The Belgian government has announced that it will distribute iodine pills to all Belgian citizens so that they will be prepared in the event of a nuclear emergency. Officials say the Fukushima disaster in 2011 prompted the new policy.
In other news, the Islamic State is now offering marriage counseling to couples in an effort to prevent so many jihad brides from attempting to escape their husbands and ISIS.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, Caroline Glick, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, LP, MC, 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.
Intel Lays Off 12,000 After Seeking Visas to Import 14,523 Foreign Professionals Since 2010
Technology giant Intel announced April 19 it will fire 12,000 skilled U.S.-based professionals — after already swelling its workforce with 14,523 requests in Washington D.C. since 2010 for visas to import foreign professionals through the controversial H-1B and Green Card programs.
The company said the layoffs were part of a restructuring plan to help shift its focus from desktop PCs to mobile devices. But the company is very profitable, and first-quarter 2016 profits were 14 percent above predictions.
Amid the layoffs, Intel is one of the nation’s largest users of the H-1B outsourcing program which allows companies such as Disney and Abbot Laboratories to replace white-collar American professionals with cheaper professionals from India, China, and other countries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Retail Layoffs in 2016 Could be Highest Since 2010
With more than 24,000 retail-sector job cuts already announced in 2016, layoffs are on track to hit their highest since 2010, according to Credit Suisse analysts.
Credit Suisse said in a Monday note there could be more than 37,000 layoffs in 2016 based on Bloomberg data. But analysts there believe that number could top those projections due to the number of retailers filing for bankruptcy recently. About two-thirds of layoffs tend to come in the first one-third of the year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black Students Responsible for ‘#whitepower’ Racist Drawing
(USA Today) The students identified as the people behind a recent racist drawing found at Salisbury University’s library are black, school officials confirmed Tuesday.
The image, found April 10 on a whiteboard in Blackwell Library, showed a stick figure being hung and labeled with a racial slur. Underneath was the hashtag ‘#whitepower.’
The university confirmed Tuesday, April 26, the students involved in the incident were black, spokesman Richard Culver wrote in an email. The university would not provide names of the students, citing the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Caroline Glick
To defeat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel, it is first necessary to understand it.
The BDS campaign is an extraordinary phenomenon.
Activists from US coast to coast robotically parrot the same lies, employ the same tactics of bullying, intimidating and silencing pro-Israel activists and speakers on campus after campus.
Their goals are uniform. They seek to silence pro-Israel voices in US academia as a means to destroy general public support for Israel in America.
And they seek to make Jew-hatred socially acceptable in elite circles in America for the first time since the Holocaust.
This month it was leftist MK Tzipi Livni’s turn to fall victim to BDS bigotry and defamation. During a public appearance at Harvard Law School, one of the heads of BDS movement at the school, Husam el-Qoulaq, asked her why she is “smelly.”
Qoulaq is the head of Students for Justice in Palestine at Harvard Law School…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Establishment Collapsing: Trump Beating Grand Ol’ Party of “Serial Child Molesters” And Has Beens
The corruption is on every front. And it is pretty obvious that the two party system has thoroughly rotted through, and its decrepitude obvious to all the onlookers.
There is a great deal of uproar about the collapse of the GOP — which has been thoroughly thwarted and upstaged by Donald Trump at every turn… but it should really come as no surprise.
Everyone hears the warnings that the system is collapsing, but when it doesn’t happen right away, every goes back marching to the music.
But the establishment party hacks — who have long forced sellout candidates pushing a draconian agenda to the captive people — could not fill their empty suit in 2016 with any of their 16 other party-loyal candidates. They were so desperate, they even considered rolling out two-time presidential loser Mitt Romney and Speaker Paul Ryan as last minute candidates.
Even now, the party insiders are trying to reinvent the twist with a Ted Cruz/ Carly Fiorina “dream team” ticket that is sure to make anyone cringe, but the party hopes will keep it all in the family anyway:…
If the tyranny isn’t naked enough for you, just take a look at Dennis Hastert — – once in the third most powerful office in the land as Speaker of the House.
Now, he has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for crimes related to his sordid past as “a serial child molester,” as the presiding judge phrased it at his sentencing:…
Of course, he wasn’t even tried for his real crimes, but rather a lesser financial indiscretion that was provable linked to hushing up his victims.
Obviously, plenty of people knew about the immoral and illegal proclivities for young boys held by the former speaker of the House.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Shatters Wall Street Estimates, Proposes New Share Structure
Tech giant Facebook crushed analyst estimates when it reported first-quarter results on Wednesday. The company reported adjusted first quarter earnings of 77 cents per share on revenue of about $5.38 billion. Analysts had expected Facebook to report earnings of about 62 cents per share on $5.26 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Forget Yellowstone… Snake River Plain’s Volcano is a Much Bigger Threat to America
Eruptions at Snake River Plain in Idaho were “significantly larger” than geologists had previously thought.
Scientists from the University of Leicester discovered there were a staggering 12 massive eruptions over the course of four million years, beginning 12 million years ago.
The massive eruptions helped to form the 100 kilometre-wide Snake River Basin, with one of the most powerful eruptions occurring 8.1 million years ago. The eruption’s volume exceeded 1,900 km3 and created a 1.3km thick caldera.
Furthermore, the Snake River Plain is situated on the Yellowstone Hotspot track, a region which spans from Nevada, through Oregon and Idaho and then to Wyoming where Yellowstone Volcano is located.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Elites and Anti-Trump Pacs Join Forces in California to Take Down Trump
On Sunday the Cruz and Kasich camps formed the Cru-sich Alliance to stop Donald Trump.
The two campaigns announced the development on Twitter.
Now Republican establishment funded Super PACs are joining forces to take down Trump in California.
Our Principles PAC (OPP) bought over $16 million in ads against Donald Trump so far this year. The group also admitted that they were working to steer Republican delegates away from Donald Trump.
This week OPP announced they are colluding with the anti-Trump Victory California to take down Trump in California.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Half of 2015 Murder Increases Came From Three Cities
A recent study by the Brennan Center for Justice shows that more than half of all of the murder increases in the United States were centered in just three cities: Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; and Washington, D.C. That’s an incredible statistic when you stop and think about it. Over half of U.S. murder increases came from just three cities…
In other words, take out the huge spike in crime in America’s major cities, especially Baltimore, Chicago, and D.C., and the national crime rate would barely be a proverbial “blip” on the radar screen.
Besides falling populations, higher poverty rates, and higher unemployment, what else do these three cities have in common? You know the answer: STRICT GUN CONTROL.
