Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/14/2016

A 27-year-old man entered an army recruitment center in Toronto carrying a knife and stabbed two soldiers who worked there before being subdued by six or eight other soldiers. Both the injured soldiers and the attacker are now recovering in the hospital. No information has been given out by the authorities, so the Mohammed Coefficient of the case cannot yet be determined, but the Toronto police chief says there may be a connection with terrorism. Nevertheless, it is absolutely certain that the incident had nothing to do with Islam.

In other news, British holidaymakers who are attempting to schedule holidays in terrorism-free resorts — such as the coast of Spain, for example, instead of North Africa, West Africa, Turkey, etc. — may have to pay as much as 80% more as a “safety premium” to do so. Spain is thought to have fewer jihadis than other, more southern locales, hence the higher prices.

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

Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, lallatin, Vlad Tepes, 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.

USA
» Animals of the Liberal Left
» Chicago: Anti-Trump Groupthink Enables a Violent Mob, And No One Seems to Mind
» Clinton and Sanders Condemn Trump After Violent Protests
» Florida Governor Rick Scott Signed Into Law Groundbreaking Anti-BDS Legislation
» Jean-Claude Van Damme: Rockefeller & Rothschild Families Won’t Let Trump Win
» Judge Jeanine: The Left Will ‘Stop at Nothing to Prevent Free Speech’
» Obama Releases His Shortlist of Nominations for Supreme Court and 4 Out of 5 Are His Donors!
» Reporter Who Says She Was Manhandled by Trump Campaign Manager Resigns From Breitbart
» Retired World Bank Economist Killed
» The Defense of the Oligarchs: Moveon.org’s “Simple & Utter Brutishness”
» Trump Stage Stormer Presses Others to Do Same
 
Canada
» Man Arrested After 2 Canadian Forces Members Stabbed at Toronto Recruitment Centre
 
Europe and the EU
» “Edward Snowden: ‘We Must Seize the Means of Communication’ To Protect Basic Freedoms” In Insurge Intelligence
» Barack Obama Will Fly to Britain Next Month to Urge Voters to Stay in the EU…
» Britons Will Pay More for ‘Safe’ Resorts This Summer: Tourists Could Face Costs Up to 80 Per Cent Higher to Travel to Spanish Locations Than Those in Turkey
» Could France Fund New Mosques by a ‘Tax on Halal’?
» Czech Republic: Average Wage Up by 3.9% Year-on-Year
» Eleven Sex Attacks a Day in Austria
» Germany: Deutsche Bank Does Not Rule Out Capital Increase
» Germany’s AfD Hails Polls as ‘Good Day for Democracy’
» Germany: AfD Polls 24% in Saxony
» Germany Assesses Shake-Up Following Election Gains for AfD
» Italy Poverty Spending Less Than Half EU Average ISTAT Says
» Italy: Bertolaso Says Meloni Should Focus on Being a Mum
» Mars TGO Probe Despatched on Methane Investigation
» Mayor of London Criticizes Obama’s Support of UK Staying in EU
» Oldest Ever Human Genome Sequence May Rewrite Human History
» Slovakia Signs Deal for Hyperloop Transport at 1 200 Km/H
» Spain: Valencia Pro Bullfighting March Draws Thousands
» UK: Claim: Labour Party Muslims ‘Cover’ For Sex Grooming Gangs, Use Death Threats and ‘Clan’ Politics
 
Middle East
» Corruption Among Iran’s Business Elites
» Feeling the Pressure: Erdogan ‘May Become Even More Isolated’
» Putin Orders Withdrawal of Russian Forces From Syria
» Putin Orders Russian Troops to Begin Pulling Out of Syria
» Putin Orders Russian Forces to Begin Withdrawal From Syria
» Religious TV Channels on the Rise Across Mideast
» Senior Saudi Royal Criticises Obama
 
South Asia
» Central Asia Strongman Regimes Challenged by Stuttering Economies
» India’s Hardline Hindus Abandon Trademark Shorts
» ‘Untouchable’ Who Married Upper-Caste Girl Hacked to Death on Busy Indian Street
 
Far East
» China’s Next Bubble? Iron Ore Surges as Speculators Weigh in
» China: Heilongjiang Authorities Surprisingly Side With Striking Miners
» Nuclear Energy Booming in Asia
 
Australia — Pacific
» Africans Brawl in Melbourne, Sydney
» Unease Over Chinese Investors Buying Farms Down Under
 
Latin America
» Historic Protests Leave Brazil’s Rousseff Cornered
 
Immigration
» 20M Invaders Waiting: Macedonia
» 30,558 Freed Invaders Commit 92,347 Crimes
» Austria: Migrant Route Via Italy Also Needs Blocking
» Californians Are Voting With Their Feet
» Hundreds Cross From Greece Into Macedonia
» Hungary Spent Eur 257 Mln for Managing Migrant Flux in 2015
» Idomeni Refugees Push to Cross Into Macedonia Despite Border Closure
» Merkel Drubbed at the Ballot Box as Surging Nationalists Declare: ‘People Voted Against Her Migrant Policy’
» Merkel to Stick to Refugee Policy Despite Election Defeat
» Spain Rejects EU-Turkey ‘One in, One Out’ Refugee Deal
» Swedish School Performance Hamstrung by Immigration
» Tony Blair Says Britain’s Unemployed Are Wrong to Complain Migrants Are Taking Their Jobs and Says They Should Get Better Education and Skills Instead
» Two Thirds of Arrivals Are ‘Basically Illiterate’
» Watch: Protesters Blockade Calais, Demand End to ‘Invasion in Europe’
 
Culture Wars
» Italy: Parents Angry at Alleged Father’s Day Move at Milan School
 

Animals of the Liberal Left

In my article, Chicago Protests Not About Trump, I refer to the liberal left Alinsky agitators as “animals.” That’s what they seemed like to me — animals who have tossed aside their humanity to demand what they think they want, regardless of any level of human reasoning.

I am an avid reader. I am always in the process of reading a number of books. Usually, I tackle two or three non-fiction books, and one fiction book, at a time. Of the books I am reading now, among them is a just-under-a-thousand-pages monster titled “The Evolution Handbook.” The book is based on the even longer (1,326 page, three volume) “Evolution Disproved” series.

As I navigated the early portions of the book challenging the scientific theory of evolution, this morning, finally cracking it open after finishing “God vs. Communism” by Walter L. Scratch, on page 17, at the very top of the page, I came across a paragraph that nailed it when it came to the riots, violence, and protests we have been seeing during the Obama administration that are obviously staged by hard-left revolutionaries and agitators.

“Morality and ethical standards have been greatly reduced. Children and youth are taught in school that they are an advanced level of animals, and there are no moral principles. Since they are just animals, they should do whatever they want. Personal survival and success will come only by rivalry, strife, and stepping on others.” Ferrell, Vance, “The Evolution Handbook”, Altamont, TN: Evolution Facts Inc., 2001, page 17.

