Former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi goes on trial tomorrow in Egypt on charges of inciting violence. Muslim Brotherhood supporters were planning mass demonstration in front of the court building, so the venue for the trial was moved at the last minute. Meanwhile, the state of emergency in Tunisia, which began when former President Ben Ali was ousted at the beginning of the “Arab Spring”, has been extended until June of next year.
In other news, German authorities evacuated 20,000 people in the Dortmund area after the discovery of an unexploded 4,000-lb. WW2-era bomb, which has since been defused.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, 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.
Cyprus: Unemployment Rockets to New High, 76,000 Jobless
(ANSAmed) NICOSIA, NOVEMBER 1; As the financial crisis deepens new figures show that over 76,000 are now out of work in Cyprus, with the figure set to rise as the more tourist attractions close for the winter.
As Famagusta Gazette reports, the stats show that unemployment in Cyprus recorded a new high in September 2013, reaching 17.1% or 76,000 persons compared to 16.9% or 75,000 persons in August, according to data released today by Eurostat.
At the same time Cyprus recorded the highest increase among EU member states since September 2012, from 12.7% or 56,000 persons to 17.1% or 76,000, which is the third highest percentage in EU following Greece’s 27.6% (July 2013) and Spain’s 26.6%.
The euro area (EA17) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 12.2% in September 2013, stable compared with August. The EU28 unemployment rate was 11.0%, also stable compared with August. In both zones, rates have risen compared with September 2012, when they were 11.6% and 10.6% respectively. Youth (under 25s) unemployment in Cyprus remained stable at 43.9% in September whereas men unemployment was recorder at 17.3% from 17.1% in August and women unemployment increased by 0.3% to 16.9% in September from 16.6% in August.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Vehicle Owners Stung With “Luxury Tax”
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, NOVEMBER 1 — Thousands of vehicle owners in Greece will be stung twice this year after the implementation of the luxury tax comes into effect for vehicles with 1.929cc engines or larger and up to 10 years of age, as daily To Vima online reports. Of the 5.5 million car and motorcycle owners, about 500,000 will be called to pay a 5% to 10% extra tax on the value of their vehicle, depending on engine size and vehicle age. By taking into consideration that the domestic market has nearly collapsed, the extra taxes could likely be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. As with last year, the tax services will not be mailing out reminders for the next year’s road tax, so vehicle owners must log on to the www.gsis.gr website with their tax and registration details, where they will be able to print off the necessary documents. The applicable taxes can be paid at banks and post offices by the end of December, otherwise the tax will double. The ubiquitous windshield stickers have also been abolished, so vehicle owners must hold on to the receipt of payment to prove that the appropriate taxes have been paid.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Interest on 10-Yr Italian Bond Drops to Lowest Since May
Spread drops to 239 points with yield at 4.08%
(ANSA) — Rome, November 1 — The interest rate on 10-year Italian BTP bonds fell to its lowest level since late May on Friday.
The yield on the 10-year BTP dropped to 4.08% after starting the day at 4.12%.
The fall helped the spread between the BTP and the benchmark German bund, a key indicator of investor confidence in Italy, to 239 basis points, after it started the day at over 245 points.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
And Just Who Are the Racists Again?
The Republican Party was founded to end slavery. The Democrat Party spent a century trying to maintain de facto, if not de jure, slavery
There is a history of accusing ordinary people of racism whenever they are critical of Mr. Obama. Whether it’s disagreement with Obama’s behavior, his policies, his selections for Cabinet positions, or anything else connected with the man, not toeing the Obama line invites the charge of racism. Those who hurl that accusation are essentially claiming that Barack Hussein Obama is so perfect, so flawless, so intelligent, so moral, so ethical, so well informed, so utterly wonderful that the only possible reason to disagree with anything he does can be, in fact it must be, attributed to racism.
Yet their very use of the term strips bare the pretense that liberals in general, the media, academia, Progressives and Democrats are themselves without any taint of racism. The left is absolutely obsessed with the color of a person’s skin. That sort of obsession must be viewed, by any reasonable standard, as the very essence of racism.
Because of the color of his skin, it is not apparently possible to disagree with any of Obama’s policies in any area of governance unless you are prepared to be accused of being a direct philosophical descendant of Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Look at the lengths that the media have gone through to avoid the identification of the race of those young men who have participated in the recent beatings and deaths of random whites. Other than identifying the accused as being “youths”, little if any information is provided to the media’s viewers or readers. Of course there is little if any rationale for these senseless beatings. They do not appear to be revenge. They do not appear to have any motive other than the fact that they perpetrators are black and the victims are white.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Appeals Court Strikes Down ACA Contraceptive Mandate
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (UPI) — A U.S. appeals court in Washington Friday struck down part of the Affordable Care Act, ruling mandated coverage of contraception “trammels” religious freedom.
The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, found in favor of the owners of Freshways Foods and Freshways Logisitcs, who challenged the contraceptive mandate on the grounds it violates their exercise of religious freedom under the First Amendment.
Referring to the healthcare reform law as “the behemoth known as the Affordable Care Act,” the court said the case was not about the law’s “constitutional authority.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Secrecy vs. Honesty: What happens when government officials break the law and lie about it
What of those in power, whether a policeman in traffic court, a politician running for office, those elected to run the machinery of government, or those holding the highest offices of trust in this nation? Are they not bound, while in their official capacity, whether an immediate oath is required, or they are simply bound by their oath of office, “to support and defend the Constitution” and in the realm of state officers, of the constitution of their state; are they not even more bound to truthfulness?
It seems, however, whether the cop in court, an elected official running for re-election or standing before Congress and/or the people, the Attorney General of the United States, or even the Executive Officer (president) of the United States, have a flagrant disregard for their oaths and the people of the nation. They, and the press that supports them, seem to be immune to such a lowly concept as a sense of honor. To most other people, lying is both dishonorable and criminal.
