party member and a candidate in the May vote, slammed the comic-turned-politician for “continuing to see Italy in black and white, with stereotypes belonging to a country which doesn’t exist anymore”.

“The pragmatism shown by Renzi has sent the M5S haywire,” said De Monte of the anti-establishment party which according to the most recent polls sounding out preferences among Italian voters ranks second after leading party PD.

Meanwhile PD spokesman Guerini on Thursday also addressed tension within the PD sparked by Renzi’s choice in fielding candidates.

“I don’t think mistakes were made in drafting the lists, which were unanimously voted on by the board,” he noted, stressing that the leadership “strongly agreed on candidates”.

On Thursday the popular mayor of Bari and Puglia regional party coordinator, Michele Emiliano, described his candidacy as “superfluous” while another prominent PD member, Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini, said she would be pulling out of the list for the island’s constituency because her candidature had lost “all significance”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Exor Consolidated Profit Soars to 2 Bn Euros in 2013

Up from 298.3 mn in 2012 on sale of SGS

(ANSA) — Turin, April 9 — Consolidated profits for Exor, the holding group of the Agnelli family, rose to two billion euros for 2013 compared to 298.3 million euros in 2012, Exor said Wednesday.

The sale last year of the Swiss inspection, testing and certification giant SGS to a subsidiary of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL) for two billion euros was responsible for the majority of the difference.

Exor’s financial position in 2013 bounced back to positive territory at 1.28 billion euros, which compares to negative 525.9 million in 2012. Exor owns 30% of the Fiat Chrylser Group, 68.6% of Cushman & Wakefield, and 27.2% of CNH.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Southern Waste-Trafficking Gang Busted

14 arrests between Puglia and Campania

(ANSA) — Rome, April 11 — Italia police on Friday bust a mafia waste-trafficking gang in southern Italy.

Police said they had arrested 14 managers, partners and hauliers in waste-management firms on the borders of Campania and Puglia.

The Black Land operation took place around the cities of Foggia, Caserta, Avellino and Benevento.

The Neapolitan Camorra mafia has made huge profits and wreaked enormous environmental damage disposing of toxic waste around Naples, where cancer rates have spiralled in the so-called Terra dei Fuochi (Land of Fires).

So called because of its burning trash piles, the area was once one of the loveliest in Italy and in ancient times the heart of the Romans’ Campanian bread basket.

The Italian government has sent in the army to try to help clean it up.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Ex-Northern League Leader Bossi Indicted for Napolitano Slur

‘Didn’t know he was a ‘terrone’,’ veteran firebrand said in 2011

(ANSA) — Bergamo, April 11 — The disgraced former leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, Umberto Bossi, was indicted Thursday for insulting President Giorgio Napolitano.

A prosecutor said the offence was aggravated by a “racial” slur because the often foul-mouthed veteran firebrand called the Naples-born Neapolitano a “terrone”, northern Italian epithet for “dirty southerner”.

On December 29, 2011, Bossi made a rally laugh when he sent a sarcastic greeting to the Neapolitan head of State, using the Latin tag “nomen omen” (“it’s all in the name”) to criticise his provenance from the troubled southern city.

“I didn’t know he was a ‘terrone’,” he added to further chuckles.

Bossi, who stepped down as leader of the movement he founded after a string of corruption and nepotism scandals two years ago, is also charged with trying to bring Italy’s institutions into disrepute.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Jailed Venetian Separatist Could be Candidate for League

Salvini to meet Le Pen to discuss unwelcome migrants

(ANSA) — Venice, April 11 — Matteo Salvini, head of the regionalist Northern League, said Friday that there is a possibility one member of a group of jailed Venetian separatists could be asked to stand as a League candidate in next month’s European parliamentary elections.

Almost two weeks ago, 24 Veneto region separatists were arrested on suspicions of criminal association for terrorism and subversion of the democratic order after they tried to use a souped-up tractor in a demonstration calling for a separate country of Veneto. An Italian prosecutor said that the separatists were planning an “insurrection” to obtain independence for the region around Venice.

“They proposed independence from the Italian State by using violent methods and insurrection,” said Brescia Prosecutor Tommaso Buonanno after the arrests.

That doesn’t seem to concern the League, which has said that the prosecution of separatists was an infringement of their basic rights.

Salvini said “there is a possibility of one being a candidate” for election to the European Parliament.

