Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/23/2016

According to the latest projection by the BBC, the referendum on Brexit has been won by “Leave”. More significantly, the bookies’ odds have swung against “Remain”. Also, the pound is now falling precipitously against other currencies.

In other news, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is in Havana to sign a historic peace agreement with FARC, a deal that has been in the works for more than three years.

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

Thanks to Dean, Diego, JD, LP, MC, MM, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» For Vulnerable EU, Brexit Would Trigger “Brilliantly-Destructive Program of Interdependency”
 
USA
» Epic Speech: Is Trump for Real? Watch as He Destroys ‘Hillary the Liar, Ruining America’
» Facebook Allegedly Deletes Viral Video Exposing Anti-Trump Media Bias
» GOP Rep: Dems Are Holding Gun Control ‘Sit-in’ To Strip Rights Away
» Majority of Country’s Most Lead Poisoned Cities Are Controlled by Democrats
» NBC Producer Calls Would-be Trump Assassin ‘Good Guy With a Gun’
» New Evidence of Multiple Participants in Orlando Shooting
» New York Times: Gov’t Should Secretly Repeal 2nd Amendment
» Obama Smart Gun Push Could Conflict With Constitutional Rights, Legal Expert Says
» Obama’s Father’s Day Fraud
» Please Donate to the Man With Integrity, Donald J. Trump
» Rangel: No Guns for Law-Abiding Constituents But I ‘Deserve-Need’ Police Protection [Audio]
» Shooting Statistics: As Americans Bought More Guns “Homicide Decreased 51%”
» Teaching Communism in Public Schools
» Top Globalist Endorses Hillary Clinton
 
Europe and the EU
» BBC Forecast: UK Votes to Leave the EU
» Brexit: Real Change or Titanic Deck Chairs?
» Britain Votes: All You Need to Know About Today’s Brexit Referendum and What to Look for
» British Discontent About the EU: Only a Precursor to Unrest on the Continent
» Vote Fraud? Brexit Supporters Fear Ballots Marked in Pencil Could be Changed
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Abbas: Israel is Committing Mass-Murder
 
Far East
» Savage Storm Pummels Eastern China, Killing 98
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Working With Nigeria to Free Hostages: Bishop
 
Latin America
» Colombian Government and FARC Rebels Announce Ceasefire Deal to End War
» Colombian President, FARC Commander to Sign Ceasefire Accord
» Luis Fleischman: Nicaragua Becomes a One-Party Dictatorship as Countries in the Region and the U.S. Fail to Protect Democracy in Venezuela
» Santos ‘Intimidating’ Colombia Into Ratifying FARC Peace Deal
 
Immigration
» 580 Terror Convictions in U.S. Since 9/11, 380 Are Foreign-Born
» Pope Francis Says ‘A Christian Lets Everybody Come’
 

For Vulnerable EU, Brexit Would Trigger “Brilliantly-Destructive Program of Interdependency”

The Brexit matters to the rest of the world including the U.S. because of the brilliantly-destructive program of interdependency and globalism that has shaped our financial house for decades. Interdependency leads to extreme economic weakness because no piece of the global system has the tools to survive without the other pieces; and on top of this, when one part of the machine goes down, ALL the other parts are affected.

It is a truly horrible and seemingly idiotic system; but not so idiotic if you accept the reality that it is deliberately engineered to fail.

When you examine the fiscal foundations of every major economy in the world today, what you find is a financial shell game. The fundamentals tell us the truth; with global exports and imports in decline, global shipping of raw materials in decline, manufacturing in decline, retail in decline, employment in decline, real unemployment numbers including those people no longer counted by the Labor Department skyrocketing and the number of people on welfare and food stamps skyrocketing.

In reality, the global economy is one massive thin-skinned bubble searching for a sharp object to impale itself on. The Brexit may very well be that sharp object.