Baltimore has an “assault weapons” ban, as does the entire State of Maryland. Chicago and the District of Columbia do too.
Writing for Breitbart.com, AWR Hawkins notes, “Chicago has a ‘violence tax’ that raises the price of every gun sold at retail in the city, and DC has a registration program which is broken down into six steps and requires more than a full page of explanation from the Metropolitan Police Department. The steps include multiple paragraph explanations for satisfying gun safety requirements, certifying that you are not legally blind, and paying a total of $94 to the DC Treasurer, none of which will impact or hinder criminals in the least.
“So the gun control in all three cities continue, even though the extra murders there were so high in 2015 that they represent more than half the overall increase in murders in the U.S.”
Overall, the gun-control laws in these three cities are among the strictest in the nation. Obviously, the criminals in those cities paid those laws no heed. DUH!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Icegate: Now NSIDC Caught Tampering With Climate Records
You’ve read about the climate fraud committed ‘on an unbelievable scale’ by the shysters at NASA.
You’ve read about how NOAA overestimated US warming by 50 percent.
Now it’s NSIDC’s turn to be caught red-handed fiddling the data and cooking the books…
So what do you do if reality doesn’t suit your narrative? Simple. If you’re NSIDC (and NASA and NOAA…) you just change reality.
NSIDC’s latest attempt to breathe new life into the corpse of the alarmist narrative comprised a press release a few weeks ago claiming that 5+ year old sea ice is at its smallest level on record. To prove it, they’ve produced a new chart that looks like this.
But according to Steven Goddard of the Real Science website this claim needs to be taken with a huge pinch of salt.
Note how, to confuse matters, NSIDC have upended their chart so that 5+ year ice instead of being at the bottom is now at the top. Far worse, though, they’ve gone and deleted all the old style maps from their archive.
At least they thought they had.
But a sharp eyed reader of Goddard’s managed to find one old style map that NSIDC had forgotten to delete. This enabled Goddard to compare the new style map with an old style map for the same week. What he discovered is that NSIDC has been making some dramatic and unexplained adjustments to the record: about half the 5+ year sea ice which should be there, for example, has been mysteriously erased.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Roger Stone on the Trump Campaign
Mr. Stone told me that despite the anger American voters feel, and despite the corruption in the GOPe, the “theft” of delegates by Cruz supporters is not illegal. Likewise, the replacement of Trump delegates with GOP establishment delegates by state GOP leaders, is also not illegal.
There is a recent story regarding Cruz bribing delegates to vote for him. Trump actually tweeted, “I win a state in votes and then get non-representative delegates because they are offered all sorts of goodies by Cruz campaign. Bad system!”
Here’s a video of what looks like a monetary bribe. Nevertheless, again, this is not illegal. He could take them to lunch and talk to them about voting for him, and it’s not illegal. Watch the video of what looks like Cruz bribing a delegate.
Mr. Stone stated that some of Cruz’s super PACs haven’t spent any money, and may be saving up for payoffs or expenses for delegates.
There is also evidence that GOP establishment money is funding Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, and Erick Erickson to attack Trump. Also, not illegal, just rotten and corrupt.
Cruz and Eagle Forum
Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum just barely survived a coup takeover by a number of high powered women in the organization who wished to promote Cruz for president over founder, Phyllis Schlafly’s endorsement of Donald J. Trump. [Link] Mr. Stone and I agreed, that behind this attempt was none other than Ted Cruz himself, and destroying Eagle Forum means nothing if he gets both their endorsement (deceitfully or not) and mega dollars from the 501(c)4 division of Eagle Forum…
Cruz Lies on Common Core
Ted Cruz tells his supporters he is against Common Core, and supports home-schooling. But his co-sponsorship of S306, “Enhancing Educational Opportunities for all Students Act” (ESEA), tells a very different story than what Cruz tells his supporters.
Cruz is not against Common Core, his amendment actually puts Common Core into private, religious and home schools. Isn’t that wonderful? For the whole story, please read Anita Hoge’s excellent expose’s, Proof: Ted Cruz’s Promise to do Away With Common Core is A Total Lie, and How Ted Cruz is Sneaking Common Core on Homeschoolers.
Cruz Voted for TPA Fast Tracking of TPP
Here is the video of Cruz stating he’s for fast tracking for the TPP
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala), who has been the leading principled opponent of Fast Track in the Congress, provided many more reasons why his colleagues should vote against handing TPA/Fast Track to President Obama. In a speech on the Senate floor, Sessions pointed out that the main objection to TPA is that it will almost guarantee passage of three major Obama Trade packages that threaten our national sovereignty: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
SpaceX Will Launch Private Mars Missions as Soon as 2018
The commercial spaceflight company SpaceX announced on Twitter today that it plans to send its robotic Dragon capsule to Mars as early as 2018. “Red Dragons will inform the overall Mars architecture,” SpaceX representatives tweeted today (April 27), referring to the company’s eventual plans to set up a colony on Mars — a key goal of SpaceX and its founder, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Suspect Shot After Threatening to Blow Up Fox Baltimore Headquarters
A contractor who threatened to set off a bomb at the headquarters of Fox 45 Baltimore Thursday afternoon, forcing authorities to evacuate the building, walked outside before a sniper shot him.
Police said the suspect, a man in his 20s, was still alive but refused to cooperate with officers. They did not confirm whether he held an actual bomb, but said he had wires inside his jacket.
The man wore a white panda suit, a surgical mask and sunglasses. He apparently lit a car on fire in the parking lot before entering the building, Fox 45 reports.
“He had a flash drive, said he had information he wanted to get on the air. He compared it to the information found in the Panama Papers. I told him, ‘I can’t let you in, you’re going to have to leave the flash drive here and slide it through the opening.’ He wouldn’t do that. Apparently he had made some threats before,” News Director Mike Tomko said.
Officers deployed a bomb robot to the scene after the shots rang out…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Teen With Realistic BB Gun Shot by Baltimore Police Officer
A plainclothes Baltimore police officer shot and wounded a 13-year-old boy who ran from police Wednesday as he carried a BB-gun replica of a semiautomatic handgun on the first anniversary of rioting that swept west Baltimore, police officials said.
The teen is expected to survive wounds to his lower extremities, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said at a news conference.
Two intelligence detectives were driving on a street and saw the teen walking with what looked like a handgun, and the officers approached him.
“They identified themselves as police officers to this young man, [and] the young man took off on foot with the gun in his hand,” Davis said.