The connection between the separatists and League is longstanding. The Liga Veneta (Veneto League) separatist party was a founding member of the Northern League, a federation of regionalist parties which has recently upped its drive for greater autonomy for wealthy northern regions and started calling for outright independence again, the original demand of its early years.

Meanwhile, Salvini, whose party is opposed to what it sees as excessive immigration, said that he plans to meet on Tuesday with Marine Le Pen, leader of the ultra right-wing National Front in France which has recently had success in local elections.

Salvini said the meeting in Strasbourg is aimed at agreeing on a “common strategy” for Europe to deal with waves of “unwelcome” illegal immigrants arriving on Italian shores.

Earlier in the day, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the Italy navy has rescued as many as 6,000 migrants over the past four days alone, attempting a dangerous sea crossing to Europe.

It estimates that more than 40 boats crammed with migrants, many fleeing wars in the Middle East and Africa, have been rescued as they struggled to reach the coasts of Sicily and Calabria.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Health Ministry Orders Inquiry Into Alleged Embryo Errors

(AGI) Rome, April 13 — The Italian health ministry has ordered an inspection at a hospital in Rome after reports that the wrong embryos had been implanted. The ministry said that the inquiry was opened after worrying articles in the press about an alleged swap of embryos at the Sandro Pertini Hospital’s IVF centre, which so far had not been reported by the responsible authorities.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Rome ‘Ages’ 200 Years as Archaeologists Discover New Remains

The city of Rome is two centuries older than previously thought, archaeologists say, as they uncover new artefacts during an excavation of the Forum

It’s already known as one of the world’s oldest cities — but ancient Rome just got a little older. Excavations inside the Roman Forum have found the remains of a wall dating back to 900 BC — suggesting that the Eternal City was settled two centuries earlier than previously believed…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Only 30 Percent of Italians Will Take Easter Break

(AGI) Rome, April 13 — A large proportion of Italians, 70 percent, or 32 million, will stay at home over Easter, while the remaining 30 percent will go on holiday, said Confesercenti, Italy’s retailers association. London, Spain, Paris and also the Caribbean and the Maldives are among the most popular holiday destinations for the Easter break.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Scotland Likely to Choose Independence, Foreign Diplomats Believe

Foreign diplomats believe Scotland is likely to vote for independence after a series of opinion polls have shown an increase in support for a yes vote in September’s referendum.

Sources in the diplomatic corps in Edinburgh, which is home to nearly 50 consulates and diplomatic missions, have told the Guardian they think the tide of opinion has shifted significantly in recent months, after a noticeable swing against David Cameron’s government and the no campaign.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Telecom Italia Teaming Up With Rupert Murdoch’s Networks

Italians to gain Internet television services through Sky TV

(ANSA) — Milan, April 10 — Telecom Italia said Thursday it is joining forces with business magnate Rupert Murdoch to offer subscribers an Internet-based television service as an alternative to satellite TV.

The agreement between Telecom Italia and Murdoch’s Sky service takes effect next year, giving the Italian telecommunication firm’s clients who have a “My Sky” HD decoder access to all of Sky Italia’s TV programs over the Internet.

Telecom said it will enhance its infrastructure, including fibre optic developments, to allow subscribers access to about 180 Sky channels.

As well, Telecom Italia’s mobile phone customers could have access to Sky TG24 news channel on their tablets and smartphones.

“We strongly believe that one of the main drivers of our business is represented by the development of innovative services, especially in entertainment for the consumer market,” said Marco Patuano, chief executive officer of Telecom Italia.

“Until now, satellite was the only technology able to bring our entire range (of programming),” said Andrea Zappia CEO of Sky Italy.

“We are convinced that such a great partnership with Telecom is an opportunity to expand the customer base of pay TV (in Italy),” said Zappia

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

The New Eugenics: Bioethicist Pushes Genetic Screening to Eliminate People With IQs He Deems Too Low

Eugenics is pernicious. Its core philosophy holds that some human beings are better than others based on invidious categorization of human capacities and characteristics. Eugenics leads to oppression and even, killing. The old eugenics unleashed involuntary sterilization, infanticide in Germany, and the murder of disabled adults. Those horrors put eugenics into hibernation, but it has awakened in the very places it started in the first place — among the intelligentsia. Julian Savulescu is a leading neo eugenicist. Now, he proposes screening embryos for intelligence — for them, of course.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Council’s Links to Radical Islamists Probed by No 10

Ministers’ concerns about the London borough of Tower Hamlets are revealed in leaked report

By Andrew Gilligan

A London council at the centre of an investigation into alleged fraud is also under scrutiny over its links to Islamic extremism, according to a classified government document leaked to The Telegraph.