Before I go into the various details surrounding Thursday’s vote, I want to state that I am in full support of the British movement to leave the European Union. The reasoning behind a successful Brexit is solid. The European Union’s rabid socialist tendencies have created a doom scenario for all those shackled to the supranational body. Forced multiculturalism and cultural Marxism has opened a floodgate of Islamic refugees which hold ideological beliefs completely incompatible with western principles and heritage while at the same time introducing a massive vampiric drain on the prevailing social welfare systems.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Epic Speech: Is Trump for Real? Watch as He Destroys ‘Hillary the Liar, Ruining America’

This one is for the record books.

Seriously… there’s always heightened campaign rhetoric; but usually it is pillow fighting for two parties that are in bed together screwing the country.

But this campaign year is different. Donald Trump absolutely unleashed on Hillary Clinton in a way that may well be historic.

Secrecy, lies, theft, death, graft, bought-out strings from powerful donors and an absolutely criminal candidate. The accusations are well-based in decades of absurd and vicious ambition by Hillary, who clearly will stop at nothing to get power. For that price, she has handed over much to those who should have no control of the country.

“They totally own her,” Trump charges. The special interests have likely never more fully bought out a political figure more so than they have the Clinton family.

– From theft and the politics of personal profit… he accuses Hillary of running the State Dept. like a hedge fund and taking cash from foreign governments in turn for access and favorable policies.

“Desperately, we need those jobs.”

But probably the biggest issue Trump strikes a chord on is trade — from international trade deals like NAFTA and the still-pending TPP, promotion of cheap manufacturing in China at the expense of American jobs, the country is in shambling and the middle class has slowly died largely due to policies from the Clinton and Bush administrations.

Love him, or hate him, Donald Trump absolutely rails against the price that Americans have had to pay for the rise of globalism — Clinton-style and otherwise — in a way that no major candidate ever has since the age of globalism began in the latter half of the 20th Century.

“Hillary gets rich while making you poor,” Trump charges. If Hillary gets the presidency, “We will lose our country,” he warns.

“She should be in prison.”

There’s much more, but this is no ordinary speech.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Facebook Allegedly Deletes Viral Video Exposing Anti-Trump Media Bias

“We get shut down or censored and the hate pages spreading defamatory propaganda against Republicans stay up…”

Facebook has deleted a viral video revealing how video company NowThis heavily edited footage of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump after The Daily Caller published an article on the video, according to the video’s owner.

“[Facebook] has removed my viral video exposing the fake propaganda against Donald J. Trump… However … NowThis keep pumping out the poisonous propaganda freely,” the page’s owner said in a post on his page, River Entertainment. “This is very scary.”

Speaking to TheDC, the page owner said his video had reached more than 2 million views after being online for a week. He said he received no notification or explanation from Facebook, noticing it was gone on his own after a visit to his page.

[Comment: Build the portal. Attract people to use it exclusivley instead of accessing internet in traditional ways. Next control the information. Facebook is essentially mainstream media now.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

GOP Rep: Dems Are Holding Gun Control ‘Sit-in’ To Strip Rights Away

“It’s a disgrace to Woolworth’s”.

As Democrats ‘occupied’ the House Wednesday and staged a ‘sit-in’ to push for action on gun control legislation, critics lambasted them for their actions, with one GOP rep calling the action “a disgrace”.

“Calling this a sit-in is a disgrace to Woolworth’s,” Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) tweeted, referring to the infamous civil rights protest ‘sit-ins’ that took place in the 1960s.

Walker noted that while those protesting back then were asking for rights, House Democrats are protesting to have rights taken away.

[Comment: The bigger problem is that people voted for these poltroons.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Majority of Country’s Most Lead Poisoned Cities Are Controlled by Democrats

Syracuse, Buffalo, Cincinnati top list of cities with most children poisoned by lead

A majority of the cities with widespread lead poisoning in young children are run by Democrats, according to a new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

The six-year study, which took place from 2009 to 2015, was based on more than 5 million blood samples of children under the age of six across the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The study found that 3 percent of children tested across the nation had blood lead levels categorized as “high.” It singled out six cities-Syracuse, Buffalo, and Poughkeepsie in New York, York and Oil City in Pennsylvania, and Cincinnati, Ohio-as especially troubled communities where more than 14 percent of children had high levels of lead in their blood.