The officers chased him for about 150 yards to the area of the unit block of Asquith Street where one of the officers fired. The gun mimics a Beretta semiautomatic pistol and Davis defended the officers’ actions.
“I put my own eyes on it. It’s an absolute, identical replica semiautomatic pistol,” Davis said. “Those police officers had no way of knowing that it was not an actual firearm.”
The officers “got out of their car and engaged a person who they believed they had a gun. Come on, this what we are supposed to do. That’s what cops do,” Davis said.
The commissioner said the teen’s mother told police he left home with a BB gun, but it is not clear where he was going with the gun or why he ran from police.
The shooting happened one year to the day that rioting spread across west Baltimore in response to the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. The unrest led to burned businesses, buildings and police cars, widespread looting, and clashes with police and citywide curfews…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
The Future of America? — More Than Half of All U.S. Adults Under Age 30 Now Reject Capitalism
As older generations die off, they will eventually become the leaders of this country.
A shocking new survey has found that support for capitalism is dying in America. In fact, more than half of all adults in the United States under the age of 30 say that they do not support capitalism at this point. You might be tempted to dismiss them as “foolish young people”, but the truth is that they are the future of America. As older generations die off, they will eventually become the leaders of this country. And of course our nation has not resembled anything close to a capitalist society for quite some time now. In a recent article, I listed 97 different taxes that Americans pay each year, and some Americans actually end up returning more than half of what they earn to the government by the time it is all said and done. So at best it could be said that we are running some sort of hybrid system that isn’t as far down the road toward full-blown socialism as most European nations are. But without a doubt we are moving in that direction, and our young people are going to be cheering every step of the way.
When I first heard of this new survey from Harvard University, I was absolutely stunned. The following is from what the Washington Post had to say about it…
[Comment: Yuri Bezmenov warned about this generation of mush-heads totally indoctrinated with communism.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Trouble With Carly Fiorina: Top 11 Red Flags
Ted Cruz’s vice presidential announcement yesterday was intended to galvanize Republicans and provide a boost to his campaign heading into Indiana and California. Many of my friends and colleagues support the decision.
But Cruz’s choice of Carly Fiorina troubles me deeply. Here are 11 red flags:
H-1B. At a time when thousands of American high-skilled workers are getting sacked and replaced with cheap foreign H-1B visa holders, embracing Fiorina sends a terrible message about Cruz’s commitment to H-1B reform. At Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina was an early adopter of the sovereignty-sabotaging practices now running rampant and undeterred at Disney, Southern California Edison, Abbott Labs, Intel, and countless other American companies colluding with offshore outsourcers. Old corporate habits and addictions are hard to break.
By Michelle Malkin • April 28, 2016 12:14 AM
Ted Cruz’s vice presidential announcement yesterday was intended to galvanize Republicans and provide a boost to his campaign heading into Indiana and California. Many of my friends and colleagues support the decision.
But Cruz’s choice of Carly Fiorina troubles me deeply. Here are 11 red flags:
1. H-1B. At a time when thousands of American high-skilled workers are getting sacked and replaced with cheap foreign H-1B visa holders, embracing Fiorina sends a terrible message about Cruz’s commitment to H-1B reform. At Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina was an early adopter of the sovereignty-sabotaging practices now running rampant and undeterred at Disney, Southern California Edison, Abbott Labs, Intel, and countless other American companies colluding with offshore outsourcers. Old corporate habits and addictions are hard to break.
2. DREAM Act/Amnesty. Fiorina supported in-state tuition discounts for illegal aliens during her Senate bid and heartily “applauded and saluted” the Gang of Eight mass illegal alien amnesty/guest worker visa bonanza in 2013 on liberal network MSNBC. She also bungled a debate question on birthright citizenship last fall and called efforts to close the illegal alien loophole an “emotional distraction.”
Fed Ed and Common Core. Cruz promises to repeal Common Core “on Day One.” Similarly, presidential candidate Carly Fiorina condemned the outsized influence of corporate cronies on federal education standards and Common Core last fall. But Fiorina’s newfound position smacks of the very kind of campaign-timed conversion that Cruz says he opposes. In 2010, when she ran her disastrous Senate campaign in California, Fiorina endorsed the Obama Race to the Top program that provided billions in subsidies to states as inducements to adopt Common Core. Note: It is not a coincidence that the same Big Business companies that push Common Core are the same ones pushing massive expansion of amnesty and guest worker programs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
TPP is Treason. Wake Up! Globalization Goes for Checkmate (Part One)
Foreword: The secret Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is very close to ratification by the US Congress and the final draft of this insidious corporate take-over has already been signed by twelve countries that value corporate interests more than those of their own sovereign nations . In Europe and the UK the TTIP treaty is the mirror image of this proposed treasonous treaty and just as secret. Both must be stopped! Now!
In July of 2012, thanks to the help of local activists the author obtained a Press Pass and a very coveted “Stakeholder’s Pass” that allowed him into the San Diego TPP negotiations, thus being the only reporter present who was not pro-TPP. His tough questions, interviews, and press conference challenges put the author in the line-of-fire and led to a shocking, multi-part expose, possibly the most in-depth, inside look at TPP.
Due to the constant secrecy of the TPP negations- highlighted in this series- very little new information has been revealed since. In an effort to provide the reader information on the threat of TPP, Intellihub is kindly re-publishing the series- one part each day- as a service to its American and world-wide readers. A new final chapter will be offered that will include the most recent updated information. TPP and TTIP must be stopped! Read-on and find out why. TPP is not secret anymore! B.R-T.
(INTELLIHUB) — “ We have to stop them before it gets to Congress” , warned Brooke Harper, referring to the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the proposed pan-pacific trade treaty. This is likely the most insidious piece of corporate-inspired global legislation ever to be secretly slipped through the halls of the US Congress. Its details were a secret until two weeks ago. Now, opposition must rise quickly. The consequences for America and eleven other nations are indeed terminal.
Ms. Harper, who represents Global Trade Watch, an organization based in Wash. DC, has just arrived in San Diego. Her goal: to rally Southern California area activists in preparation for the upcoming TPP-eight day-negotiations to be held at the Hilton/ San Diego Bayfront, in San Diego, July 2-10, 2012. This is round thirteen of the “negotiations.”
A crowd of about forty, representing activist groups from the San Diego area, listened as Harper explained the depth of the threat posed by TPP. They had gathered at Canvass for a Cause, a community hall in the City Heights area. What the audience heard was chilling and went far beyond the fringes of our current broken American democracy and its corrupt politicians.