Ministers sent inspectors to Tower Hamlets council, in east London, last week to investigate the alleged abuse of public resources to reward supporters of Lutfur Rahman, its controversial directly-elected mayor…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: More Birmingham ‘Islam Plot’ Schools Inspected

Fifteen schools in Birmingham are being inspected as a result of allegations of an “Islamic takeover plot”, the Department for Education has said.

Anonymous claims that hard-line Muslims were trying to take over the running of some city schools were made in a letter sent to local authorities last year. Ofsted inspectors have so far visited 12 schools in the city. The Department for Education said it would take firm action where standards were not being met…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Nottingham’s First Purpose-Built Mosque Officially Opens

HUNDREDS of people gathered to take part in prayer at the city’s first purpose-built mosque. The Jamia Masjid Sultania mosque in Sneinton Dale was officially opened on Sunday afternoon. The £1.2 million building can cater for roughly 800 people and as well as now being open for worship five times a day it is also a dedicated education centre…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Roof Installed on New Burnley Mosque

THE dome on a new mosque in Burnley has been installed, 10 years after work on the building began. Work on the huge structure, off Burns Street, Daneshouse, started in 2004, but has been hit by delays due to the credit crunch. So far £2m has been spent on the Shah Jalal Masjid Mosque and Burnley Islamic Cultural Centre, but a further £500,000 is still needed to finish it off…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

5 Extremists Killed in Security Raid in Egypt’s Sinai

ARISH, Egypt, April 13 (Xinhua) — Five extremists were killed and four others were arrested on Sunday in a security raid on their hideouts in major cities in Egypt’s North Sinai province, a security source told Xinhua.

“The extremists exchanged fire with the police-security forces south of southern Sheikh Zuweid city that lead to their death,” the source said, noting the gunmen belonged to al-Qaida-inspired, Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: Clashes Break Out Between Students and Security in Cairo — State TV

Cairo — Violent confrontations erupted between pro-Muslim Brotherhood students and security forces outside of Ain Shams University on Sunday, Egypt’s state television said. Several Egyptian universities have seen unrest since the ousting of President Mohamed Mursi last July.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Palestinians and Israeli Police Clash at Al Aqsa Mosque

JERUSALEM // Palestinians and Israeli police clashed at the flashpoint Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday, police said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the violence erupted when police opened one of the walled compound’s gates to non-Muslim visitors, according to the regular visiting hours. “Stones and a number of Molotov cocktails were thrown at police,” he said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

36 Killed in Insurgent Attacks Across Iraq

BAGHDAD, April 13 (Xinhua) — 36 people were killed and 28 others wounded in separate violent attacks across Iraq on Sunday, police said.

In one attack, eight policemen were killed and ten people wounded in a suicide truck bomb attack targeting Iraqi police in Iraq’s northern province of Kirkuk, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Blocks Sale of 800 Tanks to Saudi Arabia

(AGI) Berlin, April 13 — Germany will not authorise the sale of 800 Leopard-2 tanks to Saudi Arabia, the weekly Bild am Sonntag reported. The National Security Council, of which Chancellor Angela Merkel is a member, is examining the commission, but Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, has already vetoed the sale of the vehicles to the “authoritarian” Saudi regime. This is the first time the sale has been mentioned.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Iran: Man Sentenced to Have Eyes Gouged Out

The Iranian regime’s judiciary in city of Isfahan has condemned another man to have his eyes gouged, state-run news agency ISNA reported.

The Iranian regime’s judiciary officials have publicly defended the cutting off of hands and feet, the removal of a “defendant’s” eye, and even stoning as very real part of their judicial law.

Mohammad-Javad Larijani, the head of Iranian regime’s ‘Human Rights Council’, said on April 10: “The problem is that the West does not understand that Qisas (law of retribution) is different from execution. We are not ashamed of stoning or any of the Islamic decrees. “No one has the right to tell a judge to avert some sentences because the United Nations gets upset. We should firmly and seriously defend the sentence of stoning.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey Wants a ‘Lasting Peace’ In Cyprus

Turkey wants lasting, fair and sustainable peace in Cyprus, which protects the rights of the two peoples, EU Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu said April 12. “We hope the peace process in Cyprus can take place under the roof and auspices of the United Nations,” Çavusoglu said during a panel on the Cyprus problem in Nicosia

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Launches Operation to Drive Out Pro-Russian Activists From Police Building in Slovyansk

Ukrainian forces exchanged gunfire with a pro-Russia militia in an eastern city Sunday, according to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.