Two thirds of those municipalities are controlled by Democrats and have been for some time.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NBC Producer Calls Would-be Trump Assassin ‘Good Guy With a Gun’

“It could be argued that the dude who was hoping to assassinate Donald Trump is a good guy with a gun,” Mowrer tweeted.

In an effort to make a smug attack on the conservative position that the best way to fight a bad guy with a gun is a good guy, an NBC producer tweeted that the failed assassin who tried to murder Donald Trump could be considered a “good guy with a gun.”

Matt Mowrer, an associate producer for NBC Universal since 2014, tweeted late Tuesday night that anyone who kills the Republican nominee is considered deserves the same praise as someone who tries to stop a mass killing.

“It could be argued that the dude who was hoping to assassinate Donald Trump is a good guy with a gun,” Mowrer tweeted.

Quickly after he began receiving backlash and blocked his account preventing anyone else from seeing his tweet.

[Comment: Incredibly some people actually believe mainstream media is not bias.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New Evidence of Multiple Participants in Orlando Shooting

Lone wolf narrative questioned

In response to reports by numerous people that more than one shooter took part in the massacre at the Pulse nightclub on June 12, the Orlando police said only Omar Mateen was responsible. This was followed by Snopes and the corporate media characterizing eyewitness reports as an “irresponsible” conspiracy theory.

On Wednesday, Catherine Herridge told the “Kelly File” audio captured on cell phones during the attack reveals Mateen was conversing with one or more people about tactics and he “was not talking to 911.”

The conversation was mentioned during an ABC News interview with one of the victims. “During the interview the eyewitness, who played dead for several hours during the attack as a strategy to stay alive, said that he had overheard a phone conversation that the shooter was engaged in,” Shepard Ambellas wrote on June 15.

“The eyewitness said that the shooter made mention that he was the ‘fourth shooter’ and that there were ‘three others,’ ‘snipers,’ along with a ‘female suicide bomber’ that was playing dead.”

This and other eyewitness reports were ignored as the government and the corporate media crafted the narrative of a “lone wolf” gunman who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New York Times: Gov’t Should Secretly Repeal 2nd Amendment

Leftist media continues attack on American liberties

A New York Times editorial advocates for a new law allowing a secret court to take away citizens’ right to own a gun at the discretion of the federal government.

[Comment: In the USA, the 2nd amendment right is inherent — individuals have a right to be able to defend their lives and family. Any law that claims to take away that right is not law, but what the founders’ called a “pretend law”. The Constitution is the highest law of the land — regardless of any communist decree by puppet bankster politicians.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Smart Gun Push Could Conflict With Constitutional Rights, Legal Expert Says

“Smart” firearms present numerous safety and constitutional issues

Smart guns are firearms that incorporate a safety feature that would allow only authorized users to fire it. This would include fingerprints to unlock the gun, or the use of a biometric sensor that detects the grip and hand size of the rightful user.

Most gun owners don’t want their guns to fall into the wrong hands, but there is a downside, said Greenlee.

“This [smart gun policy] could compel someone to incriminate themselves,” Greenlee told The Daily Signal. “The Fifth Amendment prevents someone from being compelled. But it seems smart gun owners might have to give up that right.”

The reason: Thus far, courts have said the government can’t compel a citizen to punch in a smartphone security code, but can require the opening of fingerprint smartphones.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Father’s Day Fraud

Two years ago I had the pleasure to review some of the National History Day presentations made by high school students in Maryland. A young lady had presented an exhibit on the Fatherhood Leadership Crisis in America and cited Barack Obama as a successful person who grew up without a father’s leadership. But the evidence suggests that in fact Obama did grow up with a father’s leadership, and that the father was none other than his communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, and not Barack Hussein Obama Sr., the Kenyan who had “abandoned” the family.

