Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/29/2016

Using the slogan “Merkel must go!”, thousands of German anti-immigration activists are calling for a demonstration tomorrow in Berlin. A coalition of groups is planning to gather in Washington Square at 3pm for a rally.

In other news, the Venezuelan government has issued a decree requiring employees of both public and private corporations to work in the fields, a desperate attempt to ease the country’s severe food shortage.

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

Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Reader from Chicago, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, 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
» EU Death Knell: Eurozone Growth Halves as French Economy Grinds to a Halt
» Italy: ECB OKs MPS Capital Increase Plan
 
USA
» Governor: 4 Zika Cases Likely Came From Florida Mosquitoes
 
Europe and the EU
» Egyptian Columnist Muhammad Amin: U.S., Britain Behind Terror Attack in Nice
» Germany: Police Hunt Arabic-Speaking Thugs Who Pelted Woman and Schoolgirl With Stones
» Making Swede, Swede Love: Sweden Launches Official Investigation Into Citizens’ Bedroom Antics Over Fears People Aren’t Having Enough Sex
» Migrant Sex Criminal: I Hate Sweden, I’m Just Here to F*** Swedish Girls
 
Balkans
» Macedonian President Braces for Terrorist Attack in Balkans
 
North Africa
» Three Years Later: Egyptian President Al-Sisi’s Supporters Express Disappointment, Call His Regime Tyrannical
 
Middle East
» Erdogan Tells US Intelligence Chief: ‘Know Your Place!’
» Strategic Consequences of Erdogan’s Countercoup
» Turkey’s Erdogan Dropping Lawsuits for Insults Against Him
» Turkey’s Erdogan to Drop Lawsuits Against People Who Insulted Him
 
South Asia
» Afghan Cleric Arrested for Marrying Six-Year-Old Girl
 
Far East
» Philippines: Fr D’Ambra: Christian Lives Are in Danger in Jolo Because Jihadists Want to Kill Them
 
Latin America
» Former Brazilian President Silva to Stand Trial
» Venezuela is About to Force People to Work in the Fields
 
Immigration
» Angela Merkel’s Policy on Immigration Defies Belief
» Merkel Must Go! Germans Plan ‘Huge’ Demonstration Over Leader’s Open Door Asylum Policy
 

EU Death Knell: Eurozone Growth Halves as French Economy Grinds to a Halt

EUROPE’s economic growth plunged by half in the second quarter of 2016, raising fears the outlook for the bloc is worsening.

Across the eurozone, gross domestic product (GDP) increased by just 0.3 per cent, falling from 0.6 per cent in the previous quarter, figures from Eurostat showed.

Unemployment was also revealed to be standing at a worrying 10.1 per cent last month.

France shocked onlookers as its economy ground to a complete halt in the three months between between April and June.

Household spending in the eurozone’s second largest economy plunged in the second quarter

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ECB OKs MPS Capital Increase Plan

Alternative offer from UBS, Passera nixed

(ANSA) — Milan, July 29 — The European Central Bank on Friday approved Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) lender’s recapitalization plan. It calls for a five-billion-euro capital increase and the securitization of 10 billion euros’ worth of non-performing loans (NPLs) with help from Italy’s private Atlante fund that was set up by the financial industry earlier this year to shore up banks burdened by toxic loans without breaking EU rules against public aid.

An alternative plan involving an offer by private investors including Swiss banking giant UBS and former Intesa Sanpaolo chief Corrado Passera was headed off before it could be made formal, two financial sources told ANSA earlier in the day.

Also on Friday, CONSOB stock market watchdog told ANSA it was scrutinizing MPS share movements after they jumped 7% in early trading on news of the alternative rescue plan.

MPS closed up 6.2% at 0.3 euros a share.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Governor: 4 Zika Cases Likely Came From Florida Mosquitoes

Florida likely has the first cases of Zika transmitted by mosquitoes on the U.S. mainland, the state’s governor said Friday.