The minister said one Ukrainian security officer was killed and five others were wounded. It was the first reported gunbattle in east Ukraine, where armed pro-Russia men have seized a number of law enforcement buildings in recent days.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Says Russia Waging ‘War’ In Separatist East

Slavyansk (Ukraine) (AFP) — Ukraine’s acting president accused Russia of waging war in his country’s eastern belt as fresh clashes left at least two dead and led the United Nations Security Council to announce emergency talks late on Sunday.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov declared the launch of a “full-scale anti-terrorist operation”, a day after masked gunmen stormed police and security service buildings in coordinated raids that Washington’s UN envoy Samantha Power said on Sunday bore “tell-tale signs of Moscow’s involvement”.

The heavily Russified region has been riven by unrest since pro-Western leaders rose to power in February on the back of bloody protests against the old regime’s decision to reject an EU alliance and turn towards Moscow.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Militants Who Killed 2 Policemen Shot Dead in Indian-Controlled Kashmir

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, April 13 (Xinhua) — Two militants were killed after a brief gunfight with Indian troops following the killing of two policemen Sunday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said.

The gunfight broke out in outskirts of Khrew locality of Pampore, about 22 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Missing Plane’s Black Box Batteries May Have Died

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Following four strong underwater signals in the past week, all has gone quiet in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, meaning the batteries in the plane’s all-important black boxes may finally have died.

Despite having no new transmissions from the black boxes’ locator beacons to go on, air and sea crews were continuing their search in the southern Indian Ocean on Sunday for debris and any sounds that may still be emanating. They are desperately trying to pinpoint where the Boeing 777 could be amid an enormous patch of deep ocean.

No new electronic pings have been detected since Tuesday by an Australian ship dragging a U.S. Navy device that listens for flight recorder signals. Once officials are confident that no more sounds will be heard, a robotic submersible will be sent down to slowly scour for wreckage.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan: Mosque Imam Rapes, Kills Girl in Badin

BADIN — A local mosque’s imam reportedly killed a 12-year-old girl student after gang-raping her along with three other accomplices, reported a private TV channel on Saturday.

As per details, a 12-year-old girl student attended seminary for religious education when Maulvi Ghulam Murtaza stopped her while sending other students home after dismissing class. Reportedly, Imam then called three other men of the village and they gang-raped the girl at one of the seminary rooms in the mosque…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

China to Invest $5bln in Russia’s Far East

Amid increasing tensions with the West, Russia is making progress on long-awaited deals with its eastern neighbor, China. The China Development Bank has confirmed its plans to invest $5 billion in Russia’s Far East, news reports said Friday.

Investments will be channeled to regional economic zones and will finance large infrastructure projects, Russia’s Far East Development Ministry said.

“Russia is ready to take on the transit cargo coming from the Asia-Pacific region to Europe, in line with the plans of the Chinese government to reanimate the Great Silk Way,” said Far East Development Minister Alexander Galushka.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Corn Exports to China Drop 85 Percent After Ban on GMO Strains — Industry Report

China’s rejection of shipments of US corn containing traces of unapproved genetically modified maize has caused a significant drop in exports. According to a new report, US traders have lost $427 million in sales.

Overall, China has barred nearly 1.45 million tons of corn shipments since last year, the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA), an American industry association, said Friday.

The tally is based on data from export companies and is significantly higher than the previous numbers reported by the media, which said roughly 900,000 tons were affected. US corn exports to China since January are down 85 percent from the same period last year, the report says.