With the release of papers associated with the Kenyan Obama, it is clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that President Barack Obama was not his son. The nation has been treated to a monumental deception. Indeed, Obama campaigned as someone he is not. One can understand some of the reasons for the deception. Davis was a communist whose illicit affair with Obama’s mother was not something to be proud of. But shame should have taken a back seat to the need for the American people to learn the truth. Obama decided not to take that route. He told the American people a whopper about his dad being from Kenya. It was a calculated political deception, much like the claim he made while campaigning for office in 2008 that he was a committed Christian. Once he was elected, he became “The Politician Without a Church,” someone more likely to be on a golf course than worshipping Christ, and a president eager to accommodate the demands of the Muslim world.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Please Donate to the Man With Integrity, Donald J. Trump

Trump turned down $300 million to accept former Speaker of the House, Gingrich as VP! This ought to confirm, for the Trump doubters who don’t believe he’s a genuine conservative, that he most certainly is, and more than that…he’s true to his own honorable principles and integrity. We need to support this man monetarily as he needs $2 Billion to help defeat Hillary Clinton.

There are a few reading this who I know don’t understand that Newt Gingrich is a slick talking globalist politician and CFR (Council of Foreign Relations) member. Most folks don’t even understand that since the 70s he’s been an Alvin and Heidi Toffler Third Waver. He’s a loyal globalist and New World Order puppet. Bottom line, Newt is just another neo-con Trotskyite.

If you still aren’t sure about Gingrich, his stance on the Second Amendment should make it clear to America where he stands. If you check on the voting list of those who voted “yea” on Public Law 101-216 in 1989 (an update to the General and Complete Disarmament Law, Public Law 87-297) you will find that Newt Gingrich voted in favor of section 2 of this disarmament bill which reads:

“(2) as defined in this Act, the terms ‘arms control’ and ‘disarmament’ mean ‘the identification, verification, inspection, limitation, control, reduction, or elimination, of armed forces and armaments of all kinds under international agreement to establish an effective system of international control.”

Gingrich’s disarmament vote alone would discredit him from even a long list of folks considered for Mr. Trump’s Vice President. Trump’s comments after the Orlando shooting tell where he stands. Trump didn’t mince words Friday, in Woodlands, Texas, as he addressed the Orlando terrorist attack, referring to the gunman as a “son of a b — “ and arguing that guns in civilian hands could have mitigated the carnage.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Rangel: No Guns for Law-Abiding Constituents But I ‘Deserve-Need’ Police Protection [Audio]

Rangel says members of Congress “deserve” and “need” people with firearms protecting them.

WASHINGTON — New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel says members of Congress “deserve” and “need” people with firearms protecting them in the U.S. Capitol building, but he does not want law-abiding residents in his own district to be armed for self-protection.

Rangel made this distinction when he spoke to The Daily Caller Tuesday night about New York Police Department’s gun permitting bribery scandal.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Shooting Statistics: As Americans Bought More Guns “Homicide Decreased 51%”

Editor’s Comment: Obviously, the hysterical, agenda-driven media could care less about reality. But for those who remain interested in the truth, it is worth noting that keeping and bearing arms has created a culture where crime, and homicide in particular, has been declining.

Could it be because criminals don’t wish to commit crimes when it endangers their own skin? Judge for yourself.

Mass Shooting Myth — U.S. Homicide Rate Hits 51-year Low as Gun Ownership Increased 141%

In the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, politicians have attempted to use the tragedy as means of garnering public support for increased gun control measures. Four pieces of knee-jerk gun control legislation were defeated in Congress yesterday, but the debate surrounding gun rights continues unabated.

The new narrative is that “mass shootings,” defined by the FBI as 3 or more people killed in one incident, are at epidemic levels and thus require society to increase restrictions on gun ownership as a means of saving lives and lowering the U.S. homicide rate.

However, this narrative flies in the face of reality as the homicide rate in the U.S. is actually at a 51-year low, according to FBI data. The homicide rate in the U.S. for 2014, the most recent year available, was 4.5 per 100,000. The 2014 total is part of a long downward trend and is the lowest homicide rate recorded since 1963 when the rate was 4.6 per 100,000. The last time the homicide rate in the U.S. was lower than it is now was in 1957 when the total homicide rate was 4.0 per 100,000.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Teaching Communism in Public Schools

Portland Public Schools, the largest school district in Oregon, passed a Resolution on April 19, 2016 that ought to be called ‘How to brainwash 49,000 students and force teachers to teach communism’.