In Congressional hearings, an official of the United States, flat out declared that he knew nothing about “Fast and Furious”, which sent hundreds of legal and illegal arms south of the border. Subsequently, the evidence shows that he did know and probably condoned that operation, yet he still holds his high office, at our expense. The extent of punishment is, at best, a mild rebuke.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brain Drain: Funding and Industry Leave America, Followed by Top Minds
The US government spending crisis has caused visible pain for research and innovation in America. Already this year, billions of dollars in federal cuts due to sequestration has affected federal grants for scientific research.
But this problem is only the tip of a much bigger problem facing the redundant superpower.
Two fundamental building blocks for any modern technological, progressive economy are discovery research and scientific investigation. By their nature, these two pursuits carry a much slower return on the investment. In the past, the US could afford to be patient because its thriving industrial sector was a magnet for the word’s talent and investment — which is why successive governments have routinely placed their dollars there. That engine which used to power the US juggernaut has been disassembled and shipped overseas.
[…]
The writing has been on the wall for a while. What politician didn’t know, or care to know during the naughty 1990s, is that you cannot support a vibrant scientific commercial research and development (R & D) sector without the actual industrial sector that’s meant to nurture it. Modern transnational corporations have no allegiance to flag anymore, only to shareholder dividends. The US Congress and Senate are no different, as most of them amass their personal fortunes while in office playing the stock market. As a result, a significant chunk of the productive US economy has long since been off-shored to China, India and elsewhere. No amount of government funded money pumped into R & D can replace whole missing industries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Endless Congressional Hearings = No Accountability
The impostor in the White House and his lackeys have been the target of endless hearings over the past few years. IRS, Fast and Furious, Navy Seals, Benghazi to name only a few.
Most of the investigations are still on-going more than a year later; Fast and Furious almost three years while the families wait for answers instead of more lies. While the hearings have given the American people evidence and testimony, to date not a single person has been held accountable for the death of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent (Fast & Furious), the death of so many Americans in the helicopter crash in Afghanistan, the murders of our U.S. Ambassador and three other very brave Americans in Benghazi or the IRS targeting conservative groups for political reasons.
Lois Lerner retired from the IRS with full benefits after taking the Fifth during hearings many of us watched on television. She escaped an Accountability Review Board by jumping ship. A nice fat retirement paid for by you and me; estimated to be $50,000 a year. Allegedly, she might be called back or even subpoenaed, but so what? She’s now gone from government “service”.
Each and every time we see “officials” from this agency or that, NSA, IRS or some other alphabet soup agency testify, they simply go back to work. Business as usual. No accountability…
Comrade Hillary Clinton and Barry Soetoro aka Obama are directly responsible for the murders of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, U. S. Foreign Foreign Service Information Officer Sean Smith, two embassy security personnel, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty; both former Navy Seals. To date, Speaker of the House John Boehner, refuses to authorize a full blown investigation into Benghazi. Ignoring the tears and pleas from families of the four murdered, Johnny boy continues to stall. Why? I strongly believe he knew illegal gun running was going on — just like Iran Contra.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Entitlement Insanity: Food Stamp Recruiters Have Monthly Quota of People to Enroll
(NaturalNews) A new study has found that not only is the food stamp program the fastest growing welfare entitlement in the nation, it is one of the most inefficient — and it’s being driven by an abhorrent quota system that should enrage taxpayers.
Currently, the study found, some 47 million people are participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which is more commonly known as food stamps. Costs have skyrocketed 358 percent since 2000, so this isn’t just an “Obama” thing, though the present administration is most responsible for the program’s most recent rapid growth.
As reported by the Washington Free Beacon:
The increase in recent years cannot be attributed to the economic recession, according to Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, but lax eligibility requirements and an aggressive campaign by governments to boost their rolls.
“This program has expanded rapidly over the last decade in a way that is not justified by the recession that we went through,” Tanner said. “There’s very little bang for all this increased buck.”
Government has hired ‘food stamp recruiters’
Tanner’s report is entitled “SNAP Failure: The Food Stamp Program Needs Reform,” and it finds that the cost of the entire food stamp program 13 years ago was $17 billion. Today, that cost has risen to an astounding $78 billion, and it’s increasing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exposed: Muslim Brotherhood Operatives in the U.S.
El Watan, one of Egypt’s most widely circulated and read newspapers, published a report discussing the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence over the United States, especially in the context of inciting pro-Brotherhood policies against Egypt’s popular June 30 Revolution, which resulted in the ousting of Muhammad Morsi and the Brotherhood from power.
Titled (in translation), “With Names, Identities, and Roadmap… El Watan Exposes Brotherhood Cells in America,” it’s written by investigative journalist Ahmed al-Tahiri, who begins the report by saying:
[…]
El Watan then goes on to name names, saying that the following activists and entities are Brotherhood operatives working within the United States (reproduced verbatim):
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fluoride May be Your Next Contraceptive?
In the US, where about two-thirds of drinking water supplies are fluoridated, men may be putting their fertility at risk with every sip of water from the tap.
Research has long linked fluoride in drinking water with sperm damage and other threats to reproductive health, although many Americans remain completely in the dark about the association.
Yet, most of the studies on fluoride use sodium fluoride, which while extremely toxic is pharmaceutical-grade fluoride — NOT the kind added to water supplies. So researchers set out to determine the toxicity of the fluoride compounds that are actually in most water supplies. Here’s what they found…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former Secret Service Agent Warns: President Obama Sees Government as a ‘Shiny New Toy’
“It’s worse than people know; I’m not trying to scare you either.”
(THE BLAZE) Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, who is running for Congress in Maryland, appeared on the Glenn Beck Program Thursday to discuss why he chose to run for elected office.
“We’re at a very dangerous point, Glenn,” Bongino began. “We’re in a lot of trouble. The president sees government — and I think it’s because of his lack of experience, and maybe community organizing in the past — as like this shiny new toy. And for all the disagreements I had with Clinton, Carter, and Bush, there were always limits. There was that line you just didn’t cross — we cross that seemingly every day…”
Bongino said that we’re “lost in the scandals,” from the IRS targeting conservative organizations to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius “shaking down” the healthcare industry, among others.