No mosquitoes in the state have tested positive for Zika, but one woman and three men in Miami-Dade and Broward counties likely contracted the virus through mosquito bites, Gov. Rick Scott said during a news conference in Orlando.

More than 1,650 Zika infections have been reported in the U.S., but the four patients in Florida would be the first not linked to travel outside the U.S. mainland.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egyptian Columnist Muhammad Amin: U.S., Britain Behind Terror Attack in Nice

In his July 15, 2016 column in the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Yawm, in the wake of the Nice terror attack, Muhammad Amin wrote that terrorism is a creation of the U.S. and the U.K. and averred that the U.S. is using the Islamic State (ISIS) to fight proxy wars. Amin, who is also the newspaper’s newly appointed Board of Trustees chairman,[1] suggested that the U.S. had used ISIS to carry out the Bastille Day attack in Nice so as to punish France for its support of Egypt. Throughout his piece, he alludes to Britain’s “harboring” of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB); like many pro-regime Egyptian commentators, Amin considers the MB terrorists as well.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Police Hunt Arabic-Speaking Thugs Who Pelted Woman and Schoolgirl With Stones

POLICE are hunting three thugs who attacked a young woman and her schoolgirl sister.

The yobs confronted the 20-year-old and her 11-year-old sister and subjected them to a tirade of sickening verbal abuse.

The victims were then spat at and pelted with stones before they managed to escape and raise the alarm.

Both sustained minor injuries in the mindless attack in the German town of Meckenheim.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Making Swede, Swede Love: Sweden Launches Official Investigation Into Citizens’ Bedroom Antics Over Fears People Aren’t Having Enough Sex

The Swedish government is launching a major study of the sex lives of the country’s citizens after reports that lovemaking is on the wane.

Public Health Minister Gabriel Wikstrom notes that the last thorough study of Swedes’ sex habits was 20 years ago. Since then, reports in tabloid newspapers have pointed to a decrease in sexual activity.

In an opinion piece in newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Friday, Wikstrom wrote that ‘it’s important to investigate whether that is the case and if so what the reason is.’

If stress and other health issues are affecting Swedes’ sex lives, he says, ‘that is also a political problem.’…

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Sex Criminal: I Hate Sweden, I’m Just Here to F*** Swedish Girls

The victim of a man who allegedly sexually harassed four women has told a local newspaper that the migrant told them that he hates Sweden and is only there so that he can “f*** Swedish girls”.

In a central square in Vimmerby, in the early hours of Sunday morning, four women were approached by a migrant shouting abuse, who then pulled his trousers down in front of them.

The man started to follow the young women and when they asked him to stop, telling him they felt uncomfortable with his behaviour, the 27 year old became aggressive. One of the women told the Dagens Vimmerby that, after becoming agitated, the migrant then began screaming that he hates Sweden and telling them that he’s only in the country to “f*** Swedish girls” and spend their money.

The migrant then spat at the women, undressed in front of them and proceeded to urinate on a bench in the square. Police found the 27 year old in a side street shortly afterwards and arrested him on the spot for indecent exposure and sexual harassment.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Macedonian President Braces for Terrorist Attack in Balkans

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov is not ruling out the possibility that the Balkan countries may fall victim to terrorist attacks, local media reported Thursday.

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

Three Years Later: Egyptian President Al-Sisi’s Supporters Express Disappointment, Call His Regime Tyrannical

Following the ouster, in late June/early July 2013, of Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) regime in Egypt after mass protests and military intervention led by then-defense minister ‘Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi, Al-Sisi himself became president. His regime, often called the June 30 or July 3 regime,[1] was initially based on a wide coalition of elements, ranging from liberal revolutionaries to members of the pre-Morsi regime of President Hosni Mubarak, the Coptic church, and Salafis from the Al-Nur Party; what they all had in common was opposition to the MB regime.[2]