The objectives laid out in this Resolution are startling, revealing and directly aligned with the Green movement’s national plan, now underway, to politically indoctrinate America’s children.

The Portland Public Schools (PPS) Resolution No. 5272 is a “Resolution to Develop an Implementation Plan for Climate Literacy”. This Resolution gained national attention for banning books that question the validity of global warming claims. The Resolution states:

“PPS will abandon the use of any adopted text material that is found to express doubt about the severity of the climate crisis or its root in human activities.”

Banning books is only the tip of this political iceberg. This Resolution is designed to 1) silence teachers, students and parents that do not share the PPS view on climate-change, 2) diminish the value of free thought and, 3) pave the way for environmental groups to politically indoctrinate 49,000 children (Oregon’s future voters).

Key goals outlined in the Portland Resolution include:

* redefine our economies and call for an end to the fossil fuel era

* develop and implement curriculum that addresses climate change and climate justice in all Portland Public Schools (pre-K through 12th grade) * all students should see themselves as activists and leaders for social justice and environmental justice

What does the PPS mandate for “all students” to see themselves as activists for social justice and environmental justice entail? What does social justice mean? Facing the Future, one of the leading Education for Sustainability groups, defines social justice as:

“Social justice is the movement towards eliminating oppression and ultimately achieving equality in the distribution of goods and wealth among all groups in a society.”

Training “all students” to be social justice activists requires every student to conform and to adopt the political belief that ‘all wealth and goods must be distributed equally’ within our society.

In other words, brainwash innocent children and train students to be political activists so they will vote to impose social justice policies as adults.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Top Globalist Endorses Hillary Clinton

Brent Scowcroft says Clinton understands agenda of global elite

Brent Scowcroft is considered a Republican, but for the elite this designation is virtually meaningless. He was the National Security Advisor under Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush, Chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under President George W. Bush, and organized Obama’s national security team.

Scowcroft is an influential member of both the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. Clinton has proudly admitted she receives “advice” (more like marching orders) from the CFR.

He is also a member of the board of directors of the International Republican Institute, an organization that has worked with the United States Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy, and Freedom House to overthrow governments deemed unfriendly to the global elite. Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing National Endowment for Democracy, said in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”

[Comment: There you have it. Clinton is their best puppet.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

BBC Forecast: UK Votes to Leave the EU

Based on analysis of the remaining undeclared counts, the BBC forecasts that the UK has voted to leave the EU.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Brexit: Real Change or Titanic Deck Chairs?

Today’s knife-edge vote on British membership of the European Union is, if the controlled “out” tabloids are to be believed, all about “saving Britain.” But is this really going to happen? Will Brexit halt mass Third World immigration? Will Brexit halt the promotion of the “LGBT” mental illness? Will Brexit undo the fundamental flaws of the banking and financial systems? Will Brexit halt the decline of the manufacturing industry? Will Brexit really “save” Britain?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Britain Votes: All You Need to Know About Today’s Brexit Referendum and What to Look for

Starting at 600 GMT, and continuing through 2100 GMT when polls close, Britain is conducting a historic referendum on whether to stay in the European Union on Thursday. While results from each of the 382 counting areas will be released overnight and into the morning, the market already appears to have made up its mind what will happen. Sitll, for those who have yet to vote, and everyone else following along, here are the full details of how today’s vote will take place and what to watch for (all times in GMT, an hour before local UK time).

WHEN WILL RESULTS COME?