The copyright page indicates the text was first written in 2001 with the first paperback edition (and actually prior since it originally comes from that three-volume edition), so this was written long before the Ferguson riots, or the violent and dangerous protests we are seeing during the 2016 election season.

Removing God from our society is a part of the goal. We are not God’s creation, the evolutionists say. We are nothing more than rabid animals who, since we can’t be trusted with our “psychotic individualism,” because we are vicious and angry, we must be controlled.

By working to remove moral standards established by God, the liberal left is creating a cultural condition conducive to their plans of centralized control, and authoritarian government.

[…]

The results of leftism infiltrating the education system with godless theories like evolution, while slamming the churches with godless communism, are producing today’s Alinsky agitators. Remember, Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is a proponent of “Black Liberation Theology,” which is Marxist at its core.

The “animals,” however, don’t even truly know why they were protesting. On the Fox News reporting of the Chicago “anti-Trump” protests two different protesters were asked what they were trying to accomplish, and they said the exact same thing, “I don’t want to give my reasons.” One was a college age white male, and the other a Hispanic female with an accent of about the same age. They don’t know “why” because they were just doing what they were told to do by their handlers, and by the indoctrination throughout their young lives. The protesters were acting like animals, angry and flinging their feces (in a figurative way) because they were told to be angry, defiant, loud, and disruptive.

While the elite ruling class tells them it is for the good of the community, in reality the agitators are trained animals acting to bring down their own society because they have been taught to.

In Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” Alinsky emphasizes the importance of convincing the agitators that the violence is about “community.”

[Comment: Good article. Recommended reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Chicago: Anti-Trump Groupthink Enables a Violent Mob, And No One Seems to Mind

No, the violent uprising in Chicago this weekend was not a spontaneous reaction by concerned citizens to Donald Trump’s scheduled rally there. As with Benghazi, nothing that big ever happens spontaneously. It was organized, apparently by well-established liberal organizations with serious funding behind them. It was an orchestrated attempt to stop a political candidate from speaking, ironically on the grounds that the candidate is some sort of fascist.

But unless you pay every protester, you can’t organize a mob of people who are not willing. These people were very willing, which is why for all the talk about how dangerous Trump’s candidacy supposedly is, there is far more danger in the easy manipulation of ordinary people who can be made to believe things just because everyone else seems to believe them.

The anti-Trump fever is starting to look like one of those situations where a parent leaves a child or a dog in a hot car, and everyone on the Internet believes this gives them license to conduct a digital lynching of that person. In all likelihood, the web warriors don’t know nearly as much about the situation as they think they do, but that scarcely matters. They believe they’ve identified a person of such horrendous character that it gives them not only the right but the duty to let everyone on Earth know of their disgust toward that person.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Clinton and Sanders Condemn Trump After Violent Protests

Clinton says Republican frontrunner worries foreign leaders

(ANSA) — New York, March 14 — Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both condemned Republican frontrunner Donald Trump during a televised CNN town hall meeting on Sunday evening, following Trump rally protests that turned violent at the weekend. “(Trump) is conducting a cynical campaign of hate and fear for one reason: to get votes,” Clinton said.

Sanders called Trump a “pathological liar” and said Trump should tell his supporters that violence in the political process is unacceptable.

Trump cancelled a political rally in Chicago last Friday after his supporters and protesters clashed, and Trump has said that Sanders supporters are to blame for the violence.

At a Trump rally in Kansas City on Saturday, police used pepper spray to disperse protesters.

At the town hall meeting Clinton said she has received messages from foreign leaders concerned about the prospect of a Trump presidency, asking if they could publicly endorse her candidacy.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Florida Governor Rick Scott Signed Into Law Groundbreaking Anti-BDS Legislation

Last Thursday, March 10, 2016, Florida Governor Scott signed SB 86 into law prohibiting the State Board of Administration from investing in companies that boycott Israel. Florida became the third state to pass this ground breaking anti-BDS legislation during the current legislative cycle across the country. In a statement released to the media, Scott said:…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Jean-Claude Van Damme: Rockefeller & Rothschild Families Won’t Let Trump Win

Actor says Trump is the only anti-globalist candidate

Jean-Claude Van Damme sensationally told a French political show that the Rockefeller and Rothschild families won’t let Donald Trump win the presidency because he is an anti-globalist candidate.

Appearing on Le Grand Journal, the Belgian actor was keen to express that he was “aware” of who was really shaping the US presidential election race.

Speaking about Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, Van Damme asserted, “Well, they are not going to win”.

“You still have the Rockefeller, people like the Rothschild, those big families that dominate continents…these are families that rise in 1827, a family with five sons that expands, it’s above everything we’re talking (about) tonight,” stated the actor.

He went on to make a distinction between “lobbyists” that control the other candidates and “people like Donald Trump,” who is self-funded.

“If I myself have goods and worked all my life, for my family, my friends, for my country, where I pay my taxes, what he wants first in my opinion is to protect his interests, whereas someone who works for free is someone dangerous,” remarked Van Damme.

He then went on to assert that “globalists” were the problem and that “to get out of globalism is to leave the world alone”.

Some of the other participants in the debate looked stunned that Van Damme had brought up the topic.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Judge Jeanine: The Left Will ‘Stop at Nothing to Prevent Free Speech’

On the Saturday broadcast of “Justice” on Fox News Channel, host Judge Jeanine Pirro responded to the protestors at GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rallies, blasting them for attempting to stop free speech by interrupting rallies.

“Since when if you state an opinion are you responsible for someone else’s reaction? Since when if you verbally lean right, are you responsible for the left’s physical reaction? Since when do you have the right to interrupt my First Amendment right to listen to a candidate for the highest office in the land? This is America, not the Soviet Union,” Pirro stated. “This is America. You cannot prevent me from speaking or listening. You cannot censor speech. Free speech is guaranteed. It’s why our founding fathers made it their very first amendment to the law of the land. It’s what distinguishes us from communist countries and totalitarian regimes.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Releases His Shortlist of Nominations for Supreme Court and 4 Out of 5 Are His Donors!

Surprise! Okay, so it’s probably not that surprising to any observer with at least an ounce of intellectual honesty. If you hadn’t already heard, let me be the one who breaks the news to you.

On Friday, the media began reporting that the Obama administration had narrowed their list of Supreme Court nomineesto five federal judges. That the President was planning on pushing forward with his plan to nominate a Justice to replace the recently passed Antonin Scalia was no surprise; what was surprising was the fact that the Obama team would be so nakedly corrupt. Where is the corruption you ask?

Well, apparently, 4 out of the 5 judges being considered are… Obama donors!

Imagine, if you will, that President Obama was a Republican seeking to ram a Supreme Court Justice through in the final months of his presidency. Would the media sit idly by and allow him to only vet possible nominees who were so blatantly biased towards his own political philosophy? No, if Obama were a Republican, the media would be howling at the injustice of it all. However, since Obama is not a Republican but the most liberal Democrat to ever serve as President, the media has chosen to be silent on this travesty of justice (literally).