As time went on, Al-Sisi’s regime emerged as more authoritarian and less liberal than many in this coalition had hoped. While in the early days an atmosphere of shared goals prevailed among supporters of the June 30 Revolution (i.e., supporters of Morsi’s ouster), cracks began to emerge among its various components, and its liberal elements turned critical, expressing disappointment with Al-Sisi. Though their criticism is less harsh than that of Al-Sisi’s political opponents — such as the MB, the April 6 [Youth] Movement, which have both been banned under the Al-Sisi regime — it is nonetheless highly significant, and, since it comes from within his own camp, perhaps even more significant than that of Al-Sisi’s opponents.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Erdogan Tells US Intelligence Chief: ‘Know Your Place!’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hit out at senior US officials for their remarks about his post-coup purge. Washington is concerned that the jailings could affect the war against “Islamic State” (IS).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Strategic Consequences of Erdogan’s Countercoup

by Srdja Trifkovic

Two weeks after the failed coup and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s subsequent mass purge, three facts seem clear. Turkey has ceased to be a democracy in any conventional sense. The army’s reputation and cohesiveness have suffered a massive blow, with uncertain consequences for its operational effectiveness. Most importantly, Turkey’s foreign policy and regional security strategy will become more difficult to predict and less amenable to Western interests.

The military that has long served as a trusted unifying force for the country is deeply divided, diminished and discredited. Hundreds of its senior officers are under arrest. Almost 1,700 have been dishonorably discharged, including 40 percent of all active-service generals and admirals. That once staunchly Kemalist army, which had been for nine decades one of the key institutions of the Turkish state and society, is gone. It is likely to emerge from the purge as a pliant instrument under Erdogan’s direct control—a hundred reliable colonels have already been promoted to generals—and not a suprapolitical institution accountable to the prime minister’s office as before. This change requires a constitutional amendment, which may well pave the way for the new constitution which would grant Erdogan unprecedented executive powers.

Some operational consequences of the purge are already apparent. James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said on Thursday at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that it is hindering Turkey’s cooperation in the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State. He and head of U.S. Central Command General Joseph Votel said that many Turkish officers who cooperated with the American military in anti-ISIS operations have been removed or jailed. The future of the key Incirlik Air Base, from which the U.S. conducts attacks against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, is uncertain. Already last year security concerns caused Air Force commanders to restrict movement of U.S. personnel to a small area surrounding the base. This year the voluntary departure of family and dependents became mandatory. Air attacks were temporarily suspended or reduced following the coup, the base was left without power for almost a week, and its commander was taken off the premises in handcuffs. Of immediate concern was the fact that some 50 B-61 hydrogen bombs are stored in Incirlik’s underground vaults, NATO’s largest nuclear storage facility. Having those 170-kiloton weapons in a volatile region, with many of the trusted officers in Turkey’s military purged or jailed, and Erdogan in full charge in Ankara, presents a security risk. To put it mildly, as former NATO Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis did in a Foreign Policy article on July 18, “this poses a very dangerous problem”:…

           — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey’s Erdogan Dropping Lawsuits for Insults Against Him

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he was dropping all lawsuits against those charged with insulting him.

Speaking at an event in the Turkish capital, Ankara, commemorating those killed and wounded during a failed July 15 military coup, Erdogan said he was withdrawing all the lawsuits for insults against his person.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey’s Erdogan to Drop Lawsuits Against People Who Insulted Him

Turkey’s president has said he is withdrawing all lawsuits against people charged with insulting him.

But he also stepped up his attacks on nations criticising his crackdown in the wake of the coup attempt, telling them to “mind your own business”.

He earlier blasted US Gen Joseph Votel, head of US Central Command, saying he was “on the side of the coup plotters”.

Gen Votel had said in remarks on Thursday that the jailing of some military leaders could damage Turkish-American military co-operation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Afghan Cleric Arrested for Marrying Six-Year-Old Girl

An elderly Afghan cleric has been arrested after he married a six-year-old girl, officials said Friday, in the latest case highlighting the scourge of child marriages in the war-battered country.

