Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/29/2015

Due to the unstable financial situation, all Greek banks will be closed until at least the end of the week. Greek citizens are withdrawing what cash they can, and stocking up on food and gasoline. Some analysts believe that a Greek default and exit from the Eurozone are now inevitable.

In other news, the Tunisian government has deployed 1,000 troops to protect beach resorts, in order to prevent additional terror attacks.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, LP, Phyllis Chesler, PS, 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
» And So it Begins — Greek Banks Get Shut Down for a Week and a ‘Grexit’ Is Now Probable
» Berlin Pledges Respect for Greek Referendum Outcome
» Economists Release Critical Puerto Rico Report After Governor Says it Can’t Pay $72b Debt
» Greece: Markets React — Live
» Greece Debt Talks: EU Chief Feels ‘Betrayed’
» Greece Crisis: No Vote Would Mean Euro Exit, Leaders Warn
» Greece: Police to Go on Alert to Protect ATM Machines
» Greece: A Week With No Banks
» Greek Debt Crisis: Is Grexit Inevitable?
» Greeks Line Up for Money and Stock up on Goods as Cash Rationing Starts
» Juncker Says ‘Betrayed’ By Greek ‘Egotism’
» Swedish Bank Jitters as Greece Crisis Swells
» The World is Defenceless Against the Next Financial Crisis, Warns Bis
» World Markets Plunge, Bank Lines Grow as Greece Financial Crisis Deepens
 
USA
» Benghazi Night Call Between Clinton and Obama Withheld, Documents Show
» Lawless Jurisprudence
» New Jersey Man Charged With Plotting to Support ISIS
» Ron Paul: ObamaCare’s Best Allies: The Courts and the Republicans
» Snyder: As NASCAR Has Learned, Use of Confederate Flag Simply Bad for Business
» SpaceX Cargo-Mission Failure Doesn’t Endanger Space Station Crew, NASA Says
» The Most Dangerous Mountain in the United States: What Would Happen if Mt. Rainier Erupted?
» United States of America Becomes the Newest Socialist Country
 
Europe and the EU
» 600 British Officers Drafted in to Stop ‘Lone Wolf’ Attack, Met Police Warn
» British PM Cameron Calls for Fight Back Against Extremism After Tunisia Attack
» France Says 40 Imams Deported for Hate Speech
» French Terror Suspect ‘Denies Religious Motives’
» How Far Along is Germany’s Nuclear Phase-Out?
» How to Combat Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia?
» Italy: De Luca Seeks Annulment of Suspension in Campania
» UK: Security Services to Carry Out Major Anti-Terror Training Exercise in London This Week After Tunisia Hotel Attack
» UK: Security Stepped Up at Wimbledon Amid Fears of a Terror Attack
 
Balkans
» Kosovo: Serbia Turns to UN for Setting Up Tribunal for KLA
 
Mediterranean Union
» Italy and Tunisia Fighting Seagrass Problem Together
 
North Africa
» British Survivor at Tunisian Attack Says a Second Gunman Shot Her With Handgun
» Egypt Prosecutor Hisham Barakat Killed in Cairo Attack
» Egyptian Prosecutor General Dies in Cairo Attack
» How Terrorist Attacks Affect Tourism
» Revealed: Tunisia Gunman ‘Went to Libya Three Months Ago for Jihadi Training at an ISIS Terror Camp’
» Tunisia Attack: First Arrests Over Sousse Massacre
» Tunisia Beach Attack: Gunman ‘Had Help’ From Others
» Tunisian Gunman’s Father: Islamist Extremists ‘Ruined My Son’s Brain’
» Tunisia: Gov’t Deploys 1,000 Officers to Protect Resorts
» Tunisia Makes First Arrests Over Sousse Killings
» Tunisia: Spanish Hotel Claims Police Too Slow to Arrive
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israeli Navy Peacefully Intercepts Gaza-Bound Vessel
» Israeli PM Announces Barrier Along Jordanian Border
» Swedish Ship to Gaza Boarded by Israeli Military
» Swedish Ship to Gaza Boarded by Israeli Troops
 
Middle East
» Car Bomb Explodes Near Military Hospital in Yemeni Capital, Dozens of Casualties
» ISIS Executed Scores of Children in a Year of Its Caliphate
» ISIS Has Up to 42 Million Supporters in the Arab World
» Mosul Residents Feel the ‘IS’ Stranglehold
» Russia Pledges to Support Syrian Government in Surprise Meeting
» Save the Iraqi Yezidis From Genocide!
 
South Asia
» Support Builds for Ailing Pakistani Christian Facing Death for Drinking From Muslim Water Cup
» Turkmenistan Marks Its President’s Birthday by Opening Park in His Honor
 
Far East
» Cigarettes or Spark Suspected in Taiwan Fire That Burned 498
» Founding 57 Members of China-Led AIIB Investment Bank Sign up in Great Hall Ceremony
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Nigerian Schoolgirls ‘Forced to Join Boko Haram’ — BBC
» South Africa: ‘Steal From Whites’
 
Immigration
» 11,500 US Visas Stolen in Mexico
» Donald Trump Calls NBC ‘Weak and Foolish’ After They Sever Ties With GOP Hopeful
» Fanta Diallo’s Senegalese Dream
» ‘Incessant’ Flow of Migrants on ‘Balkan Route’ Via Serbia
» Italy Migrant Arrivals Near Record 68k in Six Months
» Middle Class Asian Couple Used Estate Agency to Bring Migrants Into UK
 
Culture Wars
» A Culture Shattered
» Churches, Be Warned: Gays Will Demand Church Weddings
» First Amendment Defense Act Proposed to Protect Business Owners From SCOTUS Ruling on Same-Sex Marriage
» SCOTUS Same-Sex Marriage Decision May Have Just Legalized the Concealed Carry of Loaded Firearms Across All 50 States, Nullifying Gun Laws Everywhere
» Sexual Deviant “Marriage”, Roe V. Wade, Prohibition
» The ACLU Now Opposes Religious Freedom Because Christians Need it
» The Marxist Agenda Behind the Rainbow
» Tucker Carlson Rips ‘Abhorrent’ Opinion Editor Over Banning Anti-Gay Marriage Views [Video]
 
General
» ‘Exomoons’ Capable of Supporting Life May be Common
» Truth is a Crime Against the State
 

And So it Begins — Greek Banks Get Shut Down for a Week and a ‘Grexit’ Is Now Probable

Is this the beginning of the end for the eurozone?

For years, European officials have been trying to “fix Greece”, but nothing has worked. Now a worst case scenario is rapidly unfolding, and a “Grexit” has become more likely than not. On Sunday, the European Central Bank announced that it was not going to provide any more emergency support for Greek banks. But that was the only thing keeping them alive. In order to prevent total chaos, Greek banks have been shut down for at least a week. ATMs are still open, but it is being reported that daily withdrawals will be limited to 60 euros. Of course nobody knows for sure if or when the banks will reopen after this “bank holiday” is over, so needless to say average Greek citizens are pretty freaked out right about now. In addition, the stock market in Greece is not going to open on Monday either. This is what a national financial meltdown looks like, and the nightmare that has been unleashed in Greece will soon start spreading to much of the rest of Europe.

This reminds me so much of what happened in Cyprus. Up until the very last minute, politicians were promising everyone that their money was perfectly safe, and then the hammer was brought down.