“It’s to the point where these scandals in and of themselves [that] would be huge, backbreaking scandals are just lot in the ‘scandal fog’ of this administration,” he said in disbelief. “It’s worse than people know; I’m not trying to scare you either.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Four Legal Arguments Why ObamaCare is Bad Law & Ought be Overturned
Following is a list of four possible arguments to fight the case at court, in the legislature or in the court of public opinion. The notion that the people must accept all laws no matter how they were passed, or how injurious to the populace, or damaging to the economy, no matter the morality — is a patent fiction. No bad law should be allowed to stand on the fact that it is the result of a technicality, accident or bad deed, which lead to its imposture, and therefore, we must just learn to live with it. In fact, our Common Law heritage always taught that an unjust law is no law at all. Further, it also taught that citizens had a duty to defy unjust laws in the name of upholding liberty.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hasta La Vista, Humans: The Menace of “Killer Robots”
Self-determining, lethal machines are becoming reality. Scientists are banding together to stop them.This is about killer robots who can kill on their own. First of all, they’re already here. They’re on the border between South Korea and North Korea — robot sentries topped with machine guns stand watch for intruders in the demilitarized zone. “It looks a bit like a tall R2D2 and has a machine gun on top,” says Dr. Peter Asaro, a roboticist and professor at the New School. “It’s used in a remote-operated mode, but it has the capability for fully autonomous, so it can use its cameras to detect human targets and fire at them.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Do you miss the old New York City? Remember when subway trains were covered in graffiti, a news hour began with six shootings and everyone who lived in the city had been mugged at least once?
Remember when Times Square had more strip clubs than theaters and when you could afford an apartment in the village because it was a drug infested mess?
Remember when the city and everyone living in it were on the verge of bankruptcy and the only people who had money lived upstate or in a small cluster of Manhattan?
Remember when everything was grimy and had a layer of filth, when people moved to the city because they wanted to slum, when nothing worked and no one cared and the only difference between New York and Chicago was that it had taller buildings?
If you miss that classic New York, there’s good news because Bill de Blasio is bringing it back.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kenyans Take Women’s and Men’s New York Marathon Races
Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya, 32, the defending champion of the New York City Marathon in 2011, won the 2013 race on Sunday, pulling away from the pack in the last few miles. The 2012 race was canceled because of Hurricane Sandy.
Mutai won the men’s race in 2:08:24, or 4:55 minutes a mile. He had a lead of about a minute over the rest of the field.
In the women’s race, Priscah Jeptoo, 29, of Kenya, surged from behind to defeat Buzunesh Deba, who lives in New York. She trailed Deba by nearly 3.5 minutes at the halfway point, and started making her move as the race entered Manhattan. She passed Deba with just more than 2 miles to go.
Jeptoo’s time was 2:25:07, at an overall pace of 5:33 a mile.
| [Return to headlines] |
L.A. Ontario Airport ‘October Drill’ Nearly Identical to Lax Shooting Scene
Almost exactly one month earlier…
Los Angeles Airport Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department took part in an ‘active shooter drill’ on Saturday, October the 2nd 2013 at L.A./Ontario International Airport.
According to a report by the San Bernardino Sun , written by Doug Saunders, one such shooting scenario had an “armed man” shooting “three people” before officers locked down the scene.
It was an overwhelming display of state security assets. The exercise involved some 300 police officers to perform an active live drill, a massive fire department presence including dozens vehicles and even more support personnel — along with teams from federal agencies FBI, ATF and DHS.
This should come as no surprise to anyone following some of the recent mass casualty events in the Untied States, such as the Aurora theater, Boston Bombing and Sandy Hook, all of which were said to have had some type of drill prior to the “real-life” event…
Watch the YouTube video below, the eye-witness below is clearly not talking about the same suspect at the LAX shooting…
“He was dressed like that, like a security TSA agent.”
Amazingly the eyewitness reports that the alleged shooter was much bigger than him in addition to being dressed like a uniformed TSA agent. Clearly something is amiss?
Note the witness also states that the person shooting had a pump shotgun and a hand gun not an AR-15 style rifle. He also make mention to possible body armor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Last Year President Obama Reportedly Told His Aides That He’s ‘Really Good at Killing People’
This will not go over well for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner. According to the new book “Double Down,” in which journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann chronicle the 2012 presidential election, President Barack Obama told his aides that he’s “really good at killing people” while discussing drone strikes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Media Whitewash Obama-Backed Marxist Candidate
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasiosaid about Christopher Columbus: “There are some troubling things in his history.” Pamela Geller of the American Freedom Defense Initiative commented, “Funny. There are some troubling things” about de Blasio’s history. He’s had three different names, a “honeymoon” in Cuba, and still supports the communist Sandinistas. Plus, he has a belief in the power of “progressive” Islam.
But instead of acting like an adversary press and demanding answers, he is being asked to comment on riding a bicycle to work and his favorite pizza joint.
Republican candidate Joe Lhota’s ties to the Tea Party — even the Republican Party — are regarded as sinister and subversive. But Bill de Blasio’s foreign connections and promise to close down the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) surveillance of potential terrorists is non-controversial. He also wants to can tough Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
On September 23 of this year, The New York Times published a lengthy article on Bill de Blasio and his communist and Muslim sympathies. De Blasio was considered just a run-of-the-mill liberal until the paper ran that profile, disclosing in a matter-of-fact manner his travels to Cuba and Nicaragua, involvement in a communist “solidarity” movement, and embrace of Islam as an emerging political force.
Incredibly, De Blasio says he still supports the Sandinistas and remains influenced by liberation theology, which was manufactured by the old KGB to dupe Christians into supporting Marxism.
[Comment: Highly recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Navy Seals Ordered to Remove ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ Navy Jack From Uniforms
The Navy Jack is the ‘don’t tread on me’ flag, one that has earned a revered place in America’s naval history and a beloved place in sailor’s hearts, through its use for over two centuries. This symbol of America’s naval ferocity has spanned our country’s entire existence, flying from the masts of the Continental Navy during the war of independence, to today’s War on Terror. In fact, an amendment to the Navy code called SECNAV Instruction 10520.6 clearly states that as of 31 May 2002 all ships are to fly the flag throughout the duration of the War on Terror.
So why would ranking SEAL commanders ban the historical symbol? Is the proverbial top bass banning the flag? Is President Obama?