As disappointed as I am, I’m not at all surprised as liberal corruption and media silence have become par for the course in America these days.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Reporter Who Says She Was Manhandled by Trump Campaign Manager Resigns From Breitbart

Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields and editor-at-large Ben Shapiro have resigned from the conservative site over its handling of an alleged assault on Fields by Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

“I don’t think they took my side,” Fields told The Washington Post early Monday. “They were protecting Trump more than me.”

Last week, Fields recounted in a post for Breitbart how Lewandowski allegedly grabbed her by the arm and yanked her away as she attempted to ask Trump a question after a news conference in Florida. The encounter left finger-shaped bruises on the 28-year-old reporter’s arm.

The Post’s Ben Terris, who witnessed the incident, has reported that Lewandowski was the one who grabbed Fields.

Trump and Lewandowski vehemently denied the accusation, and on Friday Breitbart — which has been sympathetic to Trump throughout the campaign — published a long post by senior editor at large Joel Pollak that painstakingly pieced together the event in question before concluding that the altercation couldn’t have happened the way Fields described it. Ultimately, Pollak suggested that perhaps Terris mistook Lewandowski for a security official or that her injuries were an accident incurred in the press scrum…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Retired World Bank Economist Killed

At 1:00AM Friday morning, Johan De Leede (83), a retired World Bank economist, was killed by gunshots at his home in Mason Neck, Virginia.

His wife, upstairs in the home at te time, heard a noise and went downstairs to investigate and found her husband collapsed on the floor, police said.

“We have no credible evidence or leads at this point. It’s a true mystery,” said Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. “This truly is a case where we need input from the community. We want to hear about any suspicious activity.”

Police said De Leede’s wife called authorities at 1:06 a.m., saying that her husband was unresponsive. A neighbor then called 911 to report gunshots in the area, which is in the 6000 block of River Drive. De Leede’s wife initially thought he had fallen, police said.

A spokesman at the World Bank said De Leede worked there for nearly 25 years before retiring as a senior economist in 1994.

[Comment: People who are in a position to trace the looting of countries by banksters are being eliminated. A sign of an imending global economic collapse.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Defense of the Oligarchs: Moveon.org’s “Simple & Utter Brutishness”

Kids these days… So the Trump rally in Chicago was successfully disrupted by mostly young and socio-economic despondent protestors who have, unknowingly, been turned into pre-programmed anti-Trump warriors by the Oligarchs they claim to hate (yes MoveOn.org is fully funded by the Oligarchs, look it up). The very same mentality that naively fell hook-line-and-sinker into Obama’s message of “Change, Yes We Can”. Now many of these protestors today are simply too young to remember the 2008 Obama campaign for what it really was; the greatest fraud in the history of American politics (and wow is that saying something).

However, this time around there are millions of Americans who do have the benefit of recent history still burned into their hearts. Millions of previously naive, young voters devastated by the deceit of politics, leaving them scorned are now ready to fight the Oligarchs and the bought and paid for Executive and Legislative branches of government. Citizen soldiers are a key component of any revolution.

Remember, Trump supporters are not die hard fans of Trump per se, they are themselves warriors ready take back their nation. And I expect if push comes to shove, which apparently MoveOn.org is dead set on making happen, Trump supporters will respond in kind. And so perhaps the violent revolution begins. The unwavering wave of support against the establishment is not a light hearted movement.

And while a group of young, angry protestors, organized by those who will discard them without so much as a deep breath beforehand, appear steadfast they will soon find out what it means to be on the wrong side of right. While they are rightly ready to fight, they are wrongly allowing themselves to be manipulated in believing their fight is with Trump. For Trump and Sanders are the same movement anthropomorphized in different bodies. And through Trump and Sanders the bloodshed need be directed at the oligarchs.

I’m not a proponent of violence but in a world that has become indifferent to the horrors of inhumanity after 15 years of continuous pre-planned illegal wars paid for by US dollars it is not outside my comfort zone either. If the moment is upon us well so be it. Let’s do what we must to drive the proverbial wooden stake into the black hearts of the sociopathic psychopaths that have transformed America into their own private golden goose of money and mercenaries.

But talk like this makes people nervous and the oligarchs count on the masses’ “better sense”. That is, they have created a system that produces a perpetuity of ill gotten gains they then use to prevent any sort of uprising. But they too have read the history books and so they understand the ancestral instinct to be free. They therefore quietly pass laws that allow “dissident citizens” to be deemed threats to national security simply by uttering those words. “You are a threat to national security”.

If you hear those words directed at you by any government commander it means you no longer have any constitutional rights. A fact that was made law by way of executive order 13528 in Jan 2010 and that will have you placed as a “civilian internee” as described in the follow-on Feb 2010 Operative Manual and solidified by the National Defense Authorization Act, signed Dec 31, 2011 by President Barack Obama from his vacation rental in Kailua, Hawaii. You will have lost your right to due process, Habeas Corpus or any other protections guaranteed you by the Bill of Rights. Everyone should read the following two articles that do well to explain the matter here and here.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Trump Stage Stormer Presses Others to Do Same

Thomas DiMassimo, the 22-year-old who tried to storm Donald Trump’ s Ohio stage, but was thwarted by security, said others around the nation ought to mirror his actions — that opponents of the billionaire businessman can put a stop to his “ white supremacist’ messages.

During an interview on CNN, DiMassimo, who was arrested and charged with inducing a panic and with disorderly conduct, cited his reasons for storming the stage as rooted in stopping Trump’ s rhetoric.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Man Arrested After 2 Canadian Forces Members Stabbed at Toronto Recruitment Centre

Toronto police chief Mark Saunders outside military recruitment centre at Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue 3:39

Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders says a 27-year-old man is under arrest after two members of the Canadian Forces were stabbed in north Toronto earlier on Monday.

Saunders said the unprovoked attack took place at around 3:30 p.m. at a military recruitment centre near Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue.

A man walked into the recruitment centre, pulled out a knife and attacked the person behind the counter, Saunders said. The attacker attempted to move farther into the building, but was taken down by a group of between six and eight soldiers, the chief said.

Two people suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The attack took place at the Joseph Shepard Building, which houses several federal government agencies, on Yonge Street near Sheppard Avenue. (Natalie Kalata/CBC)

“We’re fortunate that the Canadian Forces, through their training, reacted,” Saunders told reporters, adding the injuries could have been “much more severe” had they not stopped the attack.

The chief also said the suspect uttered “certain comments” that are of concern, but declined to say what they were.

“I want a full understanding of what was said, so I’m not giving bits and pieces,” the chief said.

Saunders said police are strongly considering the possibility that the attack was an act of terrorism, but he said it’s still early in the investigation.