The exact same pattern is playing out in Greece. For example, just check out what one very prominent Greek politician said on television on Saturday…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Berlin Pledges Respect for Greek Referendum Outcome

Germany available for further talks with Athens

(ANSA) — Berlin, June 29 — Germany will respect the decision of Greece’s referendum on an aid plan proposed by its creditors, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Monday. “The decision on a referendum is a decision that belongs only to a government, and we obviously will respect the result,” Seibert told a news conference. “The German government remains basically available for discussions with the Greek government,” he added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Economists Release Critical Puerto Rico Report After Governor Says it Can’t Pay $72b Debt

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — International economists released a critical report on Puerto Rico’s economy Monday on the heels of the governor’s warning that the island can’t pay its $72 billion public debt.

The news that Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla delivered late Sunday was another jolt to the recession-gripped U.S. island, as well as a world financial system already worrying over Greece’s collapsing finances.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Markets React — Live

After a weekend of Greek drama, markets around the world are reacting Monday. Stocks are down from Hong Kong to London, the euro is weaker, and gold and U.S. Treasurys are stronger as investors look for safety.

Greek banks will stay closed for six days from Monday, and the central bank has moved to impose capital controls, in a bid to prevent a severely battered banking system from collapsing completely.

Over the weekend Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras shocked European policy makers by announcing the country will hold a referendum on whether to accept the terms of Greece’s creditors to unlock desperately needed financial aid.

It now looks almost inevitable that Greece will default on a ‚¬1.54 billion ($1.69 billion) payment due to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday. Much is at stake beyond the IMF’s balance sheet. What happens to Greece itself? What happens to the euro, a purportedly unbreakable currency union, and the Continent’s attempt to recreate itself as a global economic superpower? What happens in the capital markets, which have feasted on cheap debt and assumed all risks were contained?…

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

Greece Debt Talks: EU Chief Feels ‘Betrayed’

The European Commission chief, Jean-Claude Juncker, has said he feels “betrayed” by the “egotism” shown by Greece in failed debt talks.

He told a news conference that Greek proposals were “delayed” or “deliberately altered” and the Greek people “should be told the truth”, but the door was still open to talks.

Greece has called a surprise referendum and Greek banks are closed for a week.

European stock markets saw big falls on Monday after the weekend’s events.

The negotiations were not “a game of liar’s poker”, Mr Juncker said. “Either all win or all lose”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece Crisis: No Vote Would Mean Euro Exit, Leaders Warn

EU leaders have warned Greeks that rejecting creditors’ proposals in a snap referendum called for Sunday would mean leaving the euro.

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said the vote would be “yes or no to the eurozone”.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has urged a no vote but insists he wants Greece to stay in the euro.

Talks between Greece and its creditors broke down last week, leading to Greek banks having to shut this week.

As well as Mr Gabriel, the leaders of the eurozone’s other two largest economies said Greek voters would effectively be deciding next Sunday whether or not they wanted to stay in the eurozone.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Police to Go on Alert to Protect ATM Machines

Anarchists may carry out attack against sensitive targets

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 29 — The Greek Police is on a general alert, as it is believed that anarchists may carry out attacks against ATM machines and clashes may occur outside banks as To Vima online reports. In the recent hours the Police have gathered information suggesting that organized attacks may be carried out against sensitive targets related to the financial measures and the bailout. Officers currently on leave may be called to return to their posts, in order to be prepared to address potential problems. Patrols will be increased outside banks, ministries, state services as well as foreign embassies. With a 60-euro daily limit on cash withdrawals, the queues outside banks and ATM machines are expected to swell, which may cause tension and scuffles to break out.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: A Week With No Banks

Greece is on the edge of the economic abyss. As capital controls are rolled out the country’s banks will remain closed for at least a week.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greek Debt Crisis: Is Grexit Inevitable?

Greek banks have been closed and strict limits placed on cash withdrawals as Greece’s government is set to default on a debt repayment to the IMF on 30 June of €1.5bn ($1.7bn; £1.06bn).

Months of negotiations on a deal have collapsed and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has called a referendum for 5 July, asking Greeks to reject reform proposals from the IMF and EU, which he says are against European values.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greeks Line Up for Money and Stock up on Goods as Cash Rationing Starts

A siege mentality began taking hold in Athens as capital controls began and the country lurched toward a referendum next Sunday that could decide whether Greece stays in the eurozone. People were emptying supermarket shelves, filling up containers at gas stations and lining up at automated teller machines for their daily cash allowance, hoping that the supply of hard cash would not run out before it was their turn.

To cut out one daily expense, the government was allowing people to ride the Metro, buses and trolleys for free this week.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Juncker Says ‘Betrayed’ By Greek ‘Egotism’

Merkel says if euro fails in Greece, Europe fails

(ANSA) — Brussels, June 29 — European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker said Monday he felt “betrayed” and “saddened” by what he called Greece’s “egotism” in negotiations over its aid plan that broke down on Friday. “I am saddened..the good will has evaporated, the selfishness and tactical games of populists prevailed. I feel betrayed,” said Juncker. Meanwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday warned that more efforts must be made in talks with Greece. “If the euro fails, Europe will fail,” Merkel said an event in Germany.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Bank Jitters as Greece Crisis Swells

People travelling from Sweden to Greece are being warned to withdraw cash before setting off, while the Swedish Prime Minister has criticized the Greek parliament’s snap referendum on a possible Grexit.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The World is Defenceless Against the Next Financial Crisis, Warns Bis

The world will be unable to fight the next global financial crash as central banks have used up their ammunition trying to tackle the last crises, the Bank of International Settlements has warned.

The so-called central bank of central banks launched a scatching critique of global monetary policy in its annual report. The BIS claimed that central banks have backed themselves into a corner after repeatedly cutting interest rates to shore up their economies.

These low interest rates have in turn fuelled economic booms, encouraging excessive risk taking. Booms have then turned to busts, which policymakers have responded to with even lower rates.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

World Markets Plunge, Bank Lines Grow as Greece Financial Crisis Deepens

Long lines at ATMs and bank branches in Greece made investors across the globe shaky Monday, as the nation’s financial crisis caused international markets to plunge.

Greece has closed its banks for the week and imposed restrictions on money withdrawals and banking transactions, to keep its financial system from collapsing.

The government has imposed a stringent daily limit of 60 euros ($67) on cash withdrawals from ATMs this week. The banks and the country’s stock market have been closed for the week after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ surprise call for a referendum next Sunday on creditor proposals for reforms Greece should take to gain access to blocked bailout funds.

The euro hit its weakest level against the pound since 2007 as international markets reacted to the Greek crisis, Sky News reported Monday. European stock markets also closed considerably down, with the German DAX losing 3.6%, and the CAC 40 in Paris down 3.7%.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Benghazi Night Call Between Clinton and Obama Withheld, Documents Show

New documents released by a federal court show President Obama called then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the night of the 2012 Benghazi attack — but the contents are being withheld by the State Department.

It had previously been disclosed that Clinton and Obama spoke the night of the terror attacks. But the documents offer additional information about the timing of the call — after the initial attack on the U.S. consulate, but before the second wave where mortars hit the nearby CIA annex and killed former Navy SEALs Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.

The claim comes as Clinton also faces accusations that she withheld Benghazi-related emails from her private server in the trove of emails handed over to the State Department.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Lawless Jurisprudence

In that decision, announced on June 25, seven Justices of the Supreme Court (Justice Roberts writing for a majority also consisting of Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan) ruled that the phrase “an Exchange established by the State” did not mean what it says but instead means “an Exchange established by the State or the Federal Government.” The consequences of that rewrite are profound. Thirty-four states elected, in reliance on the plain meaning of this statutory provision, not to establish an Obamacare exchange. By doing so, they implicitly invited the federal government to create its own exchange in those states. But under the statute, only if a state establishes an exchange may tax credits (subsidies) be made available to insureds through those exchanges. In contravention of that plain language, the Obama IRS adopted a rule that made the tax credits available everywhere, in both state and Federal exchanges.