Clearly the administration and sycophant “top brass” officers have degraded America’s military prestige; from hand-tying rules of engagement, to uniform regulations that make our military allegedly more compatible with foreign forces, to the banning of an awe-inspiring flag that traces its roots to the first U.S. Navy. We have a civilian-led military, but why should our ranking commanders be complicit in the administration’s war on it? Why don’t they stand up to Obama and his leftist cronies?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama on Soros: “I’m Never F-ing Sitting With That Guy Again.”
By Daniel Greenfield
Obama is easily bored. That much is obvious. He’s an overgrown spoiled brat with ADD and no skills except the ambiguous one of manufactured charisma.
Double Down, the latest insider campaign book, is full of anecdotes about Obama being “bored” when dealing with his own allies, who actually knew what they were doing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Big Brother is not only watching you. He is eavesdropping on you, stealing your metadata, snooping in your email and telling you what to eat and which illnesses you can treat if you’re lucky enough to see a doctor once Obamacare is implemented.
In Obama’s 1984, Mark Tapson shows that if he were here today George Orwell would see a disturbing resemblance between the U.S. and the dystopian future he wrote about so prophetically a generation ago. Obama’s 1984 takes the reader into the dark heart of this administration, a place of omnipresent NSA surveillance, police state tactics by the IRS and TSA, and nonstop intimidation of political opponents. Tapson shows how this President, like Big Brother, shamelessly digs memory holes where fact disappears (the murders of Americans in Benghazi were the result of an Internet video) and uses the “newspeak” of perverted language to whitewash the Islamic threat (the Islamist murders at Ft. Hood were the result of “workplace violence.”)
This pamphlet shows that we are less free than before as we head back to Orwell’s future, and because of Barack Obama the road we travel is the road to serfdom.
To read the pamphlet, see below. To order the pamphlet click here.
[Comment: A MUST READ article for all Americans.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Security Adviser to Obama Says U.S. is an ‘Islamic Country’
A member of the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council is under fire for tweeting that America is “an Islamic country.”
After a Twitter user asked Mohamed Elibiary on Thursday to “show me just ONE example of an Islamic country where non Muslims are treated with equality,” he responded with the controversial tweet, which was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Suzanne Somers: ObamaCare Screws Boomers
Actress, author, and businesswoman Suzanne Somers is warning that senior citizens and the swollen ranks of Baby Boomers are going to be screwed over by Obamacare. She has lambasted the Ponzi scheme boondoggle as socialism on steroids from the pages of the Wall Street Journal.[url]
Somers knows firsthand how bad socialized medicine is. Her husband’s Canadian family told her as much. It takes months to see a general practitioner and longer to see a specialist in Canada. Old folks are denied care and left to die.
“All of my husband’s cousins are doctors,” she writes. “Several have moved to the U.S. because after their years of intensive schooling, they want to reap financial rewards. My 75-year-old Canadian girlfriend was denied treatment because she was too old. She died recently, having been given palliative care. That’s all the system would allow.”…
Obama and crew griped loud and long when Sarah Palin and others noted the existence of death panels embedded in the Obamacare legislation. The liberal media launched into fitful paroxysms of bile-slinging over the allegations.
But in the end it was revealed that Obamacare is indeed deathcare. Even a few distinguished Democrats admitted as much.[url]
It should be obvious by now that Obamacare is designed to get rid of an entire generation of formerly productive workers entering what was once called their golden years. The ruling elite and the transnational corporatist and bankster fascist economic system has deigned them as entirely dispensable — that is, after their pension funds, Social Security and bank accounts are liquidated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Mechanics of Deception: Who’s Behind the Curtain? Part 1
Sun Tzu, the Chinese general and military strategist (c.512 BC) has written:
“In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy’s plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy’s forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy’s army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.[6]”
In my opinion those last three recommendations are being fulfilled now; 1) Balk the enemies plans is accomplished by illegal immigration and foreign intrigue. 2) Prevent the junction of the enemy’s forces, being done militarily by reduction in patriotic men of rank, manpower and weaponry and inclusion of women as combat soldiers. 3) Attack the enemy’s army in the field — assuming “we the people” are the enemy — is being done with the constant attempt at gun confiscation and continual passage of laws, even to the point of including Sharia law — in congress, to the extent there’s little a citizen can do that won’t violate some law. Virtually every kind of individual control is now in place: video cameras almost everywhere, extensive pat downs and X-rays at airports and innumerable violations of privacy such as the NSA’s spying on emails, private mail, and monitoring of phone conversations. There is also control of political opposition: the IRS scandal, the coverup of Benghazi and the attempt at taking American guns using the Fast and Furious gun walking program by our government’s Department of Justice to frame American gun dealers as if they’re smuggling guns to Mexican drug cartels. These are the few we know about. What goes on behind the scenes and what we the people never hear is the skullduggery taking place in secret. What else is government hiding from us in which an irresponsible media no longer shows any interest? Where are the Woodwards and Bernsteins of today?
The reason given for all these extremes is to protect the public when in reality it is systematically removing our freedom. Though it is not totally in place at this time, we will soon be entirely controlled by government. In the future, privacy will be but a distant memory and total control of our populace will have replaced state’s rights and our freedom.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
TSA Shooting Narrative Disintegrates
Over next fews days, sizable amount of media coverage will be dedicated to patriot-terrorist narrative
The LAX TSA shooting story is beginning to fall apart as the government and its propaganda dispensing media jostle to exploit the incident as a pretext to further militarize TSA procedures and also demonize official enemies, including Alex Jones and Glenn Beck.
Eye witness and official government versions of event do not coincide.
In similar fashion to the government generated narrative on the Boston Bombing and “active shooter” incidents over the last two years, the cover story for the murder of a TSA agent in Los Angeles has a number of glaring incongruities and oddities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Fox News Airs Bombshell Report on GMO Food
During Saturday’s “A Healthy You & Carol Alt,” a new half-hour Fox News show covering health and wellness, organic health commentator Max Goldberg joined the program to break down what may be one of the most hard-hitting GMO reports ever aired by the mainstream media.