The suspect is currently being held in custody in hospital…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

“Edward Snowden: ‘We Must Seize the Means of Communication’ To Protect Basic Freedoms” In Insurge Intelligence

A gathering of journalists, hackers and whistleblowers in Berlin this weekend heard former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, Edward Snowden, issue a call for citizens to find ways to take direct control over the information technologies we use everyday.

The Logan Symposium, organized by the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) based in Goldsmiths University, London, also heard from Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange, and NSA whistleblowers Thomas Drake and William Binney.

The two-day conference was supported by a wide range of press freedom organisations, independent journalism outfits, and mainstream media?- including the German newsmagazine Der Speigel.

I participated in the symposium as a speaker, where I and my other panelists including investigative journalist Jacob Appelbaum?-?who has worked with both Assange and Snowden, and independently broke the story of NSA spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel?-?described our experiences of frontline reporting.

Also on my panel was Eveline Lubbers, who has pioneered investigations exposing UK police operations to infiltrate activist groups; Martin Welz, editor of Noseweek, South Africa’s only investigative journalism magazine; Natalia Viana, co-director of Brazil’s leading nonprofit investigative journalism outlet, Agencia Publica; and Anas Aremeyaw, Africa’s foremost undercover journalist.

During his exclusive video address on Saturday evening, Snowden cautioned against viewing new developments in encryption as the only way of addressing mass surveillance, instead emphasising the urgency of dramatic global political and legal reform.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Barack Obama Will Fly to Britain Next Month to Urge Voters to Stay in the EU…

…But he is immediately accused of hypocrisy as he is reminded of how the US won independence

Barack Obama will fly to Britain next month to urge voters to back staying in the European Union, it was revealed this morning.

The US President is planning a ‘big, public reach-out’ to British voters to make the case for staying in the Brussels club.

But Brexit campaigners have hit back, saying the intervention from the president of a country that won its independence through a civil war was hypocritical and told Mr Obama to ‘keep his views to himself’.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Britons Will Pay More for ‘Safe’ Resorts This Summer: Tourists Could Face Costs Up to 80 Per Cent Higher to Travel to Spanish Locations Than Those in Turkey

British families face paying a ‘safety premium’ for holidays as they look to escape the terror attacks bringing death and mayhem to popular resorts.

The bloodbath in a hotel in a beach resort in Ivory Coast yesterday, provides new evidence as to how innocent tourists are now in the sights of jihadist murderers.

Millions of British families have already turned their backs on Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt in response to a series of terror attacks.

The net result is that they are chasing alternatives in apparently safe holiday destinations, such as Spain, the Balearic islands, the Canary Islands, Portugal and Italy.

Such is the demand for holidays in safe havens that prices have soared and many hotels and resorts in places like Spain have already sold out.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Could France Fund New Mosques by a ‘Tax on Halal’?

A French MP and member of France’s Republican Party has argued that a tax on halal products would allow for “an autonomous French Islam”.

The suggestion of taxing halal products in order to fund the building of mosques was first made by Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, from France’s Republic Party, in her book, Nous avons changé de monde (We have a changed world) which was published last month.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Czech Republic: Average Wage Up by 3.9% Year-on-Year

Statistics office: Eur 1000 per month

(ANSA) — PRAGUE — The average salary in the Czech Republic rose by 3.9% year-on-year, reaching 28,152 coronas (around 1000 euros) in the last quarter of 2015, local media reported citing the data released by the National Statistics Office, Csu. The consumer prices grew by 0.3% in the same period of reference. According to Csu, 80% of the workforce earns between 11 and 46 thousand coronas (around 400-1600 euros approximately).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Eleven Sex Attacks a Day in Austria

An average of 11 new sexual assault cases are being filed every day in Austria, according to latest figures from the Interior Ministry.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Deutsche Bank Does Not Rule Out Capital Increase

Cryan to FAZ, at the present time we see other solutions

(ANSA) — BERLIN — Deutsche Bank does not rule out another capital increase in the future. “A president should never exclude such a measure”, said today DB number one John Cryan speaking with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “But at the present time — he added — we see other solutions in order to satisfy our need for capital”. After cutting bonuses, and after the losses in 2015, the group has raised fixed salaries, in order to compensate the previous measure. “We can not let our colleagues pay for the mistakes we made”, Cryan added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Germany’s AfD Hails Polls as ‘Good Day for Democracy’

The right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Monday hailed regional elections in which it achieved breakthrough results as “a good day for democracy”.

Its leader Frauke Petry said it was time to reassess Chancellor Angela Merkel’s liberal refugee policy, which she slammed as costly and based on false ideas on how well migrants would integrate into the labour market.

“We have to reassess what is doable and what can be financed in this country — and not, like the left, spread utopian ideas about how many millions and billions more in taxpayers’ money can be spent, now that we have realised that the fairytale of skilled migrants from civil war areas obviously isn’t true.”…

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

Germany: AfD Polls 24% in Saxony

In what can be regarded as a major setback for the pro-invasion parties in Germany, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has polled at least 24 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, 14 percent in Baden-Württemberg, and 12 percent in Rhineland Palatinate during state elections today. The projections will be finalized as all the results come in, but are unlikely to change dramatically.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Assesses Shake-Up Following Election Gains for AfD

The insurgent Alternative for Germany (AfD) have made serious gains from a standing start in the three state elections. CDU candidates who’d distanced themselves from Angela Merkel’s refugee policies fared the worst.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Poverty Spending Less Than Half EU Average ISTAT Says

Stats bureau says 1.47 mn families in absolute poverty in 2014

(ANSA) — Rome, March 14 — National statistics bureau Istat on Monday said that 0.7% of Italy’s current public spending is allocated to the fight against poverty, less than half that of the EU average of 1.9%.

In testimony in the Lower House on Monday during a hearing before the Labour and Social Affairs Committees regarding an anti-poverty bill, Istat said that in 2014, 1.47 million Italian families were classified as living in absolute poverty.

Of those, poverty is worst in the country’s south, with 704,000 families in absolute poverty, representing 45.5% of the overall total.

Istat said absolute poverty figures experienced a jump between 2012 and 2013 — increasing a full 5% in the country’s south, from 5.1% to 10.1% — before stabilising in 2014.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Bertolaso Says Meloni Should Focus on Being a Mum

FdI leader is pregnant

(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, March 14 — Centre-right Rome mayor candidate Guido Bertolaso has said that Giorgio Meloni, the leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, should concentrate on being a mum after ruling out sharing the ticket with her in Rome’s local elections in June. Bertolaso’s position has been weakened after Northern League leader Matteo Salvini pulled his support for the former civil protection chief. Salvini wants Meloni, who is pregnant, to be the centre-right candidate and she has said she is willing to stand.

“Meloni must do the job of being a mum,” Bertolaso told La7 television on Sunday. “It seems to me to be the most beautiful thing that can happen to a woman. She has to handle this chapter of her life. “I don’t see why someone should force her to do a ferocious election campaign and take care of holes (in roads) and dirtiness while she is breast feeding”.