The majority decision of Roberts in this case as in the original Obamacare decision depended on mental gymnastics beyond the limits of language to transform patently unlawful acts into ones deemed lawful. In the Obamacare decision, it was the odd and irreconcilable determination that a law unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause could nevertheless be deemed constitutional under the Tax Clause, despite the fact that the statute defined the expropriation in issue as a “penalty” not a “tax.” Likewise, here, equally unambiguous language, to wit, “an Exchange established by the State,” has been rewritten by judicial decision to mean “an Exchange established by the State or the Federal Government.”

The majority’s decision is replete with several instances of illogic within 21 pages of tortured analysis, including among them this gem:

“These provisions suggest that the Act may not always use the phrase ‘established by the State’ in its most natural sense. Thus, the meaning of that phrase may not be as clear as it appears when read out of context.”

Remarkably, the Court explains that it prefers to read the language in the phrase in an unnatural way, in a way that is in fact not only extra-contextual but also contrary to the plain meaning. This is result oriented jurisprudence: driven by a desire to uphold the statute against all comers, the Court reverses the meaning of the plain language. I

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New Jersey Man Charged With Plotting to Support ISIS

NEWARK, N.J. — FBI agents on Monday arrested another New Jersey man who is accused of plotting to support the Islamic State group.

Authorities charged Alaa Saadeh, 23, of West New York, with conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic militant organization and witness tampering. They said he tried to persuade a witness to lie to the FBI.

Saadeh was scheduled to appear before a judge in federal court in Newark on Monday afternoon. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney.

The FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force have been investigating several people in New York and New Jersey amid heightened concerns of terrorist attacks surrounding the July Fourth holiday. Samuel Rahamin Topaz, 21, of Fort Lee, was charged earlier this month with conspiring to join the Islamic State group.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ron Paul: ObamaCare’s Best Allies: The Courts and the Republicans

By ruling for the government in the case of King v. Burwell, the Supreme Court once again tied itself into rhetorical and logical knots to defend Obamacare. In King, the court disregarded Obamacare’s clear language regarding eligibility for federal health care subsides, on the grounds that enforcing the statute as written would cause havoc in the marketplace. The court found that Congress could not have intended this result and that the court needed to uphold Congress’s mythical intention and ignore Obamacare’s actual language.

While Obamacare may be safe from court challenges, its future is far from assured. As Obamacare forces more Americans to pay higher insurance premiums while causing others to lose their insurance or lose access to the physicians of their choice, opposition to Obamacare will grow. Additional Americans will turn against Obamacare as their employers reduce their hours, along with their paychecks, because of Obamacare’s mandates.

As dissatisfaction with Obamacare grows, there will be renewed efforts to pass a single-payer health care system. Single-payer advocates will point to Obamacare’s corporatist features as being responsible for its failures and claim the only solution is to get the private sector completely out of health care.

Unfortunately, many Republicans will inadvertently aid the single-payer advocates by failing to acknowledge that Obamacare is not socialist but corporatist, and that that the pre-Obamacare health care system was hobbled by government intervention. In fact, popular support for Obamacare was rooted in the desire to address problems created by prior government interference in the health care marketplace.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Snyder: As NASCAR Has Learned, Use of Confederate Flag Simply Bad for Business

To NASCAR’s credit, it has banned the use of the Confederate flag on official materials, race cars and licensed merchandise for more than a decade. It also prevented PGA star Bubba Watson from driving the flag-adorned “Dukes of Hazzard” car before an event in 2012.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

SpaceX Cargo-Mission Failure Doesn’t Endanger Space Station Crew, NASA Says

The three crewmembers currently aboard the International Space Station are in no danger of running out of crucial supplies despite today’s failure of a SpaceX cargo mission to the orbiting lab, NASA officials said.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s robotic Dragon cargo capsule exploded just over two minutes after launching from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:21 a.m. EDT (1421 GMT) today (June 28). Despite this being the third space station resupply vehicle to fail to reach its target in the last eight months, NASA officials said the crew is well stocked through October, with more supplies due to be delivered in the coming months.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Most Dangerous Mountain in the United States: What Would Happen if Mt. Rainier Erupted?

Is the next major volcanic eruption in the United States just around the corner?

Mount St. Helens and the Yellowstone supervolcano get most of the attention, but many geologists are actually far more concerned about the potential danger that Mt. Rainier poses. It has been called a “time bomb”, “the most dangerous mountain in the United States” and “one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world” due to its proximity to major population centers. Scientists tell us that it is a matter of if, not when, the next eruption will happen, and even a minor eruption could result in tens of thousands of Americans being literally buried alive in super-heated mud. So what would a full-blown eruption do? It would potentially cause death and destruction on a scale that is almost unimaginable.

On May 18th, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted with the power of 500 Hiroshima bombs. At the time, very few scientists anticipated that Mount St. Helens was capable of such a powerful eruption. But Mount St. Helens is not even the most dangerous volcano in the state of Washington. If Mount Rainier were to erupt with the same force that Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, the loss of life would be far, far greater. The following comes from Wikipedia…

If Mt. Rainier were to erupt as powerfully as Mount St. Helens did in its May 18, 1980, eruption, the effect would be cumulatively greater, because of the far more massive amounts of glacial ice locked on the volcano compared to Mount St. Helens and the vastly more heavily populated areas surrounding Rainier.Lahars from Rainier pose the most risk to life and property, as many communities lie atop older lahar deposits. According to theUnited States Geological Survey (USGS), about 150,000 people live on top of old lahar deposits of Rainier. Not only is there much ice atop the volcano, the volcano is also slowly being weakened by hydrothermal activity. According to Geoff Clayton, a geologist with a Washington State Geology firm, RH2 Engineering, a repeat of the Osceola mudflow would destroy Enumclaw,Orting, Kent, Auburn, Puyallup, Sumner and all of Renton. Such a mudflow might also reach down the Duwamishestuary and destroy parts of downtown Seattle, and cause tsunamis in Puget Sound and Lake Washington. Rainier is also capable of producing pyroclastic flows and expelling lava.

Most people don’t even know what “lahars” are, but they can be exceedingly deadly. Just imagine a tsunami of super-heated mud that is hundreds of feet thick traveling at highway speeds. In fact, scientists believe that Mount Rainier is capable of producing massive lahars that could move at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour…

Heat from an eruption will melt ice and glaciers on the mountain and turn them into mudslides moving up to 50 mph, with the potential to be more than 400 feet deep in nearby valleys. Rainier has had a history of lahars, ranging from more than 5,600 years ago to only 500 years ago.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

United States of America Becomes the Newest Socialist Country

The Supreme Court of the USA has now become the latest branch of the ObamaGov to legislate illegally. We no longer have 3 co-equal branches of government. As the Republicans have shown for — at least — the past several months, the people of the former USA no longer have any voice in government. Despite constituents “burning up the phone lines” to their Republican Congress members and Senators telling them to vote NO on TPA — which gives Obama virtually unlimited and unchecked power to do anything he wants with this treaty and likely those to come — they voted YES in a large majority. Like their Marxist Democrat brothers and sisters, the RINOs have chosen to ignore their constituencies and do that which benefits them — not us.

With its two major decisions on Thursday, 25 June 2015 and Friday, 26 June 2015, SCOTUS has now shown us that CJ Roberts’ decision to rewrite ObamaCare in his first anti-Constitutional decision — and now the decision to uphold this monstrous piece of legislation announced on Thursday — was not a fluke. With this decision — supported by the RINOs — the American people were told again that they no longer have any choice in their healthcare and that the government will force them to buy it — irrespective as to whether or not they can afford it — and they will pay for it… or else. So, they had better get used to it as their masters have spoken. The USA has become a Socialist form of government. As a Note, Roberts also rewrote this one to say that the word “State” could mean one of the 50 States or the massive federal government State! It depends what your definition of “is”… is.