US Pres. Barack Obama is a traitor. Period. This underhanded treaty secretly sells- out the American people’s legal, sovereign, and constitutional protections in favor of this president’s corporate puppet masters. The concept, inception, and mechanism of the TPP treaty-as well as the effort to secretly pass it- come, solely, from the Obama administration. In doing so, our one time constitutional scholar president attempts to create a new, world- wide, corporate dynasty. TPP effectively allows for the overthrow of the legal sovereignty and national jurisdiction of the United States’ courts and political system to a foreign power. This is the very definition of treason.
If Americans don’t stop TPP corporations will literally be able to circumvent the existing laws of the EPA, FDA, trade unions, collective bargaining agreements, patent protections, banking regulations and many other American regulations and rights. All will be negated solely by the arbitrary diktats of corporations. This treason is being currently and secretly included in the language of the TPP treaty here in San Diego. Should state, local, or federal governmental agencies attempt to enforce American laws in favor of their citizens that conflict with the wishes of the multi-nationals, a separate corporate court will have supreme jurisdiction- and the last say- over any American governmental agency. Ominously called, “The Tribunal,” it has the power to override any existing American regulation. Absurdly, Federal agencies, State Gov’ts, City authorities, citizen’s property rights, and competing American corporate interests will be considered as the Defendant before this tribunal. When brought to the dock, these defendants- these nations- will be charged, by the plaintiff corporation, with a new crime: “Technical Barrier to Trade.” Really.
The Tribunal issues all final, irrevocable, decisions. Should the defendant national interest choose not to comply with the Tribunal’s diktat, or refuse to pay the Tribunal ordered financial compensation, the judgment- per the TPP treaty- will be enforced by the federal gov’t against subservient that American interest.
Making matters even worse, American based corporations will not have access to the authoritarian controls and manipulations of the TPP treaty. These luxuries are only available to the big multi-national corporations. Smaller American corporations will be subordinate to the whims of TPP.
So… your state decides to place a health tax on cigarettes of one dollar a pack, as compensation for increased healthcare costs created by smokers of your state. (California’s Prop 29 attempted to do this in the last primary election.) The voters actually approve the tax in a democratic referrendum. This seems pretty fair, so far. Au Contraire.
R.J. Reynolds doesn’ t like this anecdote of democracy, considering it bad for business, and their profits. Increased healthcare costs from a self-propagating addiction be-damned; big corporations, at least the ones with real power, don’ t worry about the trifles of such democracy. This aggrieved corporation merely turns to the, “Investor/State Dispute Resolution Tribunal.” No need to waste time in a state or federal court -nor the Supreme Court of the United States- these courts will be useless at the hands of the “Tribunal.”
This corporate-sponsored, US congressional science fiction continues when, next, considering the makeup of the Tribunal and its members. Composed of just three corporate lawyers (remember what Shakespeare said?), the three will be divided into; one with experience with the defendant’s issues, one for the plaintiff corporation, and a third who is, somehow, neutral. The Tribunal will meet in closed session away from cameras and reporters when adjudicating disputes between sovereign national, American, federal, state, or local laws and the wishes of the corporations whose countries’ governments will have treasonously ratified the TPP treaty.
With the likelihood of any national interest prevailing at the Tribunal being effectively nil, the tribunal now rules against your state’s cigarette tax. The tax is ordered to be repealed and, as punishment to the state for the crime of effecting a “ technical barrier to trade,” money damages are awarded to the plaintiff corporation. This manufactured new term is the mantra of TPP and translates directly in this case into, “ your (healthcare) law is restricting our profits.”
The tribunal then issues an order for compensation of, hypothetically, one hundred million dollars, due to the loss of profits to R.J. Reynolds tobacco sales. Your state’ s attorney general says, “ over my dead body” , and heads for the Appeals court, perhaps the Supreme Court. Au Contraire.
Here lies the true treason of TPP. It grants, once congress ratifies it, the complete nullification of the jurisdiction of all US courts regarding matters before the tribunal. So your state loses. Automatically.
Well, now your state treasurer says, “ we’ll never pay.” Good luck! Thanks to TPP, and a majority of similarly treasonous US Congressman, the federal government, which has authority over the states, must then enforce the monetary judgment. Your states treasurer wakes up one morning to a call from the bank. It’s something about a $100 million withdrawal. Uncle Sam just stole your states $100 million and gave it to R.J. Reynolds. And there wasn’t a damn thing your state could do to stop it.
This is not fantasy. Nor hyperbole. It has already happened.
Right now, Australia is under a similar legal attack by Phillip Morris, Ltd , one of the world’s largest cigarette manufacturers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Has 50% Support From Republicans, Despite What Media is Trying to Tell You
(INTELLIHUB) — Establishment insiders and the corporate controlled media just can’ t handle the fact that GOP front-runner Donald J. Trump is now more popular than ever, showing 50% support from Republicans, despite concerted efforts to take him out.
That’ s right, according to a new NBC survey, Trump has now reached 50% support from Republicans, which means there is simply no way that John Kasich or Ted Cruz will overtake Trump, short of a rigged convention. And if a rigged convention comes into play, there just might be riots on the streets as Trump has already pointed out on numerous occasions. And while the powers-that-be would like you to believe that Trump supports the type violence that would go along with such riots, the fact is the American people are likely just fed up with all of the corruption and collusion coming out of Washington.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
All Belgians to be Given Iodine Pills for Nuclear Safety
The Belgian government has agreed to distribute iodine pills to the country’s entire population as a nuclear safety precaution.
Health Minister Maggie De Block said current rules requiring pills to be given within 20km (12 miles) of a reactor should be increased to 100km.
Belgium’s neighbours have criticised the state of its nuclear reactors.
However, the minister said the change was as a result of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
An earthquake led to a tsunami and all three reactor cores largely melted down.
“Every country has updated its plans for a nuclear emergency,” Ms De Block told Belgian TV.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Backs Marchini for Rome Mayor
‘Team up to free Rome’ says center-right candidate
(ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — Former civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso has pulled out of the Rome mayoral race as Forza Italia’s (FI) candidate in favour of businessman Alfio Marchini, FI leader Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday. “We have decided with Guido Bertoalso to back the candidacy of Alfio Marchini,” the center-right ex-premier and media mogul said.