Votes will be counted by hand, starting as soon as polls close at 2100 GMT. Each of 382 local counting areas will tally the number of ballot papers cast and announce local turnout figures (including spoiled ballots and postal votes) in each of the areas. The Electoral Commission has estimated that most turnout announcements at counting-area level will come between 2230 on June 23 and 0130 on June 24. The last turnout figure is expected at around 0400. Each area will count the votes and announce totals for REMAIN and LEAVE. The majority of counting areas are expected to declare between around 0100 and 0300 on June 24. The last declaration is expected around 0600. Local totals will be collated into totals for 12 regions, and then a final, national, result. The final result will be announced in Manchester by Jenny Watson, Chief Counting Officer.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

British Discontent About the EU: Only a Precursor to Unrest on the Continent

If Brexit marks the beginning of the end for the European project, Brussels will take its share of the blame

If Britain leaves the EU and if the reaction to Brexit causes years of uncertainty, the EU will reap what it has sowed. British discontent is only a precursor to unrest on the Continent, where populists from across the political spectrum feel they have lost control over their fate, and are gaining popularity.

We’ve seen the transfers of power to the European level after ignoring the referendums on the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands in 2004. We’ve witnessed the refusal to allow Grexit, which could have been an alternative for continued fiscal transfers and interventions into national budgetary decisions. Both have created a lot of discontent and anti-EU sentiment since 2010.

Last year, there was the decision to outvote Central and Eastern Europe on the sensitive issue of forcing countries to accept refugees, which isn’t even possible in a passport-free zone, as people can travel freely, but which was decided to divert attention from criticism on Angela Merkel’s controversial refugee policy and to organize yet another transfer of power to the EU level.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Vote Fraud? Brexit Supporters Fear Ballots Marked in Pencil Could be Changed

Voting booths only provide pencils

Brexit supporters are worried that ballot papers could be compromised in today’s huge EU referendum vote because voting booths only provide pencils.

Numerous Brits took to Twitter to express concerns that votes could be changed by corrupt electoral staff.

Reports are already coming in that voters are being told they can’t use their own pens and must use a pencil to vote, although the Electoral Reform Society has said that voters can bring their own pen.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Abbas: Israel is Committing Mass-Murder

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas railed against Israel during an address to the European Union parliament in Brussels on Thursday, slamming the Jewish state for committing “mass-murder”.

The comments came hours after Abbas rebuffed efforts by EU President Martin Schultz to arrange a meeting between Abbas and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. While Rivlin accepted the offer, after having received authorization from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Abbas refused even a “brief meeting” with the Israeli leader.

Abbas said that the Palestinians were suffering mass-murder on a scale never seen before in history.

“Palestine and the Palestinian people are experience mass-murder of historic proportions and attacks the likes of which have never been seen or heard of ever by the international community.”

“The Israeli settlers and army have a continuing tendency towards violence and extremism that’s growing worse, both in what they do that is sanctioned by [Israeli] law and what is not sanctioned by [Israeli] law.”

The Palestinian Authority leader called upon the European Union to take action against Israel, saying it had turned the PA into an “open-air prison”.

“You are our friends, help us. Israel has turned our country into an open-air prison.”

Abbas claimed these were “black days” for the Palestinians, saying that the “tyranny and racism of the occupation” had worsened. He also demanded the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state with permanent borders, and threatened to continue efforts to “liberate Palestine”.[…]

[He is insulting the intelligence of the MEPs (I hope….)]

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]
 

Savage Storm Pummels Eastern China, Killing 98

A violent storm in eastern China that packed gale-force winds and hail killed 98 people and injured hundreds as it flattened power lines, overturned cars and ripped roofs off houses in Jiangsu province.

The storm, which included a tornado, struck mid-afternoon on Thursday near Yancheng city, a few hours’ drive north of China’s commercial capital Shanghai, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

Winds reached 125 kph (78 mph) and battered several townships in Funing county, the official Xinhua news agency said.

“I heard the gales and ran upstairs to shut the windows,” Funing resident Xie Litian, 62, told Xinhua.

“I had hardly reached the top of the stairs when I heard a boom and saw the entire wall with the windows on it torn away.” When the storm subsided and Xie escaped, all the neighboring houses were gone. It was like the end of the world,” Xie said…

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

Working With Nigeria to Free Hostages: Bishop

Australian officials are maintaining close contact with the families and employers of three Australians kidnapped after a deadly attack in Nigeria, foreign minister Julie Bishop says.