With Friday’ s decision to remove States’ rights from the actual 50 States and give the federal government the right to determine who can marry and whom or what they can marry, the Communist Goals set out for the USA are virtually complete. The ruling minority has won over the majority in the USA, because they placed their operatives in virtually all strategic positions necessary to rule over a population however they want… because the rest of us were actually working to better ourselves and our country Will the 50 States rise up against this oppression and usurpation of their authority under the now nearly-dead US Constitution? Or will they be part in parcel in digging its grave?

We are now in the newest Socialist country on the planet and will soon go completely Communist. BTW, with respect to these same Communist goals and what’ s currently happening with our police forces, you may find it of interest to read #38. It is: “Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].” The ObamaGov has changed it slightly in that local PDs are being turned into social agencies.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

600 British Officers Drafted in to Stop ‘Lone Wolf’ Attack, Met Police Warn

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said the operation includes officers on the ground in Tunisia and hundreds at airports, looking for British witnesses of the attack.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

British PM Cameron Calls for Fight Back Against Extremism After Tunisia Attack

In response to a mass shooting in Tunisia, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has called for a fight back against extremism. The number of victims killed in the shooting is still expected to rise.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France Says 40 Imams Deported for Hate Speech

France has deported 40 foreign imams for “preaching hatred” in the past three years, a quarter of them since the January terror attacks in Paris, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Monday.

The minister vowed to clamp down on mosques and preachers inciting hatred after a suspected Islamist beheaded his boss during an attack on a gas factory last week.

The attack, which had the hallmarks of a jihadist act but is also believed to have personal motivations, was the second in six months in France which is battling to curb radicalisation that has seen hundreds of citizens leave to wage jihad in Iraq and Syria.

Any “foreign preacher of hate will be deported,” said Cazeneuve, adding that several mosques were being investigated for inciting terrorism and if found to be doing so, “will be shut down”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Terror Suspect ‘Denies Religious Motives’

The Frenchman who confessed to decapitating his boss before crashing his vehicle into a gas factory in an attempted suicide attack has denied he was driven by religious motives, sources claim.

The man believed to have beheaded his boss in France has denied any religious motivation, investigative sources said Monday, muddying efforts to pin down the reasons for an attack which bore the hallmarks of a jihadist act.

Yassin Salhi, 35, on Sunday confessed to decapitating his employer and pinning his severed head to the fence of a gas factory in eastern France in a macabre display that included two Islamic flags.

However according to a source close to the investigation, Salhi, who was known to security services for radicalisation, “denies any religious motivation to his act”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

How Far Along is Germany’s Nuclear Phase-Out?

Four years after Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear power completely, the country’s oldest remaining reactor has been shut down. But is Germany’s nuclear phase-out on track — and what obstacles does it face?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

How to Combat Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia?

The deadly attacks in Paris and Copenhagen have served as a wake-up call to European policy makers of the escalating reality of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racism in Europe.

The fertility of European soil to extremist ideas, policies and practices — either from the far-right or from those propagating violence in the name of Islam — must be addressed.

Our political leaders are finally starting to move beyond symbolic declarations. They want to know what strategies can work in combatting the vicious cycle of hatred and human rights violations.

This is precisely what a hearing in the European Parliament taking place today (29 June) is aiming to do by discussing anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and hate speech in Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: De Luca Seeks Annulment of Suspension in Campania

Banned governor launches court action

(ANSA) — Naples, June 29 — Vincenzo De Luca on Monday launched a court action seeking the annulment of a decision to suspend him from office as governor of the region of Campania, according to his lawyer. De Luca was suspended last week under an anti-corruption law that bans officials convicted of crimes from holding office for a limited period of time. De Luca was convicted in January of abuse of office while Salerno mayor and banned from office, but reinstated three days later. His candidacy for the ruling Democratic Party in the May 31 regional vote was controversial.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Security Services to Carry Out Major Anti-Terror Training Exercise in London This Week After Tunisia Hotel Attack

An anti-terror training exercise will be carried out in London over the next two days by Britain’s security and emergency services David Cameron has announced.

He told MPs the training would ensure the UK was prepared to deal with a terrorist attack after last Friday’s massacre by a lone Islamic extremist in Tunisia killed at least 18 Britons dead on a beach resort. Downing Street said it expects the number of British victims to grow to “around 30” in what is the biggest terrorist attack on British nationals since the 7/7 bombings.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Security Stepped Up at Wimbledon Amid Fears of a Terror Attack

Security is being stepped up for the start of Wimbledon today amid heightened fears of a terror attack, as Britain’s top tennis star Andy Murray carries the nation’s hopes once again in his quest for another SW19 title.

Scotland Yard said changes had been made to policing plans for this year’s tournament, with the UK’s terror threat level at “severe”, meaning an attack is “highly likely”.

It comes after at least 15 British holidaymakers were killed in the Tunisian beach massacre on Friday, with sources warning the death toll could double to at least 30, and as the UK prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the July 7 bombings next week.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kosovo: Serbia Turns to UN for Setting Up Tribunal for KLA

According to Belgrade, in Pristina no political will for it

(ANSA) — BELGRADE — Serbia has asked the UN to take the initiative for forming an international special tribunal to judge the crimes committed at the end of the 1990s by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The request of Belgrade comes after another stalemate at the weekend, when the Parliament in Pristina was again not able to vote on the legislative amendments necessary for the setting up the Court.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy and Tunisia Fighting Seagrass Problem Together

AGI) Rome, June 25 — A new project meant to revive tourism on coastlines covered with Posidonia, a type of seagrass, was presented in Rome on Thursday. The Medcot project aims to turn waste into resource with the help of innovative Italian technology while respecting the environment. It was presented by Italian Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti, by the Chairman of the Senate Environment Commission Giuseppe Marinello and by the mayor of Castelvetrano Selinunte. Italian scientists teamed up with researchers in the Tunisian city of Hammam-Lif whose coast, along with the beaches of Marinella di Selinunte, was selected to study the aquatic plant. Posidonia is one of the most widespread seagrasses in the Mediterranean and often creates problems by covering beaches, making them less attractive for tourism. The project aims to identify a standard way to recover the beached plants, where current methods weigh heavily on the budgets of many coastal towns.

Medcot has scheduled the creation of a pilot plant on the Italian coast, a unique installation that will collect, shred and prepare the vegetal matter for composting, creating a high quality compost that can be used in agriculture or sold to finance part of the cost of removing the plants. Using the same equipment, the collected Posidonia can also be transformed into fuel. The Tunisian side of the project follows a different approach, which aims to keep the seagrass from the beaches using special breakwaters that change the waterflow. “This initiative is an example of how an environmental approach can promote growth and development, in this case tourism,” said Minister Galletti. He underlined that “the project’s main goal is to protect the environment, but there is also a synergy between the environment, agriculture, energy, revival of tourism and technological innovation, which could become a new Italian line of production.”.

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

British Survivor at Tunisian Attack Says a Second Gunman Shot Her With Handgun

Kirsty Murray, 25, was wounded by a man with a handgun she believes was not Seifeddine Rezgui, while Steve Johnson is just as convinced he saw a second shooter ‘in red shorts’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt Prosecutor Hisham Barakat Killed in Cairo Attack

Egypt’s public prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, has been killed in a bomb attack on his car in Cairo, officials say.

Mr Barakat died of his wounds in hospital after the bombing in the suburb of Heliopolis, a government spokesman told the BBC.

State media said that at least eight others were also hurt in the attack.