Meloni said Monday that it was possible to reconcile work with maternity.

“I say to Guido Bertolaso, with courtesy and pride, that I hope to be an excellent mother, like all those women who manage to reconcile professional commitments and maternity amid a thousand difficulties, often in conditions more difficult than mine,” she said. Alfio Marchini, an independent candidate to be Rome mayor, said even he would vote for Meloni if Bertolaso repeated the attack. “Another two attacks on the mamma Meloni and I’ll vote for her,” Marchini, who was briefly touted as a possible candidate behind whom the centre right could unite, said via Twitter. “Countries with higher birth rates? Where there’s greater female employment!”.

Virginia Raggi, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement’s candidate to be Rome mayor, said Monday that it was possible to be a mum and the capital’s first citizen. “Of course I can (be mayor and mum), just like all working mothers, I’ll bend over backwards,” said Raggi, who has a small child. “I’m ready and we are ready to govern Rome. More public transport vehicles, more security, more money for schools. A city that functions is not left-wing or right-wing, it’s a 5-Star city”. Raggi’s comments were echoed by M5S leader Beppe Grillo.

“Spread the word! We are ready to govern Rome!” comedian-turned-politician Grillo said on his Facebook page.

Patrizia Bedori, meanwhile, used Facebook to “get some things off my chest” after quitting as M5S’s candidate to be Milan mayor.

She directed her fire at those who called her unemployed and a housewife, stressing that she was not offended by either term. “There are millions of housewives in Italy and thanks to them, your mothers, sisters, wives and partners who every day dedicate themselves to the family and do a long series of jobs that the State fails to so, such as taking care of the elderly, Italy is on its feet,” she said.

“As for those who called me unemployed, using this word in a denigratory, negative way, as if to say loser, you should know that I wasn’t looking for a cushy seat.

“And I have shown that. But what’s more serious is that you have offended millions of people who have had their dignity taken away from them”.

Bertolaso also expressed satisfaction on Monday after winning a poll of centre-right supporters last weekend about who should be the mayor candidate. The poll was organised to reinforce Bertolaso’s position after Salvini withdrew his support for him. Organizers of the poll said Bertolaso won over 96% of the close to 50,000 votes cast. “More Romans came (to the centre-right poll) than those who went to the primaries of the PD (Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party),” Bertolaso said. “The numbers say so. We were almost at the 50,000 mark”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Mars TGO Probe Despatched on Methane Investigation

A joint European and Russian space mission is heading to Mars.

Launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will study methane and other rare gases in the Red Planet’s atmosphere, and also drop a lander on its surface.

Controllers received a signal from the probe late on Monday, confirming it was in good health.

Analysis of tracking data indicated that the 4.3-tonne orbiter was on a good trajectory as well.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mayor of London Criticizes Obama’s Support of UK Staying in EU

The Mayor of London has attacked US President Barack Obama for his support of the UK staying in the EU. In a newspaper column, Johnson dismissed Obama’s intervention as a “piece of outrageous and exorbitant hypocrisy.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Oldest Ever Human Genome Sequence May Rewrite Human History

The oldest ever human nuclear DNA to be reconstructed and sequenced reveals Neanderthals in the making — and the need for a possible rewrite of our own origins.

The 430,000-year-old DNA comes from mysterious early human fossils found in Spain’s Sima de los Huesos, or “pit of bones”.

The fossils look like they come from ancestors of the Neanderthals, which evolved some 100,000 years later. But a 2013 study found that their mitochondrial DNA is more similar to that of Denisovans (see video, below), who also lived later and thousands of kilometres away, in southern Siberia.

So who were the Sima people — and how are they related to us?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Slovakia Signs Deal for Hyperloop Transport at 1 200 Km/H

From Bratislava to Vienna, Budapest in 8-10 minutes

(ANSA) — TRIESTE — The Government of Slovakia signed an agreement with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to explore the possibility of connecting Bratislava with Vienna and Budapest in 8-10 minutes. The project — based on the idea of Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors — promises capsule travel at 1200 kilometres per hour, faster than the airplane. The deal with Slovakia does not sanction deadlines nor investment figures. At the moment, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is developing an 8km test connection along the Los Angeles-San Francisco highway.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Valencia Pro Bullfighting March Draws Thousands

Thousands of Spaniards, including leading lights from the world of bullfighting, on Sunday joined a protest rally in favour of the traditional but controversial pastime.

The protesters marched through the streets of the eastern town of Valencia to protest at local authority bans applied in some parts of the country.

Famous names from the ritualistic ‘sport’ famously portrayed by Ernest Hemingway in his “Death in the Afternoon” novel attending the march were Enrique Ponce and Julian Lopez “El Juli” Escobar…

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

UK: Claim: Labour Party Muslims ‘Cover’ For Sex Grooming Gangs, Use Death Threats and ‘Clan’ Politics

Dozens of Muslim women have spoken out against the systematic use of death threats and sexual violence by Muslim men within Britain’s Labour Party. They accuse the party of doing little to address the problem.

One woman alleged that Labour councillors covered for a businessman caught sexually abusing “white girls” on camera. Others, she said, forced abused Muslim women to return to violent husbands, and many others said intimidation was used to block Muslim women from local politics.

The anonymous, female Muslim, who was blocked for becoming a councillor, said local Labour politicians overlooked “inappropriate behaviours going on of a sexual nature between young white girls and Asian males” because the perpetrator was a supportive “Asian” businessman.

She said it was a “regular occurrence”.

Sexual slurs, intimidation and even death threats were used by sexist Muslim men to stop females entering local government.

Many of the women also told of the “clan politics” perpetrated by these patriarchal communities, the so-called “biraderi”, imported from the South Asian subcontinent whereby votes are delivered in blocks.

One ex-councillor explained how she was ousted: “I’ve no doubt I was deselected by Pakistani clan politics. There were around 100 people in the room. One of the local councillors had been recruiting family and friends to deselect me.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Corruption Among Iran’s Business Elites

In Iran, billionaire Babak Zanjani has been sentenced to death for corruption. He once had close ties to political circles. The justice system just wants to close the case and has no interest in further explanation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Feeling the Pressure: Erdogan ‘May Become Even More Isolated’

The next few months may see the further isolation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will continue to antagonize more people at home and abroad, according to Ian Bremmer, a well-known US political scientist.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “may soon become even more isolated” as he continues to infuriate more people at home and abroad, US political scientist Ian Bremmer wrote in an article for Time magazine.

According to Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, an NYC-based political consulting firm, Ankara will “continue to bear the brunt” of the consequences of its strained ties with Moscow, which deteriorated drastically after Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane in Syria in November 2015.

He also pointed to Turkey’s NATO allies, such as the United States, being unhappy about Erdogan’s policies, including his stance on the fight against Daesh (ISIL/ISIS).

“Washington is angry that Turkey is dropping many more bombs on Syrian Kurds than on ISIS, the focal point of US air attacks,” Bremmer said.