“No long-term studies have ever been done on humans, but when you look at the studies that have been done on animals, it’s pretty appalling,” Goldberg said. “You’re talking about liver damage and kidney damage and when they fed it to hamsters, the third generation of hamsters weren’t able to produce babies, so there’s real safety issues.”
As mentioned, a 2007 study published in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Technology showed that rats fed Monsanto’s MON863 corn for more than 90 days began to show “signs of toxicity” in the liver and kidneys.
In 2010, Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov released the results of a study testing the effects of Monsanto’s genetically modified soy on hamsters. After monitoring three generations over a two year period, third generation hamsters not only lost the ability to reproduce, but even began growing hair inside their mouths.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Billion-Dollar Gas Plant Boondoggle to Blame for Energy Price Hikes
TORONTO, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is blaming Ontario’s Liberal government and the cost of their gas plant cancellations for electricity rate increases that came into affect today. The price for off-peak power has increased by 7.5 per cent per kilowatt-hour, while peak hour rates have risen by 4 per cent. Both increases are significantly higher than the rate of inflation.
“This might as well be called the ‘Gas Plant Scandal Tax,’“ said Candice Malcolm, Ontario Director of the CTF. “We now know that electricity ratepayers are on the hook to pay for the cancelled plants, so it was just a matter of time before rates were hiked once again.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hiker Stranded in Canadian Wilderness Reportedly Ate Dog to Survive
A hiker who was stranded for three months deep in the Canadian wilderness reportedly had to kill and eat his German shepherd to survive after a bear took his food.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Socialized Medicine Should be Labeled as Poison
Twenty-four years after communism went underground in 1989 (and is resurfacing with a vengeance today), medical care has not improved by leaps and bounds. If you are 17 years old and injure your foot, even though you carry with you the expected envelope stuffed with cash for the inexperienced doctor, your toe will look like this after six weeks of “expert” care.
Doctors worked from 7 to 3 p.m. in the former “communist workers’ paradise” where I grew up. On weekends the hospital was pretty much empty of medical personnel, save for a few janitors and the guard at the gate. He had to make sure no dirty people compromised the sterility of the hospital. The janitors did not do much work, judging by the filth around, the stinky bathrooms, the respectable layer of dirt, and by the blood stains and other unidentifiable marks on the peeling walls and on the broken linoleum…
A few very good doctors were besieged by patients from a wide geographical region although it was against the law to treat them. They were to serve only the residents assigned to them by the communist party headquarters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
$1b in Nazi-Looted Art is Found in Munich Mansion
Authorities in the German city of Munich have reportedly chanced upon a vast trove of priceless art that vanished during the Nazi regime and is today valued at about $1 billion.
The BBC cites the German magazine Focus in reporting German tax authorities found the store of 1,500 artworks, including those by masters like Matisse, Picasso and Chagall, hidden in the home of Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive son of a Munich art dealer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Alderney’s ‘Ghost Pig’ May be Wild Boar From France
A wild boar which has been on the loose in Alderney for more than a month is thought to have swum there from the nearby French coast.
Islanders have dubbed the boar “ghost pig”, as it has only been seen at dusk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ban Muslim Women From Wearing Veils in Court, British Cabinet Member Says
A cabinet minister in the British government is arguing that Muslim women should be banned from wearing veils while giving evidence in court, calling them an obstruction for judges and jurors.
“I can’t see how on earth a judge and a jury can really appraise evidence when you’re facing someone who is cloaked and is completely invisible to you,” Ken Clarke told BBC radio Sunday, according to Reuters. “It’s almost impossible to have a proper trial if one of the persons is in a kind of bag.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: ‘N-VA Transforms Belgium Into Funeral Home’
De Standaard, 31 October 2013
“There will be virtually nothing left of Belgium,” warns De Standaard in the wake of the October 30 presentation of a the new plan for a “Belgian confederation” devised by Bart De Wever, the leader of the Flemish nationalist N-VA.
Under the terms of the plan, Flanders and Wallonia would become federated states in control of “a majority of powers,” explains the daily, which notes that “there would no longer be any question of a Belgian government in its own right.”
The post of prime minister would be terminated. The executive, which would be composed of six ministers, one of whom would act as leader, would only be in charge of “defence, asylum policy and the attribution of Belgian nationality. […] Its revenue would be solely sourced from VAT and excise duties.”
Brussels would benefit from a special region status and its residents would be obliged to choose between the Flemish and Wallonian welfare and tax systems. De Standaard remarks that —
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Set to Sell-Out Financial Markets to Sharia Compliance
Britain is headed down a street with no u-turns. If things go beyond a certain point there will be no turning back.
This coming Tuesday Prime Minister David Cameron is set to unveil plans at the World Islamic Economic Forum in London for the government to issue £200m in Sharia compliant bonds, known as sukuk, making Britain the first non-Muslim country to do so. Indeed the UK is also the first non-Muslim country to host the forum…
Imagine if Christians started making a lot of noise about Biblically compliant investing. They would be told that if they don’t like the market place the way it is they don’t have to participate. Even in faith-strong America “many hedge fund managers” writes Jessica Matthews of Cambridge Associates in P&I News, “need to be convinced that there is demand for screened versions of their investment strategies offered as a separate share class or in a separate account format”.
While Islam boldly pushes on it is the Christian value system, the foundation of the nation that is being superseded by Sharia…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
German Authorities Defuse Huge WWII Bomb After Evacuations
German authorities safely defused a huge bomb left over from World War II after evacuating large parts of the western city of Dortmund on Sunday.
About 20,000 people were taken to safety before explosives experts moved in to defuse the unexploded 4,000-pound bomb that was discovered by analyzing old aerial photographs.
The bomb was dropped by Allied aircraft over the Ruhr region — a key industrial center for the Nazis’ war machine. While unexploded World War II-era bombs are regularly discovered in Germany, they are rarely as big as this one.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Green Energy Triples UK Fuel Prices, May Kill Thousands Over Winter
While Prince Charles preaches the cant of Global Warming and admires the lifestyles of the poor in the Third World, the United Kingdom is headed deep into a well of frozen misery.