Mr Barakat has referred thousands of Islamists to trial since the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

Hundreds have been sentenced to death or life imprisonment, as part of a crackdown on supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Jihadist militants have meanwhile stepped up their attacks on Egypt’s security forces.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egyptian Prosecutor General Dies in Cairo Attack

Bomb exploded as his car was passing by

CAIRO — Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat died of wounds suffered in an attack on Monday morning in the Egyptian capital, reported medical and security sources. Barakat died in a hospital in Cairo’s eastern suburb Heliopolis, where he was hospitalized immediately after the attack. The prosecutor general died of “heavy internal bleeding and damage to his lungs and stomach”, the medical sources said.

The MENA news agency and state TV confirmed the news. The attack occurred on Monday morning after Barakat left his home to go to his office in the Heliopolis area, reported the interior ministry, adding that “a bomb inside a vehicle exploded when the prosecutor’s car was passing”.

The ministry added that two policemen were injured in the attack and that the bomb had been remotely detonated. The explosion destroyed 10 vehicles at the site of the attack.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

How Terrorist Attacks Affect Tourism

There’s been an exodus of tourists from Tunisia after an Islamist gunman killed 38 — 30 of them thought to be British — in a single attack. Does that mean nobody will choose to go on holiday there for the foreseeable future?

Terrorism always aims to inspire the kind of fear that will get people to change their behaviour.

The fear of a repeat attack is one of the reasons 3,500 British tourists have left Tunisia since Friday. But some have said in interviews and on social media that they are determined to finish their holidays, to defy the attacker Seifeddine Rezgui.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Revealed: Tunisia Gunman ‘Went to Libya Three Months Ago for Jihadi Training at an ISIS Terror Camp’

The gunman who slaughtered 38 holidaymakers on the beach in Tunisia is believed to have travelled to an ISIS terror training camp in Libya, it emerged today.

Seifeddine Rezgui, 23, went to the country and took part in jihadist training in March — three months before before the atrocity, police sources have told MailOnline.

The Kalashnikov he used to shoot dead holidaymakers on the beach is also thought to have been smuggled back from Libya, separately.

The border between Tunisia and Libya is extremely porous and it has been reported in the past that up to 3,000 Tunisians have used the route to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia Attack: First Arrests Over Sousse Massacre

Tunisia has made its first arrests over the massacre of 38 people, mainly tourists, by a gunman at the beach resort of Sousse on Friday, the country’s interior minister has said.

Mohamed Gharsalli said 1,000 troops would now be deployed to protect the country’s beach resorts.

Three European ministers have laid flowers at the scene of the attack in a sign of solidarity.

Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind the attack.

Tunisian authorities say he was the only attacker, but he had accomplices who provided him with weapons and logistical support, reports AP news agency.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia Beach Attack: Gunman ‘Had Help’ From Others

The gunman who killed 38 at a beach near the Tunisian city of Sousse had help in carrying out the attack, officials say.

Interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said authorities were “sure” that Seifeddine Rezgui had had accomplices.

The government has announced increased security measures after the attack claimed by Islamic State (IS).

On Sunday the BBC learned that at least 30 of the dead were from the UK, the majority of those killed.

UK police say that 16 police officers have been deployed to Tunisia and hundreds more were working on the case in the UK in one of the largest counter-terrorism investigations since the 2005 London bombings.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisian Gunman’s Father: Islamist Extremists ‘Ruined My Son’s Brain’

The father of Tunisian gunman Seifeddine Rezgui said on Sunday Islamist extremists had “ruined my son’s brain” as he spoke of his shock at the tourist massacre.

Abdul-Hakeem Rezgui returned home after spending two days in police custody to say he had no inkling of what his 23-year-old son was planning.

Speaking outside the family home in Gaafour, near Tunis, Mr Rezgui told the Telegraph: “These people ruined my son’s brain with horrid thoughts and ideas, they broke him.

“I don’t know what to say, I don’t know anything. I didn’t know what he was doing, that’s what I told the police and that’s what I’m telling you.

“People keep asking me for information and I don’t know what to tell them, I was completely taken aback by the news of what my son had done…”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia: Gov’t Deploys 1,000 Officers to Protect Resorts

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JUNE 29 — The Tunisian government established a new tourist police unit entrusted with the protection of hotel resorts after the attack in Sousse, last Friday. Authorities announced the deployment of approximately one thousand armed officers in hotels on the coast, establishing a new model of tourist police with the aim of preventing further attacks. Tunisian Interior Minister, Najem Gharsalli, stated on his facebook profile “we are ready to deploy one thousand officers to defend resorts”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia Makes First Arrests Over Sousse Killings

TUNIS — Tunisian interior minister Majem Gharsalli announced on Monday that a number of people had been arrested for belonging to a terrorist cell with links to Seifeddine Rezgui, who carried out the Sousse killings. ‘‘We have begun to arrest an initial group of a large number of people from a network that supported this terrorist criminal,’’ he said. According to Ammani Sassi, head of the Union Générale des Etudiants Tunisiens (UGET), who flanked Rezgui in his union activities at the Kairouan University, the Sousse attacker was at the head of a five-member terrorist cell. The cell included one that had returned from Syria and active in Kairouan without any police surveillance, Sassi told Tunisienumerique.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia: Spanish Hotel Claims Police Too Slow to Arrive

The Spanish hotel chain that was the site of the attack in which 38 tourists were gunned down last Friday has claimed that authorities were too slow responding.

Tunisian investigators said they were seeking one or more accomplices to the 23-year-old killer, who was shot dead by police.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Israeli Navy Peacefully Intercepts Gaza-Bound Vessel

Israel’s navy intercepted a vessel attempting to breach a naval blockade of Gaza early Monday and was redirecting it to an Israeli port, the military and the activists said.

The military said that after exhausting all diplomatic efforts the government ordered it to block the Swedish vessel. Israeli naval forces visited the Marianne ship and searched it in international waters without needing to use any force, the military said. The ship was carrying about 20 activists, including Israeli Arab lawmaker Basel Ghattas and former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Israeli PM Announces Barrier Along Jordanian Border

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JUNE 29 — The defense council of the Israeli government on Monday approved the construction of a security barrier along the country’s border with Jordan, announced the office of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.

It added that the first phase would consist of a 30-kilometer section north of Eilat to protect an area where the Timna airport is being built. In an official statement, the prime minister’s office said that the barrier would be built entirely on Israeli territory and that it does not harm Jordanian national interests. Jordan, it said, had been informed of the project in a timely manner. Netanyahu’s office noted that the new security barrier would thus be in addition to the one built along the border with Egypt to prevent the entrance of African migrants and one that has been strengthened along the Golan Heights to improve protection from armed groups fighting in Syria.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Ship to Gaza Boarded by Israeli Military

The Israeli military boarded a Swedish-Norwegian vessel on its way to Gaza Sunday night.

The fishing boat, “Marianne of Göteborg,” was warned to turn and was boarded without incident, according to information from the military. Swedish Radio News reports that the organization “Ship to Gaza” claims the boat was in international waters when it was boarded.

The boat was carrying medical supplies and was intended to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. A similar trip five years ago resulted in the deaths of ten people at the hands of the Israeli military, when they boarded a Turkish vessel.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Ship to Gaza Boarded by Israeli Troops

Sweden-based activist group Ship to Gaza said it had failed to reach members of its crew after the vessel they were on was boarded by Israeli soldiers in the early hours of Monday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Car Bomb Explodes Near Military Hospital in Yemeni Capital, Dozens of Casualties

SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni security officials say a car bomb exploded behind a military hospital in the capital, Sanaa, causing dozens of casualties, among them civilians. The officials, close to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, said the blast on Monday targeted the homes of several Houthi leaders, but did not give further details on how many people were killed or wounded.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Executed Scores of Children in a Year of Its Caliphate

The full scale of Isis’s year of terror has been detailed in a new report that claims the jihadist group has executed more than 3,000 people in the past 12 months — a tally which includes 74 children.