“Marchini had been our first option, and had been dropped because of vetoes from a coalition ally,” Berlusconi said, referring to rightwing Northern League leader Matteo Salvini. Bertolaso had been lagging in fifth place in polls that show the League candidate, rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader Giorgia Meloni, vying with anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) candidate Virginia Raggi for top spot ahead of the center-left Democratic Party’s (PD) Roberto Giachetti and Marchini, hitherto an independent.
Giachetti quipped he feels sorry for his center-right opponent, because he will have to change all his campaign posters since winning Berlusconi’s party backing. Rome is papered with Marchini posters saying the candidate is “free from parties”. Marchini said his slogan meant the centre-right should team up to “free Rome” from those who damaged it.
Raggi also swiftly commented on the contradiction, saying Marchini’s vaunted independence from political parties has been “unmasked”. Berlusconi’s decision to replace Bertolaso with Marchini “is epochal,” commented Pier Ferdinando Casini, leader of the small New Center Right (NCD) party. “It reopens a season of possible convergence among Italian moderates”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Vivisection Laws ‘Too Restrictive’ Says EC
Infringement procedure after complaints from scientists
(ANSA) — Brussels, April 28 — Italy’s law on vivisection is too restrictive, the European Commission said Thursday in a letter announcing the opening of an infringement procedure.
Italian research institutes have complained to the EC that national laws put them at a disadvantage with respect to their colleagues in other European countries. Italy has two months to respond. EU rules on using animals for scientific experiments are more lax than Italy’s.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Islamist Terror Suspect Planned Israeli Embassy, Vatican Attacks
Renzi praises anti-terror op that nabbed four terror suspects
(supersedes previous) (ANSA) — Milan, April 28 — One of four Islamist terror suspects arrested Thursday allegedly wanted to attack the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome.
Italian police have arrested four people in a foreign fighter investigation, including a Moroccan-born man living in Italy with orders from the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) terror group to carry out attacks in Rome during Holy Year, prosecutors said Thursday. The man allegedly received a message urging him to commit terror attacks in Italy, investigators said. “Dear brother Abderrahim, I send you… the bomb poem… listen to the sheik and strike,” was the content of a WhatsApp message to arrested suspect Abderrahim Moutahrrik, the investigators said. The sheik in question may be a reference to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is usually called caliph, or to another ISIS sheikh, experts said.
Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli told reporters that investigators intercepted the communication from within ISIS-held territory. There was no indication any attacks were imminent and Romanelli said authorities acted quickly to close the investigation, arresting four people and issuing arrest warrants for two others believed to be in ISIS territory.
“This is a new profile, because it was not a generic indication, but an indication given to a specific person who was invited to act within the territory of the Italian State,” Romanelli said.
Authorities arrested Moutahrrick and his wife Salma Bencharki, who allegedly were planning to travel from their home in Lecco, north of Milan, to ISIS-held territory with their children aged two and four. Romanelli said Moutahrrick had taken Italian citizenship and was an accomplished boxer.
As well, investigators said Moutahrrick planned to attack the Israeli embassy and the Vatican in the nation’s capital. “I want to hit Israel in Rome,” he told fellow arrested suspect and Moroccan national Abderrahmane Khachia in a tapped February 6 conversation. Investigators say Moutahrrik said he contacted an Albanian national in order to obtain weapons and that he specifically said he planned to attack the Israeli embassy in Rome.
“For these enemies I swear if I manage to bring my family to safety, I swear I will be the first to attack (…) in this crusading Italy (…) the Vatican with the will of God,” Moutahrrik told Koraichi in a March 25 audio message. “My only request to you is my family, you know I want (…) my children to spend some time growing up in the Islamic caliphate”.
Khachia, 23, was arrested in the northern city of Varese, prosecutors said. Prosecutors also issued arrest warrants for an Italian-Moroccan couple who left to join ISIS last year with three small children. Romanelli said that man, identified as Mohamed Koraichi, had become an ISIS fighter and had communicated the orders to carry out attacks in Italy while making arrangements for the other family to join the terror group. The fourth arrest was of Koraichi’s sister, prosecutors said.
Premier Matteo Renzi used Twitter to thank the authorities involved in the anti-terror operation. “Very important anti-extremist operation in north this morning,” Renzi said via his @matteorenzi account. “Compliments to the ministry, intelligence (services), investigators and police forces #alltogether (#tuttiinsieme)”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: It’d be Abnormal if ECB Listened to Pols Says Draghi
Natural that they talk abt our policies
(ANSA) — Rome, April 27 — European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Wednesday that it would be “abnormal” if the ECB listened to politicians instead of forming policy independently. he said it was “natural”, however that politicians should speak of “our policies”. He said his nationality only “matters to the German media”, that the ECB was not acting as ca disincentive to Italian and French structural reforms, and that he could not believe that the British will vote to leave the EU.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Arrests Terrorism Suspects Accused of Planning Attacks on Holy Year Pilgrimage
Italian police have detained several suspects during a foreign-fighter investigation. Authorities have said they were not only attempting to join the so-called ‘Islamic State’ but were also planning attacks in Rome.
Four suspected “Islamic State” (IS) sympathizers were detained by Italian police during a “vast anti-terrorism operation” in northern Italy on Thursday, according to authorities.
Investigators intercepted an IS communication which ordered one of the suspects, a Moroccan-born man, to carry out attacks in Italy “with particular attention to the city of Rome,” Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli told reporters.
The communication specifically focused on the Holy Year pilgrimage which is currently underway.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
An 11,000-year-old shale pendant engraved with an enigmatic network of lines has been discovered at Star Carr in North Yorkshire, England. The Mesolithic site was among the first in the British Isles to have been permanently settled after the end of the last Ice Age, during which Britain was likely depopulated. The engravings are similar to those found on amber pendants from the same period in Denmark, which was then accessible by land from Britain. Researchers believe the engravings may depict a tree, a map, a leaf, or tally marks. “Personally, I’m happiest with the idea that they’re counting something,” says Nicky Milner of the University of York, “but it’s impossible to say.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Zoo Slammed for Beheading Zebra and Feeding it to the Tigers in Public
The beheaded carcass of the zebra was place in the tiger enclosure at Kristiansand Dyrepark, near Kristiansand, south Norway, which is the country’s most visited attraction.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Driverless Truck is Coming, And it’s Going to Automate Millions of Jobs
Via: Tech Crunch: A convoy of self-driving trucks recently drove across Europe and arrived at the Port of Rotterdam. No technology will automate away more jobs — or drive more economic efficiency — than the driverless truck. Shipping a full truckload from L.A. to New York costs around $4,500 today, with labor representing 75 percent [… ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
TTIP — Current EU GMO Rules to be ‘Disregarded’ As EU Commission Caves in to US Pressure
EU Commission bows to US trade deal pressure and shelves own GMO rules
A joint report conducted by Greenpeace, Corporate Europe Observatory and Gene Watch UK issued a briefing paper last week entitled “Commission fails to regulate new GMOs after intense US lobbying.”