The men, along with a New Zealander, were in a group driving on the outskirts of the city of Calabar when they were attacked by gunmen on Wednesday.

The trio was working for Perth-based mining company Macmahon Holdings, which mines material for processing at Lafarge Africa’s UniCems cement plant at Mfamosing, in Nigeria’s southeast.

Ms Bishop said the kidnappers had not made any demands.

‘We’re working very closely with the Nigerian government at a national and state level — the cross river provence, which is where it occurred,’ she said in Brisbane on Friday.

‘We’re maintaining very close contact with Macmahon Holdings and the families.’

A Nigerian driver was shot dead in the attack, while seven in total were kidnapped, including a South African and two Nigerians.

Another Australian managed to flee the attackers…

           — Hat tip: MM [Return to headlines]
 

Colombian Government and FARC Rebels Announce Ceasefire Deal to End War

“We have arrived with success at an agreement on the bilateral and definitive ceasefire and end to hostilities,” both sides said in a statement read to media in Havana.

President Juan Manuel Santos will travel to Cuba on Thursday for the announcement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, announced he would also be present to witness the signing of the deal.

The presidents of Cuba, Venezuela and Chile, the three countries sponsoring the almost four-year-old peace talks in Havana, were also expected, and the Obama administration will send its special envoy to the talks, former diplomat Bernard Aronson…

           — Hat tip: Diego [Return to headlines]
 

Colombian President, FARC Commander to Sign Ceasefire Accord

HAVANA, June 23 (Reuters) — Colombia’s president and the FARC rebels’ top commander will sign a historic ceasefire deal in Havana on Thursday that brings them close to ending the last major leftist insurgency in Latin America after more than five decades of war.

The accord, capping three years of talks, paves the way for a final peace deal to end a conflict born in the 1960s out of frustration with deep socio-economic inequalities and that outlived other major uprisings in the Americas.

“On my way to Havana to silence for ever the guns,” said President Juan Manuel Santos on his Twitter feed before the ceremony, which is due to be attended by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was one of many 20th century Latin American guerilla movements inspired by Marxist ideology and the success of the 1959 Cuban revolution. It began as a peasant revolt before exploding into a cocaine-fueled war that killed at least 220,000 and displaced millions.

Most others were either quashed by right-wing military governments or convinced to lay down their arms and join conventional politics by the 1990s, while the FARC went on to wage the Western Hemisphere’s longest running war.

Santos and FARC commander Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, are set to sign the ceasefire accord in a televised ceremony at 1200 EDT (1600 GMT).

The two sides will complete negotiations for a final deal by July 20, the president said this week…

           — Hat tip: Diego [Return to headlines]
 

Luis Fleischman: Nicaragua Becomes a One-Party Dictatorship as Countries in the Region and the U.S. Fail to Protect Democracy in Venezuela

The outcome of the recent General Assembly meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) left Venezuela in chaos without any resolution to the country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis. Member countries reaffirmed their support for a dialogue between the Venezuelan Government and the opposition. By so doing, the OAS rejected the application of the organization’s democratic charter that would have implemented measures aimed at forcing Venezuela to stop violating democracy and human rights.

Such dialogue proposed by the OAS is widely believed to be futile and could only prolong the crisis in Venezuela by extending the illegitimate regime of President Nicolas Maduro who will never agree to conduct a recall referendum or for that matter any step that would threaten his authoritarian rule.

It is not coincidental that as the OAS was adopting this benevolent approach towards the Maduro regime, the electoral process in Nicaragua was being destroyed.

The Nicaraguan Supreme Court issued a decision to give legal representation of the largest opposition party, the Partido Liberal Independiente (PLI) to Pedro Reyes, a man who is connected to Nicaraguan President, Daniel Ortega. Mr. Reyes’ faction has no substantial political support among the party’s constituency.