Green Energy has meant Electric Poverty as cheap and efficient sources of power and heat are traded for hideously expensive and inefficient solar and wind power that’s fine for those cashing in, but prices energy out of the range of many ordinary people.
The cost of gas to families has almost tripled, rising by 190 per cent, in just ten years, the Office for National Statistics said today. The cost of electricity has increased by 120 per cent in the same period, meaning it has more than doubled.
In the same period, the average price of all household goods, measured with the Consumer Price Index, has risen by just over 30 per cent.
What went wrong? Green Energy and Green Greed.
In March 2003 the Blair government published an Energy White Paper. In its Section 4.7 it says explicitly:
We have introduced a Renewables Obligation for England and Wales in April 2002. This will incentivise generators to supply progressively higher levels of renewable energy over time. The cost is met through higher prices to consumers. By 2010, it is estimated that this support and Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemption will be worth around £1 billion a year to the UK renewables industry.
The “Renewables” industry and its crony capitalist Green Energy tycoons cashed in while British families froze. 5 Million households in the UK now suffer from Energy Poverty.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How NATO War Games Took the World to the Brink of Nuclear Holocaust in 1983
Britain and America nearly provoked the Soviet Union into launching a full-scale nuclear attack against the West at the height of the Cold War, according to newly released classified documents.
They reveal that the world secretly came to the brink of a nuclear holocaust in 1983, in what some anti-nuclear campaigners say was a far more serious incident than the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
The British Cabinet papers show a Nato war games exercise in November 1983 was so realistic the Soviets mistakenly believed a Western nuclear attack was imminent.
The Soviet response only became clear to British spies when they were briefed by KGB double agent Oleg Gordievsky in London.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Call for Justice Minister to Quit Over Fraud-Case ‘Meddling’
Cancellieri says only did ‘humanitarian intervention’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 1 — The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) said Friday that it was presenting a no-confidence motion in parliament against Justice Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri for allegedly interfering in a fraud case.
The case regards Giulia Ligresti, a member of a major Italian business dynasty who was arrested along with her sister Ionella in July for alleged involvement in cooking the books at the Fonsai insurance group.
Her father Salvatore Ligresti, the family patriarch and former honorary chairman of Fonsai, was put under house arrest along with two former executives from the insurance company.
The M5S has called on Cancellieri to quit after she admitted calling judicial authorities about the case before Giulia Ligresti was released from jail and put under house arrest in August.
Cancellieri, who is not aligned to a political party, said the call was merely a “humanitarian intervention” to make the authorities aware that Giulia Ligresti suffered from anorexia and depression.
The minister is also under for reportedly calling Salvatore Ligresti’s partner, a long-standing friend, to offer support after the arrests. The M5S alleged that this is a case of people with friends in high places receiving better treatment from the justice system than ordinary people. Danilo Leva, the justice spokesman for Premier Enrico Letta’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said Friday that the minister should report to parliament, after which the party would make “evaluations”.
“We are against exploitation of this case (for political gain), but clarification is needed soon to dispel any doubts that there are first-class and second.class inmates in Italy,” Leva said. Cancellieri’s son, Piergiorgio Peluso, is a former manager at the insurance group.
The Ligresti fraud case is set to start next month.
But Giulia Ligresti will not be on trial as she bargained a reduced sentence in September, and had been ordered to serve two years and eight months in custody, plus a 20,000-euro fine.
She may be able to arrange community service rather than actual jail time.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Villa That Inspired Pinocchio on Market at 10.5 Million Euro
Real estate website selling Tuscan home used for Collodi’s tale
(ANSA) — Rome, October 31 — The Tuscan villa that inspired the story of Pinocchio, the cautionary tale of a wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a real boy, is up for sale for 10.5 million euros.
The villa near Sesto Fiorentino, a small town near Florence, is said to have inspired The Adventures of Pinocchio written by Carlo Collodi in 1883.
A 1940 Walt Disney animated version became a cinema classic.
The property is listed for sale on the real estate website Idealista.it, which describes it as Villa Colonnata or Villa Gerini and containing the “field of miracles” where in Collodi’s tale Pinocchio wastes five gold coins by planting them in the hope of growing more.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome: Suing the Garbage Man
The refuse collection system in Rome isn’t working. An investigation by La Repubblica found: “Mountains of trash on the street, overflowing bins, cartons and bottles on the ground and rotting organic waste in gigantic containers emitting foul smells.” The reporter has clearly been to my street.
Now environmental organisation Legambiente Lazio is doing what many residents have long fantasised about doing and suing AMA, the company responsible for garbage collection, recycling and street cleaning. Since AMA is wholly financed by public capital and collects €719 million per year in revenue, Legambiente Lazio is suing the company for “fiscal damages”.
The reasons why the current system is failing are many and complex, but it is not helped by the fact that it is so complicated that most residents hate it. Trastevere, where I live, was one of the first districts to switch to the new system of raccolta differenziata, the differentiated refuse collection system that was supposed to aid recycling.
I hate waste of any kind. I don’t just turn the tap off while I’m brushing my teeth, I rush into bathrooms and turn off the tap while other people are brushing their teeth, a quirk that has irked many friends over the years. So, I believe strongly in recycling, but it took me some time to get the hang of the new system. In the beginning every home was given a year’s supply of coloured sacks for different categories of rubbish: blue for glass, plastic and metal; white for paper and cardboard; grey for ‘undifferentiated’ rubbish; and little brown bags for organic waste. Meaning that we all had to reorganise our kitchens to accommodate four different rubbish bins. In addition, we were given a number of leaflets to study. If these didn’t answer all our questions, AMA had a helpful web site with details on how to get rid of everything from spent batteries to dead relatives (they also run Rome’s cemeteries). Once you’d found out where to dispose of granny, the website even had a little Butta Bene (Chuck Well) quiz to cheer you up.