According to a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights produced to mark the first anniversary of the establishment of the group’s “caliphate”, Isis has carried out 3,027 execution killings in a year.

Among the thousands of Arab and Kurdish civilians executed by the group in Syria in the last year, 86 were women.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Has Up to 42 Million Supporters in the Arab World

An analysis of four recent polls surveying Arab public opinion towards the Islamic State.

An analysis of four polls surveying Arab public opinion towards the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) reveals that the group has a bare minimum of 8.5 million strong supporters and that’s a conservative estimate. If you include those who feel somewhat positively towards the Islamic State, the number rises to at least 42 million.

The estimate is based on a March 2015 poll by the Iraq-based Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies; a November 2014 poll by Zogby Research Services; another November 2014 poll by the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and an October 2014 poll by the Fikra Forum commissioned by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mosul Residents Feel the ‘IS’ Stranglehold

A year after the fall of Mosul to “IS” extremists, the city’s residents are marking Ramadan for the second time under militant rule. IS have consolidated their hold, limiting public freedoms, as Cathy Otten writes.

Exiles and sources inside the city explained to DW that nearby coalition air strikes have increased the group’s paranoia, but not weakened their grip. Kurdish fighters are facing off against “Islamic State” extremists along a frontline not far from the city, but a mooted attack by Iraqi forces does not look imminent, after the fall of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province to IS in May.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russia Pledges to Support Syrian Government in Surprise Meeting

Russia has promised to support Syria’s government “politically, economically and militarily.” President Vladimir Putin also called on the Middle East to unite against the ‘Islamic State’ (IS).

Speaking in the Russian capital of Moscow on Monday, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said he received the pledge of support for Syrian President Bashar Assad during a surprise meeting with his Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Quashing rumors that Russia would no longer support Assad, Putin said on Monday that his country’s policy “which is intended to support Syria, Syria’s leaders and its people, remains unchanged.”

“We are convinced that in the end the Syrian people will be victorious,” Putin said.

Russia is widely seen as the key to a peaceful solution in Syria and has been a long-time supporter of Assad. Throughout the uprising against the Syrian president, Russia has provided Damascus with diplomatic cover as well as financial assistance. More than 220,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Save the Iraqi Yezidis From Genocide!

by Phyllis Chesler

The Yezidis are now on the move. This has been secretly planned for months. What we now have is a potentially mass exodus from ISIS-controlled Iraq. They have reason to believe that Bulgaria will grant them asylum. However, Turkey, which they must enter and exit on their way to Bulgaria, is giving them trouble.

According to my informant Ghulie Khalaf, “There have been clashes between the refugees and the Turkish police. Ten buses are on their way but there are seventeen more buses to be packed but the Turkish guards are stopping them at the border. We want media attention.”

This is a desperate cry. Will the enormous, sleeping conscience of the world finally awaken?

           — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler [Return to headlines]
 

Support Builds for Ailing Pakistani Christian Facing Death for Drinking From Muslim Water Cup

A Pakistani Christian woman facing death for drinking water out of the same vessel used by her Muslim co-workers is in such poor health her supporters fear she won’t make it to her date with the executioner.

Aasiya Noreen, a wife and mother of five better known as Asia Bibi, was sentenced in 2010 to be hanged for apostasy. The grim verdict was handed down after her co-workers charged she had insulted Prophet Mohammed when she was told she could not share the water vessel. Now 50, Bibi is suffering from numerous health problems, including intestinal bleeding, according to Global Dispatch, which cited Bibi’s family in reporting the woman is “so weak she could hardly walk.”

“She is an exemplar of a gross miscarriage of injustice rooted in Pakistan’s extremely unfair blasphemy laws and of how this law can victimize someone who should not be inside the criminal justice system whatsoever,” said Phelim Kine, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division.

Supporters of Bibi are calling on the U.S. to use the approximately $900 million in annual foreign aid it provides Pakistan as leverage to obtain justice for Bibi and others suffering under the Muslim nation’s Draconian blasphemy laws. The Center for Research and Security Studies, which identified 247 blasphemy cases prosecuted in Pakistan since 1987 and found many were used to persecute religious minorities and settle personal scores.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkmenistan Marks Its President’s Birthday by Opening Park in His Honor

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan — Turkmenistan has marked its leader’s 58th birthday by opening a park named after him, a move reflecting his blossoming personality cult.

Last month, Turkmenistan unveiled a grandiose gold-leafed statue of the president carrying a dove and riding atop a horse, the first such monument to Berdymukhamedov in the country dotted with gold-leafed statues of his predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov.

Like Niyazov, Berdymukhamedov hasn’t allowed any dissent or independent media in the country that sits on the world’s fourth-largest natural gas reserves.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cigarettes or Spark Suspected in Taiwan Fire That Burned 498

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Investigators in Taiwan were focusing Monday on the possibility that a cigarette butt or spark caused the blaze that burned 498 people at a weekend water park party when colored powder sprayed from the stage caught fire.

More than 400 people remained hospitalized, including 202 in serious condition, city officials said. Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported one death, a 20-year-old woman with burns to 90 percent of her body who was taken off life support with her family’s consent. It said her 12-year-old brother also had burns on 90 percent of his body.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Founding 57 Members of China-Led AIIB Investment Bank Sign up in Great Hall Ceremony

The 57 founding members of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have attended the signing ceremony for the formation of the new bank in Beijing. Key absentees were the US and Japan.

Australia was the first country to sign the articles of association for the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on Monday. It is the sixth-largest investor in the multilateral bank, with a $719-million (653-million-euro) initial contribution. China, India, Russia, Germany and South Korea have contributed larger sums.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nigerian Schoolgirls ‘Forced to Join Boko Haram’ — BBC

Some carrying out killings

(ANSA) — Rome, June 29 — Some schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria last year have been forced to join Islamist militant group Boko Haram, the BBC said Monday.

Witnesses say some are now being used to terrorise other captives, and are even carrying out killings themselves.

The testimony cannot be verified but Amnesty International says other girls kidnapped by Boko Haram have been forced to fight.

Boko Haram has killed some 5,500 civilians in Nigeria since 2013.

Some 219 schoolgirls from Chibok are still missing, more than a year after they were kidnapped from their school in northern Nigeria. Many of those seized are Christians.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

South Africa: ‘Steal From Whites’

Johannesburg — The leader of a Pretoria-based youth organisation has issued a controversial statement by telling youth to go and steal from white people in the suburbs.

Faraday Nkoane, the leader of Uhuru cultural club, told 100 youngsters who attended the Human Rights Day celebration at Lebanon township park to go and steal from the whites because “it is the right thing to do.

“Stop stealing from black people because they will deal with you in an African way. They will bewitch you and you will go crazy. The whites have stolen from us since April 6, 1652. Our ancestors’ cattle, goats, sheep, chickens and others are in the hands of the whites, while we are left with nothing. Go and steal from them because it is right.

“Taking from whites is not a crime because you repossess what belongs to you. But make sure you are not caught,” said Nkoane, addressing the youth, most of whom were in Rastafarian colours.

           — Hat tip: PS [Return to headlines]
 

11,500 US Visas Stolen in Mexico

The gunmen who recently hijacked a cargo truck carrying visas and documents bound for the U.S. consulates in Monterrey and Guadalajara were able to steal 11,500 border crossing cards that had just left this border city.