Mohammad Karim, said to be aged around 60, was held in central Ghor province as he claimed her parents gave him the girl as a “religious offering”, officials said.

But they cited the family of the girl, believed to be in shock, as saying that she was abducted from western Herat province, bordering Iran.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Philippines: Fr D’Ambra: Christian Lives Are in Danger in Jolo Because Jihadists Want to Kill Them

The PIME missionary, who heads the Silsilah group for interreligious dialogue, calls on the authorities to “find proper solutions” to stop “the agony of the Christian community”. A few days ago, a man was killed and 20 others were threatened with death by fundamentalists. Moderate Muslims, who are also at risk, ought not to be “silent witnesses” to this persecution.

Jolo (AsiaNews/Silsilah) — Fr Sebastiano D’Ambra, president of the Silsilah Dialogue Movement and a PIME missionary for over 40 years in Mindanao (southern Philippines), has issued an appeal “to stop killing Christians in Jolo”.

The clergyman points to the situation of fear and danger felt by Christians in the aforementioned city in Sulu province, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf jihadist group.

“A Christian was killed in Jolo a few days ago,” Fr D’Ambra says. A “a reliable source told me that 20 Christians have been targeted to be killed or kidnapped soon. In the midst of so many good Muslim leaders and friends of Jolo the Christian community is suffering a form of persecution from those who are guided by bad elements who claim to do it in the name of Islam.”

Founded 30 years ago by Fr D’Ambra, the Silsilah Forum is a movement for dialogue and peace between Muslims and Christians. It still follows many interfaith groups in Mindanao, a region that is home to a large Muslim community, and a hideout for many fundamentalists and separatists.

“Why are the national and local leaders of different sectors in authority silent? And why do those who have power not act and find proper solutions?” the clergyman asks.

Unfortunately, “The past beautiful relationship among Christians and Muslims in Jolo is no longer a reality there. Many Christian Chinese have left and many other Christians are planning to leave if they have a chance.”

He makes “appeal to all, especially to you Muslim leaders, who are part of the Silsilah Dialogue Movement as part of the Interfaith Council of leaders (IFCL)”.

“Many live now in fear in Jolo and this is what the bad elements like. The Christians are afraid to talk, afraid also to go to the church even if there are military watching the cathedral in the center of the city. A church that was a pride of the Muslims in the past and a sign of Muslim- Christian dialogue before, but now no more for many who follow a more ‘divisive’ Islam.”

“I have been in Mindanao for forty years and I know that the tausugs of Jolo are courageous. I appeal to the courage and goodness of the people of Jolo before it will be too late and the world will accuse you for being silent in the agony of the Christian community of Jolo as well the agony of other Muslims. Indeed, the situation is also alarming for good Muslims because today the bad elements find reasons to kill also the Muslims saying that some are kafir (infidel) like the other Christians.”

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

Former Brazilian President Silva to Stand Trial

A Brazilian judge has accepted charges against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for allegedly obstructing the corruption probe at state-run oil giant Petrobras. The date of the trial has not yet been set.

The decision published on Friday names Silva and five others as co-conspirators in an alleged attempt to buy the silence of a former Petrobras director implicated in the scandal.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela is About to Force People to Work in the Fields

Amnesty International says a new decree in Venezuela that says the government can make any of its citizens farm the country’s fields in order to combat its current, punishing food crisis “effectively amounts to forced labour.”

“The decree, officially published earlier this week, establishes that people working in public and private companies can be called upon to join state-sponsored organizations specialized in the production of food,” Amnesty International reported.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Angela Merkel’s Policy on Immigration Defies Belief

[…] Is the woman mad? There is no doubt that Mrs Merkel thought she was performing an act of altruism — despite plenty of warnings about the outcome — when she so foolishly opened Germany’s borders and encouraged refugees to arrive en masse but this is beginning to look like wilful stupidity.