In essence, the European Commission has effectively deserted its principles when it comes to GMO’s entering the food chain within the 28 nation bloc. Intense lobbying by United States representatives for the EU Commission to disregard current GMO rules which require stringent safety tests and labelling has proved successful. The result is that genetically modified organisms produced through a modified technique called ‘gene editing’ will be allowed. Gene editing is all but the same as anything we understand about GMO’s generally.
Freedom of Information documents show the scale of US lobbying has overwhelmed the EU Commission who now stand accused of bowing to US pressure and abdicating to the corporations and rejecting citizen concerns. The documents reveal that US representatives pushed for the EU to disregard its own GMO rules on the basis that the EU were simply putting up barriers and stifling trade under the proposed TTIP negotiations. The papers state that the EU should completely ignore health and environmental safeguards to pave the way for successful negotiations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The son of a billionaire steel magnate jumped to his death from the balcony of his multi-million pound penthouse flat while his children played inside, an inquest heard today.
Angad Paul, 45, blamed himself for the ‘catastrophic’ collapse of his Labour peer father Lord Paul’s company and told his family: ‘I can’t provide for you’ shortly before his death.
Mr Paul, who was married with two children, a daughter aged ten and a son of seven, told his wife Michelle they couldn’t afford a pizza and was deeply paranoid before his suicide.
He even sold his four sports cars and only wore his cheapest watch, telling his family: ‘I don’t deserve nice things’
Mr Paul fell to his death from the eight-storey building across from BBC Broadcasting House in Portland Place on November 8 last year.
His death came as administrators battled to save Caparo PLC, a business founded by his father Lord Paul, 85 — one of the country’s richest men.
The plunging price of steel caused by cheap Chinese imports has left the industry in Britain in crisis and forced Caparo into administration a month before Angad Paul died.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Watership Down Scenes to be Watered Down in New BBC and Netflix Remake
The executive producer Rory Aitken says the new four-part series will not shy away fro the darkness of Richard Adams’ book, but it will be visually less ‘brutal and scarring’ than the 1978 movie (pictured).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vikings May Have First Taken to Seas to Find Women, Slaves
On 8 June 793 C.E., a band of foreign warriors attacked the Christian monastery of Lindisfarne on the English coast, wrecking the church, killing the monks, and making off with all the treasure their ships could hold. This brutal attack has long been thought to mark the start of Viking aggression. But archaeologist Neil Price of Sweden’s Uppsala University suspects that the roots of the Viking era go back long before this raid.
Armed with a $6 million grant—a princely sum in archaeology—Price and his colleagues want to know the extent to which a need for captive labor and overseas wives helped drive Viking expansion, transforming the provincial Scandinavian sailors and fur traders of the earlier Vendel period into international explorers and marauders. “The social processes are going on long before” the Lindisfarne raid, Price said after his talk at a symposium on Vikings at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology here last week. “We can erase this boundary between the Vendel and Viking eras.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fighting ISIS in Libya ‘Big Mistake’ Says Gentiloni
Must enable Libya to fight that fight says foreign minister
(ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told the Senate on Thursday that trying to step in to fight the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) terror group in Libya would be an error. “The different factions in Libya are competing with each other to fight Daesh (ISIS in Arabic),” he said. “Trying to… substitute ourselves in their anti-terror activities would be a big mistake. We must encourage this path, even though it is tortuous and uphill”. Gentiloni told lawmakers that the foreign policy objective is to enable Libyan authorities to combat and defeat Islamist terrorism in their country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
96 Years Since World Recognition of Jewish Rights to Israel
This week marked the 96th anniversary of the first international recognition of Jewish national rights in the Land of Israel — namely, the San Remo Conference.
The San Remo Conference was an international meeting of four of the leading Allied powers of World War I, known as the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council. Held in the Italian city of San Remo, it was attended by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French PM Alexandre Millerand, Italy’s Prime Minister Francesco Nitti and Japanese Ambassador K. Matsui.
Its resolution that a Jewish nation must be established in Palestine was confirmed by the League of Nations in 1922.
Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire as a result of World War I, it became necessary to determine how the lands formerly governed by the Ottoman Turks would be ruled. The precise borders of the territories were not specified, but regarding the Holy Land, known then as Palestine, the plan was clear, and the Allied leaders resolved as follows:
“The High Contracting Parties agree to entrust… the administration of Palestine, within such boundaries as may be determined by the Principal Allied Powers, to a Mandatory, to be selected by the said Powers. The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 8, 1917, by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people (emphasis added), it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”[…]
[and now most of those same ‘High’ contracting ‘powers’ would appear to want to ethnically cleanse us; accusing us of ‘illegal occupation’]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Offers Marriage Counseling to Stop Deluge of Fleeing Slave Wives
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has begun offering marriage counseling in hopes of stopping jihadi brides from leaving the caliphate.
The terrorist group released a picture of a jihadi bride in an office waiting to receive marriage counseling. The group opened the office in Raqqa, Syria, the capital of their self-declared caliphate.
Thousands of women have left their comfortable lives in the West to marry jihadists in the Islamic State, but airstrikes and Shariah Law have forced these women to rethink their decisions.
The Islamic State opened an official marriage office in Raqqa in the summer of 2014 to help newly arrived women find jihadi husbands. Upon signing up, the women and young girls could expect a jihadi to arrive at their door and propose.
If the Islamic State interests the couple, they can honeymoon in their “caliphate,” which includes parts of Syria and Iraq. The happy couple will start in Raqqa and continue to Iraq’s Anbar. Activist Hadi Salameh said Chechen militant Abu Abdel Rahman al-Shishani and his new wife were one of the first clients.
Last week, Kurdish news outlets reported the Islamic State executed 250 girls and women who refused to become their sex slaves or enter temporary marriages with terrorists.
“At least 250 girls have so far been executed by IS for refusing to accept the practice of sexual jihad, and sometimes the families of the girls were also executed for rejecting to submit to IS’s request,” announced Said Mamuzini, the Kurdish Democratic Party spokesman.