China has been blocking shipments of American corn from its market since November. This was caused by the presence of the MIR162 genetically modified corn strain in the shipments. It was developed by the company Syngenta and has not been approved by the Chinese government since an application was submitted in March 2010.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Wollongong Youth Worker Honoured for Refugee Support

Wollongong youth worker Arif Khan has received a national award for his support of young refugees and work with Wollongong City Council. The 25-year-old won the Cultural Understanding Award on Thursday night at a dinner in Canberra. Mr Khan said he was passionate about helping refugees and young migrants after his experiences growing up as a Muslim Afghan refugee in Wollongong…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Civilian Deaths in Nigeria Reach 135 Over Four Days

(AGI) Lagos, April 13 — An runaway spree of violence in Nigeria resulted in 135 deaths between Wednesday and Sunday. Around 1500 people, half of whom were civilians, have been killed since the beginning of 2014. A senator for the state of Borno, Ahmed Zannah, told the BBC that three separate attacks were carried out on Wednesday and Thursday. The first was in a teacher training school in Dikwa, where five people were killed and numerous women were kidnapped. The other two attacks took place in villages near the border with Cameroon and claimed 130 lives. Boko Haram is deemed the most likely culprit of the massacres.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Kenya: Anti-Terror War Not Negotiable, Says Ruto

Murang’a — Deputy President William Ruto has said the government is not ready to negotiate with any group of persons hindering peace efforts in the country. He says the government will not engage in discussions over the issue since it has a constitutional mandate to ensure security for all Kenyans.

“Let it be clear that there will be no debate or discussions on our resolve to crackdown on all criminal gangs terrorising wananchi in any part of this country. We must win the war against terror,” said Ruto…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: Gunmen Kill 5, Sack More Benue Villages

Gunmen during the early hours of yesterday killed five persons and sacked several communities in two local government areas of Benue State. The attacks on Agatu and Logo LGAs despite the heavy presence of military forces deployed to the state has happened two weeks after a peace pact supervised by police authorities was signed between Tiv, Agatu farmers and Fulani herdsmen…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: Emirs Meet in Kaduna Over Future of Muslims

Emirs from the North and Muslim traditional rulers from the country, converged on Kaduna to discuss, and arrive at a resolution on how to address issues affecting the Muslim Ummah today.

A source close to the Sultanate confided in our reporter that top on their agenda was the plight of Muslims under the current dispensation as many of them had become target to both the suspected insurgents and trigger-happy security agents…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Rescues 6,000 Migrants Over Four Days, Says UNHCR

Women, children among those saved, says human rights agency

(See related) (ANSA) — Geneva, April 11 — The Italy navy has rescued as many as 6,000 migrants attempting a dangerous sea crossing to Europe over the past four days, and should have more assistance from allies, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Friday. It estimates that more than 40 boats crammed with migrants, many fleeing wars in the Middle East and Africa, have been rescued as they struggled to reach the coasts of Sicily and Calabria.

“Large numbers of women and children, including newborns and unaccompanied children, are among (those who have been rescued)” Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR told a media briefing Friday.

She said the migrants came from Libya, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, and other African and Middle Eastern countries, with many fleeing persecution.

The Mediterranean is one of the busiest seas in the world, but also poses a “dangerous border…for many asylum seekers who seek salvation in Europe,” said Fleming.

She urged the European Union members to work together on solutions to the migrant situation, which is expected to worsen, including improving legal channels for immigrants to Europe.

Practical refugee aid, including additional shelters, is also needed, she added.

She spoke soon after the Italian navy rescued 800 North African immigrants off the coast of Libya Thursday night in the latest in a string of pick-ups off rickety boats that have been launched like flotillas during the recent spell of warm weather.

The migrants were on board seven rust-buckets and large dinghies that were intercepted by four Navy frigates and a Finance Guard motorboat about 70 nautical miles south of the stepping-stone Italian island of Lampedusa, which is closer to Libya than to Sicily.

The asylum seekers were transferred to the large Italian cruiser San Giorgio which is expected to dock in a Sicilian port later Friday.

Earlier this week, Italy issued a fresh call for help from the European Union after rescuing more than 4,000 migrants in 48 hours.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said in a radio interview Wednesday that “with the fine weather, the next six months are going to be extremely tough”.

He said most migrants now disembarking on Italy’s shores are political asylum seekers, and Europe must give Italy a bigger hand in processing and relocating them.

“Hundreds of thousands are in Libya waiting to get on a boat”, Alfano told Sole 24 Ore financial paper’s Radio24.

“It is of the essence that the international community set up refugee camps as well as bilateral control over coasts and departures”.

Every year, tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Italy, which is the first landfall for those trying to reach Europe by boat from North Africa.

Many die while attempting the hazardous crossing in rickety, overcrowded vessels after being charged exorbitant prices by human traffickers.