In time you get used to the fact that different categories of rubbish have to be put out on different days. Buildings with a portiere to put them out every morning have four different bins in their lobbies. My building does not have a porter, so we have to place the rubbish of the day on the pavement outside the front door, no earlier than 7.30 and no later than 8.30 in the morning. Failure to comply can result in a fine of between 25 and 619 euros (how did they arrive at that precise figure?). I confess that previous to the raccolta differenziata I was not always up, dressed and troubling myself with matters like differentiated refuse collection by 8.30 in the morning. There are those in my building who still refuse to comply and sneak down and slip their sacks outside the night before, despite the risk that an AMA employee could be lurking in the bushes waiting to slap a €619 fine on them. Their bin bags usually end up torn open and ransacked by who knows what nocturnal coccupants of the city and strewn across the pavement.
But I have resisted, changed the habits of a lifetime, and set my alarm for 8 a.m., even on Saturdays, in order to be a good citizen. It would be worth it if the system worked. But I, my neighbours and Legambiente Lazio don’t think it does. Time for a rethink.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: WWF Gathers 37,000 Signatures Against Pantelleria Oil Drills
Delivered to mayor of pristine island in Sicilian Channel
(ANSA) — Rome, October 29 — The Italy chapter of the World Wildlife Fund on Monday handed the mayor of the Sicilian island of Pantelleria a petition with 38,777 signatures against plans to drill for oil around the island, which lies in the Sicilian Channel.
The petition calls for a protected marine area to be set up instead.
“We need development and opportunity”, said Salvatore Gino Gabriele, mayor of the 83-square-meter volcanic island lying just 60 kilometers east of the Tunisian coast. “If a majority of citizens want a protected marine area, the city council should take action. We could also have a referendum, should a committee come up with a solution we can all share and debate”.
“Almost 39,000 people want Pantelleria protected”, said WWF Italy official Marco Costantini. “It is now up to government to decide whether to respect the popular will, guaranteeing an uncontaminated, healthy sea for tuna fish, sea turtles, fin whales, and migratory birds, but also for all the fishermen, sailors, tourists, and the Mediterranean economies and traditions that cannot do without it”.
Three oil platforms are currently active in the Strait of Sicily with an average annual production of 280,000 tons of crude oil extracted from 35 wells, according to the WWF.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Denies Blocking Fo’s Show
‘Knew nothing about it’ says spokesman
(ANSA) — Vatican City, November 1 — The Vatican on Friday denied blocking a show by Nobel prize-winning playwright Dario in honour of his late wife Franca Rame in a theatre close to St Peter’s.
“We knew nothing about it,” Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told ANSA.
He accused the Italian media of exploiting the case “to bring the Vatican and the pope into it in an incorrect and even instrumental way”.
“It’s better the show does not go on at the Auditorium,” Lombardi said.
Fo claimed Thursday the Vatican was trying to stop the show featuring a playlet written by long-time stage partner Rame.
The show, highlighting Rame’s disillusionment with politics after a 19-month spell in the Senate for an anti-Berlusconi party from early 2006 to late 2007, was to have opened shortly at the Auditorium Conciliazione, a theatre on the avenue leading up to St Peter’s.
Fo, 87, who won his Nobel in 1997 to the public dismay of conservative politicians, accused the Vatican of censorship.
He said it spoiled “all the joy Pope Francis is giving us”.
Leftist activists Fo and Rame, who died aged 83 in May, collaborated on many satirical works savaging Italian politics, the Catholic Church and the downtrodden status of women.
Fo penned most of the works but Rame contributed a lot — and her play on her 1973 rape by five rightist thugs was a big hit.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo Votes Amid Violence and Ethnic Serb Boycott Fear
Outbreaks of violence have marred key elections in Kosovo. Masked men forced the early closure of the main polling centre in an ethnically mixed Kosovan town during the municipal elections.
They burst into the building in north Mitrovica, setting off tear gas canisters and smashing ballot boxes. Ethnic Serbs were encouraged to vote for the first time but as polls closed on Sunday evening there were concerns of a low turnout.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Tension High in Egypt on Eve of Morsi Trial
Egypt’s deposed president Mohammed Morsi goes on trial on Monday on charges of inciting violence outside the presidential palace last December, charges also faced by 14 other senior officials from the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Trial: True Justice Will Reveal Morsi’s Alliances
In a country where no regulation or law exists to govern taping of conversations or, more aptly, where the Attorney General appointed by the President permitted secret recordings by Egyptian intelligence of the President’s meetings and phone conversations, judges dismissed by Morsi and now reinstated will be presented with tape recordings of Morsi’s discussions with Aymen Al Zawahiri of Al Qaeda.
These will show Morsi requesting the terrorist’s support. Morsi’s negotiation with the Al Qaeda leader delays application of the Iran and Taliban models for Egypt until a more receptive time and, in return for Al Zawahiri’s favor, the President agrees to immediately enforce Sharia law and release five thousand jailed terrorist-jihadists, including Aymen’s brother, Mohammed. All jihadists jailed under Mubarak were freed by Morsi within the first month of his installation to prove to Aymen Al Zawahiri that he could be trusted, according to leaked information paraphrasing the contents of the tapes.
If found guilty of conspiring with foreign entities against the welfare of the Egyptian state, Morsi will be assigned the death penalty and, since he is non-military, sentenced to hang. He stands trial on more counts that could link to the same charge, such as, attempting to establish an Egyptian Free Army within the country (parallel to the Egyptian military), creating a project to cleanse Egyptian presence from the Sinai Peninsula, accepting foreign financial aid against the interests of the country, protecting terrorists from prosecution, using jihadists to create chaos during pro-democracy freedom protests by ordering them to attack military points in Sinai, and urging “all jihadists everywhere to help us” to fight opposition in the streets and preserve his presidency…
The evidence from Morsi’s trial will likely incriminate wider circles — potentially the U.S. administration, the European Union, Qatar, Tunisia, Sudan and others. With the expected court examination of tape recordings and documents (to be aired on Egyptian TV and open to the international press), Morsi’s backers and supporters will be exposed unless backroom deals are brokered in advance. Morsi’s trial could mean Egypt confronts “international conspiracy” — the story developing while Morsi was in office and gaining momentum after his fall. It focuses on the unverified information that the Obama administration gave $8 billion to the Muslim Brotherhood to assign 40 percent of Sinai’s land to Hamas and, more recently, that a U.S. delegation of Senators tried to pressure the interim government into releasing Morsi from jail and re-installing him as President.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Switches Venue for Morsi Trial After Calls for Mass Protests
Egyptian authorities switched the venue for the trial of the former Islamist president on Sunday, a last-minute change made after the Muslim Brotherhood called for mass demonstrations at the original location.