According to him, “some Europeans suspect that Erdogan will pocket more European cash and concessions while doing little to keep his end of the bargain by stemming the flow of migrants from Turkey.”

“Turkey’s government and European leaders are working to forge a deal to better manage the migrant crisis, but it’s unlikely to produce the results Europeans want — and Erdogan may soon become even more isolated,” Bremmer said.

Additionally, Erdogan is facing a raft of domestic problems, including those pertaining to the tourism industry, which Bremmer said “hopes visiting Iranians will replace the Russians who are no longer coming.”

On top of that, Erdogan will have to grapple with “opposition within his own party” as his clout continues to show signs of abating, according to Bremmer.

“A purported meeting several weeks ago that included former President Abdullah Gul, former Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc and other senior party members has fed speculation that rivals want to limit Erdogan’s influence over the workings of government,” he said.

He added that all this comes amid Erdogan’s efforts to rewrite the Turkish constitution to strengthen his presidency and eliminate checks on his power, something that Bremer said is unlikely to be achieved.

“Erdogan’s history suggests he’ll try to bully his way into more power anyway. In the process, he’ll antagonize more people-both at home and abroad,” he concluded.

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

Putin Orders Withdrawal of Russian Forces From Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the defence ministry to begin the withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria on Tuesday.

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

Putin Orders Russian Troops to Begin Pulling Out of Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial pullout of the Russian military from Syria on Monday, after saying his troops largely achieved their combat goals in the country.

He also ordered the country’s diplomatic efforts be stepped up to secure a peace deal in Syria. The move was announced on the day U.N.-backed peace talks on Syria resumed in Geneva.

Announcing his decision in a televised meeting with Russia’s foreign and defense ministries in the Kremlin, Putin said the Russian air campaign has allowed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s military to turn the tide of war and helped create conditions for peace talks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Putin Orders Russian Forces to Begin Withdrawal From Syria

Putin has ordered the defense ministry to start the withdrawal of troops from Syria, but Russia will still maintain forces at two bases. The significance of the announcement is unclear.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Religious TV Channels on the Rise Across Mideast

The number of religious television broadcasters across the Middle East has risen by 50 percent, reflecting a rise in sectarianism in the region, according to a study published Thursday.

The Northwestern University in Qatar in its study of the media industry found that the number of religious free-to-air channels had jumped to 75 in 2014, from 50 three years earlier.

Sunni television channels remain by far the highest in number and increased to 55 from 43, three years previously, the research found.

But the rate of growth in the Middle East and North Africa region where Sunni Islam is the dominant religion has been higher for Shiite and Christian broadcasters…

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

Senior Saudi Royal Criticises Obama

A senior Saudi royal has criticised President Barack Obama for comments accusing the longtime US ally of feeding Middle East conflicts.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, has long been a major ally of the United States but the relationship has deteriorated under Obama.

Riyadh has been especially concerned by US support for Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, fearing its regional rival will be emboldened.

In an opinion piece published in Saudi newspapers, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the kingdom’s former intelligence chief and envoy to Washington, lashed out at Obama’s recent comments to The Atlantic magazine…

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

Central Asia Strongman Regimes Challenged by Stuttering Economies

Pensioner Anna Kovalyova, 63, would struggle to make ends meet on her pension worth $250 if it was not for the subsidies from the authorities in Turkmenistan that make water, gas and electricity almost free.

“In 25 years of independence our country has proven that it does not cast its citizens adrift,” Kovalyova, a former employee of the government, told AFP.

“This is a state that looks after its people.”

For years the government of isolated Turkmenistan was happy to claim credit for the country’s double-digit economic growth as its vast gas reserves fuelled rising living standards and a construction boom…

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

India’s Hardline Hindus Abandon Trademark Shorts

A hardline Indian Hindu movement announced Sunday it was abandoning its trademark khaki shorts to try to modernise the dress code, 91 years after adopting the austere military-style uniform.

Foot soldiers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are often seen after dawn across India engaged in physical drills and uttering religious chants — dressed in pleated shorts, white shirts and black hats.

But RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi acknowledged that the organisation, the ideological fountainhead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party, must keep in step with a modern, changing world.

“We have decided to replace khaki half-pants with brown pants. We are not rigid and take decisions according to the times,” Joshi told reporters at a three-day meeting of the group’s top decision-making body…

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

‘Untouchable’ Who Married Upper-Caste Girl Hacked to Death on Busy Indian Street

A member of India’s lowest “untouchable” caste who married an upper caste girl was hacked to death in broad daylight on a busy market street on Sunday.

V Shankar, a 22-year-old engineering student, and his 19-year-old wife Kausalya were set upon by three men wielding scythes in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, as a crowd of bystanders watched in horror.

The pair had married eight months earlier, some of Kausalya’s family, who are from the politically dominant Thevar community, objected to the marriage.

Footage of the killing was captured on CCTV cameras and onlookers’ mobile phones. The assailants, who fled on a motorcycle, have yet to be identified by police.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China’s Next Bubble? Iron Ore Surges as Speculators Weigh in

With a huge global steel glut and slowing demand in China, an enormous recent spike in the price of iron ore has left analysts scratching their heads, with some even claiming a flower show might be to blame.

But observers say the extraordinary movements for one of the world’s basic bulk commodities have been fuelled by something far more prosaic than daisies and daffodils — simple speculation.

The spot price for iron ore — the key material for steel — jumped 20 percent on the Dalian Commodity Exchange on Monday…

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

China: Heilongjiang Authorities Surprisingly Side With Striking Miners

For the first time, the province backs workers’ demands and tell state-owned company to pay back wages. Graft and inefficiencies have brought state-owned companies to their lowest point. Beijing has decided to lay off workers, but this could lead to unrest. For one official, “The problem is even worse than what is revealed”.

Beijing (AsiaNews) — The authorities in China’s northernmost province of Heilongjiang vowed to “financially support” a struggling state-owned coal firm, but also ordered it to pay its miners overdue salaries. They also slammed the firm for withholding information about the employees’ unpaid wages.

Heilongjiang Governor Lu Hao, who is in Beijing for the annual National People’s Congress, said workers and families affected by layoffs caused by Beijing’s economic restructuring will be re-employed in the province.

Lu’s statement came hours after miners and their families took to the streets in Shuangyashan to demand back wages. Uncensored videos online showed thousands of miners and their families protesting, holding up banners saying, “We want to live, we want to eat” and “Lu Hao lies with his eyes open”.

The last reference is to the governor’s comments a few days ago in which he said the miners did not have “even a penny” cut from their pay. Lu had also cited Longmay as a prime example of an inefficient, overstaffed state-owned firm, saying that the government could not afford to bail out the group.

Since then, demonstrations forced Lu to change his mind at a time when National People’s Congress was in session. This is the first time that Heilongjiang authorities take the side of workers. Usually, labour unrest is met with repression, bloodshed and arrests.