In December 2014, Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights claimed that the Islamic State murdered 150 women because they refused to marry or engage in sexual acts with the terrorists.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Two Turkish Journalists Sentenced to Two Years in Jail for Charlie Hebdo Cover
Two journalists were sentenced to two years in prison on April 28 for republishing in their columns a cover of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo featuring an image of the Prophet Muhammad.
Istanbul’s Second Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced daily Cumhuriyet journalists Ceyda Karan and Hikmet Çetinkaya to two years on charges of “openly encouraging hate and enmity among people via the press” for reprinting the caricature of the Islamic prophet after the Jan. 7, 2015, attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris that killed 12 people.
However, the court ruled for the acquittal of the journalists on charges of “insulting people’s religious values” on the grounds that the criminal factors had not been constituted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Says 9,333 Killed Since Ukraine Conflict Began
The U.N. says nearly 10,000 people have been killed and more than 20,000 injured since the Ukraine conflict begin in April 2014.
Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Taye-Brook Zerihoun told the Security Council on Thursday that the total number of casualties now stands at 30,729 including 9,333 people killed and 21,396 injured.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Battered and bruised and laying in her hospital bed, this is the British grandmother savagely beaten by a gang of drunken Thai thugs on holiday celebrating her businessman husband’s 68th birthday.
Rose Owen and her businessman husband Lewis were set upon after their son, also called Lewis, spilled one of the gang’s drinks as they made their way along a busy street.
Lewis, who had recently joined his parents in the country from his home in Singapore, apparently enraged the men — who were already brawling with each other — after knocking into them on the crowded street and knocking their drink.
The horror of what happened next was caught on CCTV, the unadulterated violence shocking people in Britain and across Thailand.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Suicide Bomber Sets Off Vest Prematurely, Killing Eight Jihadists
A Taliban suicide bomber killed himself and eight fellow jihadists on Tuesday after setting off his explosives vest prematurely while organizing coordinated attacks in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
China Successfully Tests Hypersonic Missile
China successfully flight tested its new high-speed maneuvering warhead last week, days after Russia carried out its own hypersonic glider test, according to Pentagon officials.
The test of the developmental DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle was monitored after launch Friday atop a ballistic missile fired from the Wuzhai missile launch center in central China, said officials familiar with reports of the test.
The maneuvering glider, traveling at several thousand miles per hour, was tracked by satellites as it flew west along the edge of the atmosphere to an impact area in the western part of the country.
It was the seventh successful flight test of the revolutionary glider, which travels at speeds between 4,000 and 7,000 miles per hour.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China Bans Criticism of President’s Calls for Tolerance of Criticism
The South China Morning Post finds some humor in the spectacle of Chinese President Xi Jinping calling for “greater tolerance of ‘well-intentioned’ criticism online of the authorities in China” only to see comments on his remarks banned.
Xi said at a forum on cybersecurity on Tuesday that officials should “heed public opinions” online and show internet users “greater tolerance and patience”.
He also pledged to take online criticism towards the Communist Party, the government and officials on board as long as it was “well-intentioned”, regardless how unpleasant it was to hear.
Hours after the forum the state news agency Xinhua started to post highlights of the speech on its Weibo account.
But readers clicking on the comments section of the posting were shown a message that said: “This Weibo post is closed for comments.”
The post was shared over 5,000 times, but had only 16 comments. Among them, only two were allowed to be displayed.
People who criticize the government openly have a habit of disappearing, like the family of a Chinese dissident living in the United States, whose “parents and younger brother were taken away by local police as part of an investigation aimed at identifying the author of an open letter calling for Xi’s resignation,” along with staff from the news website that published the letter, according to CNBC.
“Well-intentioned criticism” is the kind of weaselly qualifier authoritarian rulers love. Qualified free speech is more insidious than frank censorship, because it creates the illusion of freedom, and lets authoritarians claim credit for enlightened attitudes they don’t actually share. Hopefully no one in China really thinks their government welcomes criticism.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
South African Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula has formally suspended that country’s rugby, cricket, netball, and athletics associations from bidding for international tournaments because they are too white.
Making the announcement this week, Mbalula said those organizations had “failed to transform” — that is, they had not attracted enough black players.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘All He Could Say Was Sex Sex Sex’ Wave of Refugee Sex Attacks Hits Austria
A WOMAN was sexually assaulted by a refugee at a bus stop before he chased her with his trousers down in one of a string of migrant sex attacks to hit Austria.
The crimewave is seeing a sharp rise in the far-right in Austria in protest of mass immigration.
In the latest shocking incident a 27-year-old woman was allegedly assaulted while waiting at a bus station in the village of Grinzing on the outskirts of the capital Vienna.
She said: “He was Arabic looking and had a cord around his waist instead of a belt.
“All he could say was ‘sex, sex, sex’ and then he pulled out a condom from his trouser pocket.”
The attack comes just days after Norbert Hofer, candidate of the anti-migrant Freedom Party (FPO), took pole position in the presidential elections.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria to Have 250 Police at Brenner, Army if Needed
Vienna plans to make migrant controls in Italy and a 370mt fence
(ANSA) — BOLZANO — Helmut Tomac, the chief of police of the Austrian state of Tyrol, said Wednesday that 250 police officers will be stationed at the Brenner Pass with the introduction of controls at the border with Italy. “Soldiers will be sent to the Brenner in case of necessity, although the decision is up to the defence ministry,” Tomac said. Austrian authorities on Wednesday asked to be able to conduct road and rail migrant controls in Italian territory. “The setting up of a fence on the Italo-Austrian border depends on Italy,” said Tomac. “In view of the imminent meeting between (interior) ministers (Wolfgang) Sobotka and (Angelino) Alfano in Rome, the fence construction work has been put off,” he said. Tomac said the introduction of border controls at the Brenner Pass features plans for a 370-metre fence. “It’s a normal fence, not a barbed-wire one,” said Tomac. “It will only be set up if necessary in the case of a massive arrival of migrants”. He explained that this fence will be portable and will be put together shortly to be ready to be used if needed. “Austria does not intend to isolate itself but to channel eventual migrant flows”. He added he was confident using the fence can be avoided. (
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: FPÖ Rejects “Placebo” Asylum Law
The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) today voted against a new so-called “anti-asylum” law in parliament, because it “ties existing laws into knots,” still allows “asylum” claims — and can be challenged in court.