By the same token, The High Court- whose members are totally loyal to Ortega- denied legal representation of the party to Eduardo Montealegre, the leader of the most structured and popular faction of the PLI. The PLI is also the largest party in a coalition of opposition parties that has united under the National Coalition for Democracy (CND). The CND was formed to challenge the Sandinista Party in the elections this coming November. The CND follows the model of the united opposition formed in Venezuela known as the MUD to confront the authoritarian rule of Nicolas Maduro’s ruling party, known as PSUV…

[Return to headlines]
 

Santos ‘Intimidating’ Colombia Into Ratifying FARC Peace Deal

Colombia’s president Juan Manuel Santos has received fierce criticism for allegedly fear mongering his country’s population into ratifying a pending peace deal with FARC guerrillas.

The Santos administration has been holding peace talks with the FARC since late 2012 and has recently begun a campaign to seek public approval of the peace deal through a plebiscite…

           — Hat tip: Diego [Return to headlines]
 

580 Terror Convictions in U.S. Since 9/11, 380 Are Foreign-Born

The Department of Justice, Sessions’ subcommittee-the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest-uncovered that the Department of Justice has kept a list showing that 580 individuals have been convicted of terrorism-related activities in the United States between Sept. 11, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2014. The list is presumably longer if the past couple years, from Dec. 31, 2014, to present, were included. Of those 580, Sessions’ subcommittee uncovered, at least 380 such individuals were foreign born-meaning they got into the United States either through illegal immigration or via a U.S. government-allowed legal immigration or visa program or refugee program.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Says ‘A Christian Lets Everybody Come’

The fourteen migrants were guests of Caritas of Florence and the European university, and carried banners of the charity that is caring for them along with Vatican flags.

In a striking gesture Wednesday, Pope Francis invited fourteen African migrants to join him on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, urging Europe to open its doors to more refugees.

The fourteen migrants were guests of Caritas of Florence and the European university, and carried banners of the charity that is caring for them along with Vatican flags. On arriving in St. Peter’s Square, Francis embraced them and then asked them to accompany him to his chair and remain near him during his weekly catechesis and greetings.

Comparing the refugees with him to modern “lepers,” the Pope stressed that Jesus would touch those who were excluded, but modern Christians seldom do.

[Comment: Every time he opens his mouth he proves he is a communist, oops, I meant liberation theologolist.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/23/2016

  1. England will be England again. This vote made it so. No longer under the dictate of the EU. As an Anglophile living in the States, I congratulate my English cousins.
    I was at a party last evening seated next to an incredibly fine man, about 20 years my junior. We have known each other for 20 years. I mentioned to him that one of personal heroes was Winston Churchill. He didn’t even know of Sir Churchill.
    Thank you, England for vote.

  2. Assuming the result holds, and Britain exits, the EU’s nefarious plan has worked, and Britain now has a substantial moslem population, like the rest of Europe.
    Will the Brits remember who moslems are, and have been since day one?

  3. Tommy Robinson is back in court at 10 am today [Friday].

    This is something that’s likely to be ignored by the MSM, particularly because the referendum result is likely to dominate today’s news.

    I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but it looks as if Tommy returned from France — his mother has health issues — only to have Bedfordshire police turn up at his house to serve him with papers.

    From some of the posts to TR’s twitter page it appears that there is an attempt to prevent him from travelling to France for the European Championships, and also to exclude him from entering certain parts of his home town — areas of Luton with a large Muslim population.

    TR has posted an interesting map of Luton showing the exclusion area — a map which was apparently served with the papers(?).

    • Even here in the USA as in the UK when the political class, the rogues and scoundrels in the government have it in for you regardless of your guilt or innocence you are branded as an ‘ENEMY OF THE STATE’, which then give them many ways to harass, punish, torture you mentally and make your life a living hell. Using the IRS,the Civil Courts for alleged Fraud and endless investigations by varying police agencies, constantly dragging the person in for questioning, even bringing false charges which in the course of a trial they know will be dismissed.. Think about it the state has endless resources, millions of Pounds or Dollars to spend at will, many of which are illegal , but they could care less. It is truly David vs. Goliath.

Comments are closed.