Longmay, which has been in the red since 2012, has to comply with Beijing’s order to cut industrial overcapacity. It said last year it would cut its 248,000 headcount by as much as 100,000.

Heilongjiang’s economy is largely based on coal and oil, whose price dropped by 6 per cent per cent in the last two months.

Beijing wants these cuts to reshape the economy by abandoning heavy industry, but is also concerned that it might lead to social unrest and undermine its authority.

In his opening statement at this year’s National People’s Congress, which will ratify the new five-year plan, Prime Minister Li Keqiang announced the restructuring of state enterprises, which involves the loss of at least two million jobs (which could become six, according to some international analysts).

Subsidies to the steel and coal industries cost China’s central government some US$ 15.3 billion a year. To reach its goal, Beijing wants poor regions to pitch in; in exchange, it is offering workers retraining courses and new jobs in their own province.

China has more or less 150,000 state-owned companies employing 30 million people. Many of these are so-called “zombie companies”, i.e. companies kept artificially alive by local authorities to prevent GDP losses and local unemployment.

To deal with the situation, Beijing plans to close scores of plants producing steel, coal, aluminium, cement and glass, which are often among the major causes of ground, water, and air pollution.

A former central regulatory official with knowledge of the issue told the South China Morning Post that Longmay’s problems stem from years of miscalculated policies that needed more than financial aid to resolve. “The problem is even worse than what is revealed,” he said.

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

Nuclear Energy Booming in Asia

Five years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, India and China have embraced nuclear power. Other countries in the region also want to build more plants — even in high-risk areas prone to earthquakes and tsunamis.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Africans Brawl in Melbourne, Sydney

The city centers of Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, were last night turned into battlefields as gangs of nonwhites-Africans and Pacific Islanders-fought running battles with each other and the police in what one news outlet described as “mayhem on the streets.” The city has has seen a huge influx of African invaders, particularly from the Sudan.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Unease Over Chinese Investors Buying Farms Down Under

With Chinese buyers eyeing farm land in Australia and New Zealand, authorities are coming under growing pressure to balance the need for foreign investment against accusations of “selling out”.

Currently up for sale is the S. Kidman and Co. Limited cattle empire — a vast Outback estate which covers 1.3 percent of Australia’s land mass and has an average herd of 185,000 cattle.

Treasurer Scott Morrison blocked its sale to all foreign investors in November, including from China, saying it was contrary to the national interest given part of the holding overlaps with a military testing range.

But Morrison recently approved the sale of Australia’s largest dairy farming business to a Chinese buyer, despite criticism that businessman Lu Xianfeng’s Aus$280 million (US$210 million) purchase of Tasmania’s Van Diemen’s Land Company could impact food security…

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

Historic Protests Leave Brazil’s Rousseff Cornered

Brazil’s leftist President Dilma Rousseff appeared to be heading for a political dead end Monday after huge crowds took to the streets to call for her resignation.

Between one and three million people flooded the streets of Sao Paulo, Rio, Brasilia and some 400 other cities in Latin America’s biggest country on Sunday, according to conflicting data.

Turnout in Sao Paulo was estimated at 500,000 by the research center Datafolha and 1.4 million by the Sao Paulo military police. The figures surpassed estimates by either organization in previous opposition demonstrations.

Protesters said they were fed up with the country’s worst recession in 25 years, a massive corruption scandal unfolding at state oil company Petrobras and the government’s complete inability to pass laws in Congress…

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

20M Invaders Waiting: Macedonia

There are another twenty million nonwhite invaders from “Sudan and Egypt alone” waiting to enter Europe, and among them are thousands of Jihadists, the president of Macedonia has said.

Speaking in an interview with the German Bild newspaper, Gjorge Ivanov said that his country had already seized over 9,000 fake Syrian passports.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

30,558 Freed Invaders Commit 92,347 Crimes

30,558 nonwhite illegal immigrants freed by the US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since 2010 have been re-arrested for no less than 92,347 crimes, including 124 murders.

The shocking statistics are contained in an official release issued by the ICE head office in Washington DC dated February 11, 2016.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Austria: Migrant Route Via Italy Also Needs Blocking

Foreign minister, smuggling can’t be prevented entirely

(ANSA-AP) — VIENNA — Austria’s foreign minister says the route leading through Italy to central Europe also will need to be blocked to migrants after his country’s decisions triggered the closure of the Balkan route.

Austria’s cap on migrant admissions set off a domino effect of border closures across the Balkans, stranding thousands of migrants at borders. But Austrian officials say they still need to be vigilant in case migrants seek alternative routes.

Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz told Sunday’s newspaper Bild am Sonntag newspaper that “smuggling can’t be prevented entirely.” Because of that, he said, “we will have to do everything that we are now doing on the western Balkan route along the Italy-Mediterranean route too.” He says “the time of waving through refugees to central Europe is over, no matter on what route.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Californians Are Voting With Their Feet

By Carson Bruno

California has something of a migration problem. Yes, the state’s population growth rate has been hovering just under 1% for a few years with natural increases and international net migration staying just strong enough for the state to continue growing, but California’s consistent net domestic out-migration should be concerning to Sacramento as it develops state policy. As the adage goes, people vote with their feet and one thing is clear, more people are choosing to leave California than come…

           — Hat tip: lallatin [Return to headlines]
 

Hundreds Cross From Greece Into Macedonia

Hundreds of migrants have crossed from Greece into Macedonia after finding a way through the border fence.

Macedonian police are detaining them, saying they will be returned to Greece.

Earlier, some 1,000 migrants, including children, left their sprawling camp in the Greek village of Idomeni and crossed a river near the border.

About 14,000 people, many from Syria or Iraq, have been stranded at the camp, where conditions have deteriorated following days of rain.

Macedonia last week said it would no longer let any migrants in, blocking the so-called Balkan route north.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary Spent Eur 257 Mln for Managing Migrant Flux in 2015

Currently 2.200 migrants present on national territory

(ANSA) — TRIESTE — Hungary spent 257 million euros on managing the migrant flux in 2015, the prime minister’s chief national security advisor, György Bakondi, said in a press conference.

At the moment there are around 2,200 migrants present on the national territory, he said. Between Thursday and Friday, the Hungarian border police arrested 40 persons who tried to enter the country illegally. Bakondi announced that the Hungarian police officers will join their colleagues from Austria, Czech Republic and Poland in protecting the border between Macedonia and Greece in mid March.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Idomeni Refugees Push to Cross Into Macedonia Despite Border Closure

Hundreds of refugees at the Idomeni camp have been stopped by Macedonian troops after walking through mud and fording a river to cross the border. Idomeni has become the latest flashpoint in the refugee crisis.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel Drubbed at the Ballot Box as Surging Nationalists Declare: ‘People Voted Against Her Migrant Policy’

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party suffered a major setback in key state polls Sunday over her liberal refugee policy, while the right-wing populist AfD recorded a surge as it scooped up support from angry voters.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lost in two of three states in regional elections, and scored a historic low in its stronghold Baden-Wuerttemberg where it came in second place after the Greens, according to projections based on early results published by public broadcasters ARD and ZDF.

The populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which had sparked outrage by suggesting police may have to shoot at migrants to stop them entering the country, recorded double-digit support in the first elections they have stood for in all three regions.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel to Stick to Refugee Policy Despite Election Defeat

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood firm Monday on her liberal refugee policy, despite a drubbing in regional elections described as a “debacle” in which disgruntled voters turned to the anti-migrant AfD.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spain Rejects EU-Turkey ‘One in, One Out’ Refugee Deal

Spain’s acting Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo described the proposal between Brussels and Ankara as “unacceptable from the outset”.

“This proposal from the outset seemed to us, from the point of view of the [Spanish] government, unacceptable,” García-Margallo told reporters on arrival at the summit of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

He insisted that Spain would only support a scheme that would allow individuals the right to claim asylum.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish School Performance Hamstrung by Immigration

The failure of immigrant students to catch up with their peers in Sweden is a key factor in the country’s overall decline in educational achievement and test scores, the Education Agency said Monday.

The percentage of immigrant children in Sweden’s school population jumped from three percent in 2006 to eight percent in 2015.

At the same time, a drop in academic performance has led to an increase in the percentage of students who did not qualify for upper secondary school from 10 percent in 2006 to more than 14 percent 2015, according to the report entitled “The Importance of Immigration for School Results.”…

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

Tony Blair Says Britain’s Unemployed Are Wrong to Complain Migrants Are Taking Their Jobs and Says They Should Get Better Education and Skills Instead

Tony Blair has admitted high immigration is fuelling ‘populism’ but criticised the unemployed who complain migrants are taking their jobs.

The former Labour prime minister conceded there is a ‘real anxiety’ for people who feel their income is stagnating and said it was driving some towards the far right.

But he said those who feel they have been squeezed out of the labour market by cheap workers from overseas should stop blaming immigration and instead get better ‘education and the skills’.

His comments will anger those who say New Labour oversaw an ‘open door’ policy during the Blair years, leading to an expansion in arrivals to the UK.

Last month, a new book claimed Mr Blair presided over a conspiracy to change the face of Britain for ever with mass immigration by rebranding asylum seekers as ‘economic migrants’.

Speaking today at a global education conference in Dubai, Mr Blair said migration had fuelled right-wing populism.

He said: ‘This whole debate around migration is really difficult for people.

‘There is no point in just dismissing it as prejudice — although a lot of it is prejudice.

‘It’s also a real anxiety for people about the way the world’s changing, particularly if they think their incomes are stagnating and they’re not really getting anywhere in life, then this becomes an easy thing to gravitate to.

‘And whether it’s in America or in Europe right now, that is the card, that type of populism at least the right wing of politics will play.’

He said that education was key in combatting populism, and that it was important to educate both refugees entering countries and those that are already there.

He added: ‘It’s important that the host country is educated about those that are coming in.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Two Thirds of Arrivals Are ‘Basically Illiterate’

A senior German academic has joined the chorus of voices expressing concern over the low educational standards of newly arriving migrants, and the significant knock-on effects that is bound to have on the German educational system.

President of the University of Hamburg and chairman of the German Educational Action Council Dieter Lenzen has pointed to the enormous cost of teaching hundreds of thousands of newcomers basic language skills, pointing in particular to the Syrian community. While the proportion of Syrians arriving and claiming to have university degrees — around 15 per cent — isn’t much below the German population as a whole, the vast majority of the remaining 85 per cent are in a significantly worse state, unable even to perform basic tasks like reading a bus timetable.

Outlining the scale of the challenge and the lack of ability of most Syrians arriving in Europe, President Lenzen said: “the problem is the 65 per cent of an age group that can operate only on reading comprehension level one by the PISA test”, reports N24.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test is a standard form of measuring intellectual ability and at level one suggests that the majority of Syrian “refugees” are unable to complete “basic reading tasks” such as “Locating straightforward information” or “Making low-level inferences”.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: Protesters Blockade Calais, Demand End to ‘Invasion in Europe’

More than 130 right-wing activists blocked various routes into the port of Calais yesterday to protest the “migrant invasion”.

They claimed to have taken control of three bridges leading to the city. Blockades were erected, fires lit, drums banged and 14 people arrested.

Their banners were adorned with blunt slogans such as “Go Home,” “Defend Calais” and “No way.”

Libérez nos camarades ! #Calais pic.twitter.com/tWDpGIth

YX— Damien Rieu (@DamienRieu) March 12, 2016

The demonstrators were from the “hipster right” Génération Identitaire group; a notably young movement of anti-mass migration activist who engage in direct action.

“This morning, Génération Identitaire occupied two bridges to calais to filter the passages and prevent “migrants” to join the city!” they wrote on Facebook.

Adding: “Tonight 14 activists and activists are still in custody. Before you go to bed, have a thought for the ones who will spend the night at the station.”

#Calais aux calaisiens l’Europe aux européens ! #remigration #NoWay pic.twitter.com/7xtlmFlSi5

— Grégoire de Linares (@G_deLinares) March 12, 2016

Explaining their motives, they said: “For months, Calais has been a symbol …of the real invasion confronting our continent,” claiming the town has recently seen “attacks against police, against motorists and truck drivers, city riots, the total disintegration of social life and the economy.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Parents Angry at Alleged Father’s Day Move at Milan School

Focus on race so as not to upset children of same-sex parents

(ANSA) — Milan, March 14 — Parents of children at a pre-school in Milan were up in arms on Monday over the alleged decision to replace traditional learning activities dedicated to Fathers’ day on March 19 with a programme on race and racial differences.

The change has been made to avoid offending the sensibilities of children at the school who live with homosexual or lesbian parents, critics claim. The school has refused to comment on the reports. Meanwhile, Milan executive councillor for education Francesco Cappelli has described the claims as an “exaggeration”. The teachers “have full autonomy in interpreting certain anniversaries, in agreement with the families. The decision (to ask the children to prepare a card for the occasion with a letter) was taken in order to highlight spontaneity,” Cappelli said. Centre-right politicians in Milan reportedly criticised the move.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/14/2016

  1. “He (Blair) said that education was key in combatting populism, and that it was important to educate both refugees entering countries and those that are already there.”

    Why should “populism” be combatted? Populism is what they used to call democracy before the advent of supra nationality. What Blair is actually saying is that we can’t have the people getting what they vote for or what they want as that would be against the interests of the political machines that he and his ilk represent.

    A La Lanterne!

    • Populism – “A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite” – The Free Dictionary.

      No wonder Blair and his ilk are so determined to ‘combat’ it.

  2. I vote to leave the animals out of it. First, it insults the animals, and they surely don’t deserve it. Second, pathetic ad hominems lose arguments.

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