Breitbart Texas was able to learn exclusively that the truck had 11,500 border crossing cards and had just departed from Brownsville when it was hijacked just south of the Texas border as previously reported.

The hijacking took place on June 7, near the Mexican border city of Matamoros. The truck had just left the U.S. Logistics Center in Brownsville when the armed robbery took place, a government official close to the case who spoke with Breitbart Texas confirmed.

The 11,500 stolen border crossing cards are non-immigrant visas the size of a credit card. Mexican nationals use them for business or leisurely travel within the border zones of the United States.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Donald Trump Calls NBC ‘Weak and Foolish’ After They Sever Ties With GOP Hopeful

Donald Trump labeled NBC as “weak and foolish” after they ended their business relationship with the GOP hopeful over his comments about immigrants from Mexico, and said he’d see the Peacock network in court.

“If NBC is so weak and so foolish to not understand the serious illegal immigration problem in the United States, coupled with the horrendous and unfair trade deals we are making with Mexico, then their contract violating closure of Miss Universe/Miss USA will be determined in court,” Trump said in a statement to FOXNews.com. “Furthermore, they will stand behind lying Brian Williams, but won’t stand behind people that tell it like it is, as unpleasant as that may be.”

NBC cut ties with Trump after he, in his announcement to run for president, described immigrants from Mexico as “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fanta Diallo’s Senegalese Dream

At a time when thousands of African migrants risk their lives to cross the Mediterranean, a deputy mayor in the Senegalese capital Dakar is seeking to inspire young Africans to stay at home, rather than be seduced by the European lifestyle.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Incessant’ Flow of Migrants on ‘Balkan Route’ Via Serbia

Thousands of migrants from Asia and the Middle East are taking the ‘Balkan route’ to Western Europe, arriving in Serbia with the intention of crossing into Hungary and from there continuing toward other European countries further north, security sources told ANSA on Monday. More than 3,000 illegal migrants are camped out in the impoverished district of Preshevo in southern Serbia near Kosovo, while as many as 30,000 migrants have asked for asylum from the Serbian authorities, they said.

Meanwhile Hungarian authorities — who recently announced they plan to build a four-metre wall along 175 kilometres of their frontier with Serbia to block the influx of migrants — last week-end arrested more than 3,000 illegal migrants, the sources said. More than 60,000 migrants have arrived in Hungary since the start of the year, underlining the Hungarian authorities insistence that their reception structures cannot cope with such a massive influx indefinitely.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Migrant Arrivals Near Record 68k in Six Months

Italian authorities were on Monday dealing with the arrival of another 2,900 migrants at southern ports after 21 boats were rescued in the space of 24 hours from waters off Libya.

The latest operations involved coastguard and other Italian ships, British, Irish and Spanish navy vessels and a boat operated by Malta-based humanitarian organization Moas, the coastguard said.

The rescues lifted to nearly 68,000 the number of migrants to have landed in Italy this year, according to figures compiled by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Middle Class Asian Couple Used Estate Agency to Bring Migrants Into UK

Father of four Shohidul Islam, 41, and his 39-year old wife Anwara, of Burnley, Lancashire, were arrested after a Bangladeshi immigrant was discovered in a secret hideout in their loft.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A Culture Shattered

Applied throughout many decades, starting with the 1960s, the psychological process of Hegelian dialectic virtually destroyed traditional marriage and, consequently, shattered traditional Western culture. Whereas many acknowledged repellant effects of ongoing cultural transformation, few understood how it happened. A previous article summarized the progression: By fomenting discontentment and rebellion, the dialectic was jumpstarted and the pump primed for establishing progressive ideals. Consensus-destined dialogue essentially tested the waters for social engineering and societal transformation.

In Latin “consensus” means “with the sensual.” Rather than agreement in principle, agreement is with the senses, called the affective domain, which by nature is subjective and difficult to measure. The late Chuck Colson lamented, “We’ve got American kids operating from an artificial set of rules unrelated to real life; they’re going to schools where adults don’t question those rules, watching media that validates those rules, and are being wooed by advertisers who tell them how insightful they really are. Worst of all, their parents are complicit in the creation of the parallel culture.”

That all worldviews must, first, be tolerated and eventually embraced as equally valid is problematic in that all ideas don’t affect the same consequences. If you don’t think so, just ask survivors of Auschwitz. Although noble sounding, the collective “parallel culture” exacts a dear price. Under rule of the godlike State, people give up their rights, labor, time, emotional energy, and even their children to advance some euphoric, utopian cause—but to little avail. From modern Latin, the term “utopia” literally means “nowhere.” In short, the elusive ideal is delusional.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Churches, Be Warned: Gays Will Demand Church Weddings

Gay marriage is now legal in all 50 states, thanks to a broad interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court — and what that means to churches is: Watch out.

The establishment of the judiciary as the arbiter of law, not the people or the duly elected — as this court case clearly paints — now sets the stage for a showdown between gay activists and the churches that gay activists can’t wait to tear down. In other words, if gay marriage is now stamped for approval by the highest court in the land as legal, it won’t take long for the radical element of the homosexual lobby to set their designs on churches. Their likely message?

Now you have to marry us, too.

Or, maybe it’ll take this form instead: Marry us, or we’ll sue.

That’s not going to sit well with the more fundamentalist religion mindset of Christianity and other religions that already views gay marriage as a direct assault on God’s word.

Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, acknowledged in an emailed statement the Supreme Court’s legalization of nationwide gay marriage means the “battlefield shifts to religious freedom.”

He went on: “Will the progressive, totalitarian and intolerant left weaponize the government and attempt to force or compel people to affirm same-sex behavior and relationships? Or will they respect the freedom of conscience guaranteed by the Constitution?”

Here’s a guess: It’ll be the former scenario that proves true.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

First Amendment Defense Act Proposed to Protect Business Owners From SCOTUS Ruling on Same-Sex Marriage

The First Amendment Defense Act proposed Senator Mike Lee and Rep. Raul Labrador prior to the Supreme Court ruling upholding homosexual marriage under the 14th Amendment right to equal protection reveals that the United States no longer functions as a constitutional republic.

The First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) would bar the federal government from imposing penalties on individuals, businesses, groups, and especially religious organizations for refusing to participate in same-sex weddings.

In particular, the bill would not allow the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of non-profit organizations that believe same sex marriage is inappropriate.

If the Constitution prevailed in America, the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of conscience would nullify any attempt by the government to punish individuals who oppose homosexual marriage on moral and religious grounds. Last week, however, the Highest Court ruled that the First Amendment is subservient to the Fourteenth under its equal protection clause. The amendment was initially proposed to protect the rights of freed slaves during Reconstruction, but since that time the federal government has used the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause as a pretext for regulating private citizens and businesses.

“The Fourteenth Amendment, which was intended to reduce discrimination, has even been used, ironically, to uphold affirmative-action programs that discriminate against certain classes of people,” writes Allen Mendenhall.