Rather, the FPÖ said, what was needed was a “reboot” of the entire law governing asylum and immigration, and not a tinkering with existing legislation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brenner Closing Could Spawn ‘Another Idomeni’ Says MSF
NGO warns possible humanitarian disaster in Italy
(see related)(ANSA) — Florence, April 28 — The president of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) humanitarian NGO warned Thursday that shutting down the Brenner Pass as Austria is threatening to do could cause an Idomeni-like humanitarian disaster. Loris De Filippi told reporters that what happened at the Greek village of Idomeni after Balkan countries shut their borders down could also take place in Italy at the Austria border.
“After the Balkan route was cut off, a refugee camp proliferated where 12,000 people have been living for months in shameful conditions in the cold, the heat, and the mud,” De Filippi said. He pointed to makeshift camps asylum seekers set up on the sea rocks at Ventimiglia when France shut its border down last year.
“People fleeing a war and who have the right to be taken in, are rejected and get stuck in our country because other countries don’t want to get involved in this issue,” he said.
“We must create safe and legal routes so these people can reach us in totally secure conditions,” he added. The MSF chief also called on the Italian government to come up with a contingency plan during what he said would be “a pretty hot summer”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU on Edge: Italy Lashes Out at Austria as it Builds Migrant Border Fences Across Alps
Tensions in Europe are at boiling point after Austria outlined plans on Wednesday to install a 370 metre-long fence at the Brenner Pass, which is the busiest route through the Alps for heavy goods vehicles.
It comes just weeks after the country announced large fences are also to be built at the Moschendorf, Heiligenbrunn, Heiligenkreuz and Nickelsdorf border crossing points throughout the Burgenland region, before migrants travelling by foot arrive.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
How NATO-Linked Think Tanks Control EU Refugee Policy
A flood of uncontrolled war refugees from Syria, Libya, Tunisia and other Islamic countries destabilized by Washington’s ‘Arab Spring’ Color Revolutions, has created the greatest social dislocation across the EU from Germany to Sweden to Croatia since the end of World War II. By now it has become clear to most that something quite sinister is afoot, something which threatens to destroy the social fabric of the very core of European civilization. What few realize is that the entire drama is being orchestrated, not by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, or by faceless EU bureaucrats of the Brussels EU Commission. It is being orchestrated by a cabal of NATO-linked think tanks.
Last October 8, 2015 amid the great stream of hundreds of thousands of refugees flooding into Germany from Syria, Tunisia, Libya and other lands, a newly self-confident German Chancellor Angela Merkel proclaimed on a popular German TV program, “I have a plan.” She took the occasion to take a sharp dig at coalition partner, Bavarian CSU head, Horst Seehofer, a stauch critic of Merkel’s open arms refugee position since spring 2015 that saw more than one million refugees enter Germany last year alone.
Since that point, with iron-hard resolve, the German Chancellor has defended the criminal Erdogan regime in Turkey, an essential partner in her “plan.”…
Already it becomes clear that the “Merkel Plan” is the Soros Plan in fact. But there is more if we wish to understand the darker agenda behind the plan.
The European Stability Initiative think-tank of Soros-tied Gerald Knaus is financed by an impressive list of donors. Their website lists them.
The list includes, in addition to Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the Soros-tied German Stiftung Mercator, and the Robert Bosch Stiftung. ESI funders also include European Commission. Then, curiously enough the funder list for The Merkel Plan includes an organization with the Orwellian name, The United States Institute of Peace.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ICE Under Fire for Releasing Thousands of Illegal Immigrants With Rap Sheets
The Obama administration took fire at a House hearing Thursday for releasing back into society thousands of illegal immigrants who had committed crimes on U.S. soil — including those behind more than 200 murders.
“These are people that were here illegally, got caught committing a crime, were convicted of that crime and instead of deporting them, they were just released back out in the United States of America,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said.
According to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2015 “freed 19,723 criminal aliens, who had a total of 64,197 convictions among them.”
This included “8,234 violent convictions and 208 homicide convictions.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crackdown: Austria Passes Tough New Law Allowing it to Shut Border to All Refugees
MPs approved the no-nonsense measure which means border guards can now choose to turn back migrants if and when the flow gets too great to cope with.
The new law, which is among the toughest yet passed in Europe, signal Austria’s continued determination to bring the spiralling migrant crisis under control.
It also shows how Europe is still grappling to deal with the escalating refugee chaos, with member states taking matters into their own hands as the Schengen free movement zone continues to crumble.
The new law, passed by parliament yesterday, allows authorities to turn away any migrants trying to cross the border from designated safe countries.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
UMass Students Freak Out Over Journalist Being White, Wearing Cross at Milo Event
Journalist Mike Mahoney says a group of hostile students ganged up on him after Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ recent event at the University of Massachusetts, arguing over a litany of social justice hot-button issues — peaking with one angry young woman allegedly charging at him.
According to Mahoney’s claims, prior to the event, he approached a crowd of around 20 protesters gathering outside of the auditorium prior to the event for question. According to his story, the protesters were generally friendly and polite as they discussed Islam, feminism, and political correctness. One protester even asked to take a photo with Mahoney before they entered the auditorium together to take their seats.
The event itself was chaotic, with a group of protesters consistently attempting to shout down the panelists — which included Yiannopoulos, former philosophy Professor Christina Hoff Sommers, and comedian Steven Crowder. The protesters hurled expletives at the panelists and told them that they weren’t welcome at UMass.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Identity 2016: ‘Global Citizenship’ Rising, Poll Suggests
People are increasingly identifying themselves as global rather than national citizens, according to a BBC World Service poll.
The trend is particularly marked in emerging economies, where people see themselves as outward looking and internationally minded.
However, in Germany fewer people say they feel like global citizens now, compared with 2001.
Pollsters GlobeScan questioned more than 20,000 people in 18 countries.
More than half of those asked (56%) in emerging economies saw themselves first and foremost as global citizens rather than national citizens.
In Nigeria (73%), China (71%), Peru (70%) and India (67%) the data is particularly marked.
By contrast, the trend in the industrialised nations seems to be heading in the opposite direction.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium was already on high alert when the bombings happened and now I’m hearing that the EU lost track of over 2,000 jihadist that came back to Europe. Now is it possible that a security breach of this magnitude could mean that mostly those being monitored aren’t Muslim but “right wing extremist”.
Meanwhile in Marseille, 3 legionnaires deal with an armed person on bus (in Fr)
http://m.20minutes.fr/marseille/1835743-20160428-marseille-arme-pistolet-menace-mort-tous-passagers-bus
ISIS marriage counceling huh? Well, I’m pretty sure anyone could do that job. Just keep repeating “the wife is always to blame” the whole time.