After some 400 people drowned in two migrant-boat disasters within sight of Lampedusa in October 2013, Italy set up a surveillance and rescue operation called Mare Nostrum to prevent further deaths at sea.

“We are rescuing thousands of migrants with our ships”, Alfano continued.

“We must speed up procedures to expel those who have no right to stay, and to receive those who have a right to asylum”.

Some 15,000 migrants have landed on Italy’s coasts since the beginning of the year, Alfano said.

“Most asylum seekers don’t even want to stay in Italy.

Other countries must take these people in, because that’s where they wanted to go in the first place,” the minister explained.

“Europe must understand that we can’t take them all in.

And the EU needs to boost our border defense system,” said Alfano.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Alfano Says European Union Must Defend Its Southern Borders

Italy alone can’t help waves of migrants heading for Europe

(See related) (ANSA) — Rome, April 11 — The European Union must take more responsibility for defending its southern sea borders rather than leave all of the work to Italy, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Friday.

He spoke the same day that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the Italian navy had rescued as many as 6,000 migrants attempting a dangerous sea crossing to Europe over the past four days, and should have more assistance from the rest of the EU.

Alfano said that EU treaties have lowered borders among member states, but it still has a southern boundary to defend in the area of Italy’s island of Lampedusa, where tens of thousands of migrants first make landfall. “The sea in front of Lampedusa is not an Italian border but the European Union (border) and Europe must assume the burden of defending it,” said Alfano.

A spokeswoman for the UNHCR said earlier that the Mediterranean is one of the busiest seas in the world, and poses a “dangerous border…for many asylum seekers who seek salvation in Europe”. She urged European Union members to work together on solutions to the migrant situation, which is expected to worsen, including improving legal channels for immigrants to Europe.

Practical refugee aid, including additional shelters, is also needed, she added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Norway’s to Open First ‘Muslim Only’ School, Replacing Ethics Classes With Islam

The opening of Norway’s first Muslim-only school has caused controversy in the Scandinavian country’s capital, with anti-immigration activists and politicians expressing their concerns over how the taxpayer-funded move might harm integration in the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Universities to Teach Students ‘How to be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less’

An upcoming LGBTQ seminar at the University of South Carolina Upstate (USCU) will teach students How to Be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less and will focus on LGBTQ cultural mores. According to the school’s website, theater artist Leigh Hendrix will perform her one-woman show, How to Be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less, to kick off the sixth Bodies of Knowledge Symposium and Conference. The show is a one-hour performance that follows Butchy McDyke, a motivational speaker and expert lesbian, as she “deftly guides her captive audience in an exploration of self-discovery and first love, coming out, lesbian sex, queer politics, and a really important Reba McEntire song.”

[Comment: Meanwhile China stresses Physics, Maths and Science courses.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

6 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/13/2014

  1. Turned against the Cameron govt?

    There’s only ever been a maximum of two Tories voted in north of the border ever since the poll tax.

    You think Elvis Costello didn’t like Thatcher – take a stroll down Union Street in Aberdeen one evening wearing a blue rosette in your lapel, singing Maggie’s praises and asking for people to vote for David bloody Cameron – you’ll be lucky to escape with your life.

    The Tories are absolutely HATED up here, I can tell you that for nothing.

    Although I did discuss this with someone I know down there, south of the border, and the theory that’s going around in Eng-er-land is thatCameron is deliberately blowing this, so that Labour takes a bit hit by losing the Scottish vote, and there will never be another Labour govt, which means that pudden faced twit and his old Etonian cronies can hang on to power indefinitely.

    • So what do you think the outcome will be Nick?

      The Tories are absolutely HATED in this part Scotland as well.

      I see Scotland as traditionally a deeply conservative nation, this may come to the fore should there be independence.

  2. The new nation? Suppose, just for the sake of discussion, that Scotland decides to secede. Will the UK recognize that secession? If it doesn’t, then the Scots are out of luck. The British navy can effortlessly blockade Scotland. The British army has all the firepower. And if anybody else wants dealt into the scrap, the Brits have a nuclear arsenal.

    A new nation isn’t born for real until the authority that used to rule there consents (grudgingly, tacitly, or magnanimously) or is defeated.

  3. Scotland seceding would be very bad more Scotland, but quite good for England and Wales.
    As noted it would get rid of large numbers of knee jerk Labor seats, but of even greater benefit, a huge amount of welfare parasites. It would definitely be a positive result for Britain’s economy.

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