“The Fourteenth Amendment is not itself a positive good but a dangerous animal to be handled with care.”…

More than a decade before the SCOTUS ruling last week, Ron Paul wrote:

The practice of judicial activism — legislating from the bench — is now standard procedure for many federal judges. They dismiss the doctrine of strict construction as outdated, instead treating the Constitution as fluid and malleable to create a desired outcome in any given case. For judges who see themselves as social activists, their vision of justice is more important than the letter of the law they are sworn to interpret and uphold. With the federal judiciary focused more on promoting a social agenda than on upholding the rule of law, Americans find themselves increasingly governed by judges they did not elect and cannot remove from office.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

SCOTUS Same-Sex Marriage Decision May Have Just Legalized the Concealed Carry of Loaded Firearms Across All 50 States, Nullifying Gun Laws Everywhere

(NaturalNews) The legal argument of gay marriage proponents is that because gay marriage is legal in a majority of states, that “right” cannot be infringed by the remaining states which opposed gay marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court, in granting this new, nationwide right to gay marriage, cited the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, Section 1, which states:

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The actual ruling text of the SCOTUS decision makes it clear that its “equal protection” logic would apply universally to concealed carry gun rights which already exist in a majority of states:

(1) The fundamental liberties protected by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause extend to certain personal choices central to individual dignity and autonomy, including intimate choices defining personal identity and beliefs… When new insight reveals discord between the Constitution’s central protections and a received legal stricture, a claim to liberty must be addressed. Applying these tenets, the Court has long held the right to marry is protected by the Constitution.

Similarly, the right to keep and bear arms has also long been protected by the Constitution and affirmed in multiple Supreme Court decisions, as early as last year. “In District of Columbia v Heller (2008) — the SCOTUS ruled that the 2nd Amendment rights were ‘fundamental’ in and of themselves as well as ‘fundamental to the Nation’s scheme of ordered liberty’“ writes Hawkins at Breitbart.com.

If this right to keep and bear arms (and to carry concealed firearms) is already recognized in some states, then by the Supreme Court’s own precedent on gay marriage, that right cannot be denied in ANY state!

The Supreme Court, in other words, appears to have just nullified gun control laws all across America.

The fascinating part of the SCOTUS decision on gay marriage is that it sets a precedent of a principled interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment which must now be applied to everything.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sexual Deviant “Marriage”, Roe V. Wade, Prohibition

As we all can see, sexual deviants are becoming more aggressive in trampling our God-given rights backed up by ignorant and/or activist judges, both at the state and federal level. Part of the reason why is more sexual deviants are being elected or appointed to judgeships.

Allow me to do a little back story here because it’s critically important Americans understand how they’ve been manipulated into believing something that is not true. George Orwell defined it as doublethink:

“Doublethink is the act of ordinary people simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts. Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy and neutrality. Somewhat related but almost the opposite is cognitive dissonance, where contradictory beliefs cause conflict in one’s mind. Doublethink is notable due to a lack of cognitive dissonance — thus the person is completely unaware of any conflict or contradiction.

“According to the novel, doublethink is: “The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them… To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.”…

In order to sell something so toxic, you have to market the product in a way that becomes acceptable to the masses using a lot of positive images. After all, telling youngsters and pre-teens anal sex can expose you to HIV/AIDS isn’t the picture leaders of the sexual deviant movement want to portray. They want to parade “funny” people like Ellen DeGeneres into your living room to show you how normal lesbians are, just regular Americans. Add a media icon like Oprah selling the message on her show reaching millions of empty headed women and the advancement of the cause increases in a big way.

The term ‘sexual preference’ was used until 1992, when the battle for a constitutional amendment was raging in Colorado. Sexual deviants were losing that fight because opponents reminded voters that sexual deviants preferred, their own words, unnatural sex. That’s when a new marketing term was born: ‘sexual orientation’ to promote the pervasive lie “born that way” to sway voters. It didn’t work, we passed Amendment Two to the Colorado State Constitution; activist judges then over turned the will of the people.

As time went by, more clever marketing came into play…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The ACLU Now Opposes Religious Freedom Because Christians Need it

The American Civil Liberties Union has formally reversed its support for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signaling that the organization is no longer interested in mounting an ideologically consistent defense of all people of faith. It’s a disappointing retreat on principles for the ACLU, and the organization’s explanation suggests that a singular disdain for Christian belief is the reason.

[Comment: since the group was started by Communists a better name would be American Communist Lawyers Union.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Marxist Agenda Behind the Rainbow

Imperative that we understand the depth, breath and scope of the lie and the globalist, Communist agenda behind it

The activist homosexual agenda in America has its roots in Communism. On January 10, 1963, Representative A. S. Herlong, Jr. of Florida read 45 goals of Communism in America into the Congressional Record. Listed at #26 was to “present homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as normal, natural and healthy.” What was considered abhorrent behavior and a sin by all of the world’s major religions only a half-century ago is not only accepted and ostensibly “legitimized” today, but is being openly celebrated at the White House and state houses across America.

Why is virtually no one asking how approximately three-(3) percent of our population has seemingly succeeded in changing the moral and legal landscape for 97 percent of the population? How did this change happen so quickly? It nearly mirrors the meteoric rise of Barack Hussein Obama from a virtual unknown to the putative President.

The answers exist in history. The promotion of the fraudulent research of Alfred Kinsey, the highly organized and well-funded efforts of Marxist Harry Hays, founder of the Mattachine Society in 1950, the effective use of Hollywood and Madison Avenue, to the refinement of the homosexual agenda by homosexual activists Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen in the 1980’s — when they made public their very specific tactics in their book, After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the ‘90s, were all cogs in the larger mechanism designed to destroy the morality of America.

When you read the dissenting opinions of Justices Thomas and Scalia in last Friday’s SCOTUS decision, you will see some very chilling statements, including these from Justice Clarence Thomas (Please read and consider these in the context of the above):

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Tucker Carlson Rips ‘Abhorrent’ Opinion Editor Over Banning Anti-Gay Marriage Views [Video]

Daily Caller editor-in-chief Tucker Carlson on “Fox and Friends Weekend” Sunday laid into the opinion editor of The Patriot-News/Pennlive over the publication’s decision to ban opposing views to same-sex marriage on its opinion pages.

Carlson blasted John Micek for his “abhorrent” decision, telling him it was “clear” he considers those with a differing viewpoint “bigots” who hold an “illegitimate” point of view.

The kerfuffle started moments after the Supreme Court decision Friday morning when the Harrisburg newspaper announced it would “no longer accept, nor will it print, op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage.”

“You made it pretty clear. You have contempt for people who disagree with your views,” Carlson said. “You consider them bigots and you don’t think that they ought to be able to express those views because they’re illegitimate. That was clear.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Exomoons’ Capable of Supporting Life May be Common

Exomoons are the wild card in the ongoing chase for habitable worlds.

Astronomers have discovered more than 1,900 exoplanets, a few of which might be friendly to life, but no moons circling these alien bodies have turned up as of yet. Astronomers do not know how common exomoons might be or, for that matter, what they might be like.

A new study fills in an important gap in the developing theoretical framework regarding exomoons. The paper looks at a special set of exomoons located in the habitable, or “Goldilocks zone” — the not-too-cold, not-too-hot band where water neither freezes nor boils off a planet’s (or moon’s) surface.

Giant, water-rich, Goldilocks-zone moons might be ideal for the nurturing of alien life. These exomoons could represent the most prevalent, life-friendly abodes in the universe, scientists say.

“If Mars-sized, water-rich moons around super-Jupiters are common, as our study suggests, then habitable moons could easily outnumber habitable planets,” said Heller.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Truth is a Crime Against the State

The entire Western edifice rests on lies. There is no other foundation. Just lies.

This makes truth an enemy. Enemies have to be suppressed, and thus truth has to be suppressed.

Truth comes from foreign news sources, such as RT, and from Internet sites, such as this one.

Thus, Washington and its vassals are busy at work closing down independent media.

Washington and its vassals have redefined propaganda. Truth is propaganda if it is told by countries, such as Russia and China, that have independent foreign policies.

Propaganda is truth if told by Washington and its puppets, such as the EU Observer.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/29/2015

  1. Grexit? With any luck, and if it does happen let us but hope that it starts the snowball rolling downhill. Then, that done, we may be in a position to start dealing with other urgent matters that absolutely have nothing to with Islam.

Comments are closed.