When will she and her fellow leaders accept that an awful lot of those people flooding across the borders are extremely dangerous and wish to wreak havoc on the West? And even those who don’t actively want to cause mayhem are still totally at odds with the values and culture of Western society.

There have been four attacks in the space of a week, two claimed by IS, leaving 13 people dead and many more wounded and Angela Merkel’s priority should be to ensure that this stops right now.

Instead she is denying what is in front of her own eyes. History is going to be a very harsh judge.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel Must Go! Germans Plan ‘Huge’ Demonstration Over Leader’s Open Door Asylum Policy

GERMAN activists are planning to hold a “huge” protest in Berlin tomorrow against Angela Merkel’s open door asylum policy.

Thousands are expected to gather in the capital’s historic Washington Square for an anti-immigration rally, where they will be addressed by right-wing politicians.

News of the gathering is being spread under the hashtag #Merkelmussweg — meaning Merkel must go — which has been used more than 1,500 times in 24 hours reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

Police are preparing for crowds of around 5,000 people from across the country to gather in the capital city from 3pm, with counter-demonstrations by anti-fascist groups also expected.

The march is being organised by a coalition of anti-immigrant groups in Germany, where fears have been stoked by a succession of terrorist attacks carried out by refugees.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

8 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/29/2016

  1. Oh yeah, Venezuela, the left’s show case successful socialist state. Now there’s progressiveness for you, go and work in the fields or we’ll starve.

  2. Merkel?

    Folks remain perplexed that a Marxist like Merkel doesn’t love Deutschland. Marxists hate nation-states, including those who undermine Germany, the US and Israel. Every one of them has a Marxist background. Merkel went to a Marxist university while others have great-grandparents who fled the czar’s Russia or places nearby.

    The Obama president had both a Marxist dad and a Marxist mom, supported by the Ford Foundation. Hillary simply had a crush on the communist Saul Alinsky. They carry the disease of Marxism from generation to generation, Godless and dedicated to Lucifer.

    • Well, it would be more correct to say that they hate anything that places any sort of limit on their power to do any arbitrary thing they feel like.

      Things like national identity, tradition, pretty much any identity other than uncritical line-toeing Marxist zombie places limits on their ability to control the population.

      And the real problem is that Marxism seems to be inseparable from totalitarianism. The hard totalitarianism of historical Marxism-socialism has been replaced with the soft totalitarianism of neo-Marxism.

  3. “Police are preparing for crowds of around 5,000 people from across the country to gather in the capital city from 3pm, with counter-demonstrations by anti-fascist groups also expected.”

    I love how “anti-facists” have become the new fascist thugs, repressing the normal people from expressing their views.

  4. *** no doubt that Mrs Merkel thought she was performing an act of altruism ***

    Were I to wish to be altruistic, I would think about any course of action, in part, thus:

    1. Can I help more people where they are v. incurring the costs of helping them where I am?

    2. Can I do anything to a solve the problem that is creating misery for those others?

    3. Are there any negative aspects of bringing the objects of my proposed benevolence to where I am? (Cultural clash, competition for jobs, increased welfare burden, increase in crime, importation of terrorists?)

    Merkel has concluded that help can be most efficiently provided by paying German prices for shelter, energy, and food. Is it one “refugee” who can be supported in Germany versus 40 who can be helped in Syria for the same cost? She makes no complaint about the asinine and murderous war against Assad and orders the German military to participate. Yet she pretends that she is helpless to stanch the flow of “refugees.” She pretends that there is no down side to bringing a swarm of totally unassimilable, hateful, aggressive Muslims. None at all. Millions of third-world foreigners dumped in “her” country make all the sense in the world.

    Thus, it is absurd to ascribe good will to what she is doing. This woman is hell bent on causing as much damage as she can to Germany and Europe. She knows the suffering and blood that are in the cards for Germans and Europeans and she intends to import the problem population as fast as she can.

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