The trial of Mohammed Morsi, now to be held east of the capital on Monday, could lead to another round of bloodshed as his supporters look likely to face an emboldened security apparatus that has boosted its forces for the hearing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia State of Emergency Extended Until June 2014
(AGI) Tunisia, Nov 3 — The Tunisian government has extended the country’s state of emergency until June 2014. The measure has been in place since the 2011 uprising that toppled Ben Ali’s regime. President Moncef Marzouki, a Moderate Islamist, announced the eight-month extension of special military and police powers as the North African country seeks to come to grips with a serious political crisis and a wave of Jihadi violence. The state of emergency has been extended by periods ranging from one month to a year since it came into effect.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Families Fight in Bread Line in Egypt, Nine Dead
(AGI) Rome, Nov 2 — A fight between members of two different families while standing in line for bread resulted in a vendetta and nine dead in Assiut, Egypt. Israel’s YNet reported the news, citing official sources. The family feud began a month prior, when a member of the Shaibaa tribe was killed during a fight.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran’s Khamenei Cools Nuclear Hopes and Attacks Israel
(AGI) Tehran, Nov 3 — Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has curbed hopes of an agreement over his country’s nuclear programme and resumed attacks on Israel after the recent openings from President Hassan Rouhani. Khamenei referred to Israel as an “illegitimate and bastard” regime in a series of statements reported on his website, adding: “The Americans give the utmost indulgence to this regime, but we must not share this indulgence”. The Supreme Leader also cooled hopes of an agreement with the West over the nuclear issue.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Kurds May Build Direct Oil-Export Pipe in 18 Months
Iraqi Kurdistan plans to build a million-barrel-a-day oil pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan port in as little as 18 months, providing an export link that totally bypasses Iraq’s existing network.
“Between 18 months to two years from now the new pipeline from our region to Ceyhan will be ready,” Ashti Hawrami, the Kurdish Regional Government’s natural resources minister, told reporters at an energy conference in Istanbul today.
A new pipeline running from Iraqi Kurdistan to Turkey would bypass Baghdad, with which the KRG is embroiled in disputes over export revenue, and require Turkey’s approval.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
John Kerry Arrives in Saudi Arabia to Smooth Ties
US Secretary of State John Kerry has landed in Saudi Arabia, the second stop on his tour of the Middle East. America’s top diplomat is expected to try to repair ties with a long-standing ally that have been frayed by the conflict in Syria and the recent US outreach to Iran.
He first made an unscheduled stop in Egypt, where he called for an end to violence and a move to full democracy. Mr Kerry also said the US is committed to working with Egypt’s new rulers.
Egypt is one of the issues that has caused tension between Saudi Arabia and the United States in recent months.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Celebrates 90th Anniversary, ‘Ataturk vs Erdogan’
2014 elections to decide nation’s future direction
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 31 — This week Turkey is celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Republic that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk intended as a secular state; nevertheless, on Thursday three female MPs from the governing Islamic party AKP entered Parliament wearing an Islamic headscarf, thereby breaking the last of the taboos set down by the “father of the homeland”. The act is symbolic of the critical juncture at which the country finds itself, between a political, neo-Ottoman Islam that PM Erdogan seems to want and an at least partial recovery of the European, secular spirit of 1923: a choice between Ataturk and Erdogan, the two statesmen who have had the largest influence on the country over the past century but are diametrical opposites. “The ten years of Erdogan government and his ideology are a reaction against the progressive push for a new society from Ataturk,” said Rasit Kaya, professor of political science at Ankara’s Odtu University. “It is significant that the Gezi Park protestors who took to the streets against Erdogan’s authoritarian exercise of power and his race towards Islam have been called ‘Ataturk’s soldiers’.” Three crucial elections over the coming year will decide the country’s direction: local ones in March, presidential ones in the summer to be followed by parliamentary ones. If Erdogan’s AKP wins, many expect that the country will become ever more Islamic. The competition seems to have started already, with heated debate all around. The head of the main opposition party CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has accused Erdogan of being “a dictator” The polls that came out after the massive uprising of the young “Europeans” of Gezi Park in June and Erdogan’s resulting heavy-handed crackdown put the AKP as down by 10% (due to the loss of many liberal voters), compared with the 50% support it raked in at the last parliamentary election. They also did not rule out a win by the two large Kemalist parties — the progressive CHP and the nationalist MHP — if they were to join forces, a prospect that in any case seems unlikely for the time being. The first crucial battle will be the Istanbul city council elections. The AKP-led megalopolis on the Bosporus with its 17 million inhabitants — almost a quarter of the total Turkish population — accounts for almost half of the national economy and is the country’s window onto the world. A win by the opposition would put the “sultan” of Ankara — who will then go on to stand as candidate for head of state — in difficulty. The state of the economy will also heavily influence the elections.
Since it came to power in 2002, the “AKP system” ensured political stability and economic development, with “Chinese” growth rates, up until three years ago. Turkey is now the 17th largest world economy. But the Turkish engine has started to slow. Analysts warn of a risk of a “bubble” in the likes of what was seen in Spain, swollen by high levels of public and private debt.
Industrial production has dropped by 1.4%, the stock exchange by 12%, the Turkish lira is losing ground against the euro and the dollar and foreign investment has slowed. The war in Syria may also have an effect on the elections, possibly of a destabilising nature now that Al Qaeda has put down roots along Turkish borders: a result of the tolerance — if not actually aid — extended by Erdogan to counter the Syrian regime, charge the opposition.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Two German Nationals Freed But Detained in Lebanon
(AGI) Beirut, Nov 2 — Two German nationals were released on Saturday after they had been kidnapped in Bekaa valley, in eastern Lebanon. They were later detained by local police officers on charges of drug trafficking, the Lebanese National News Agency said, quoting informed sources.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Oligarchs and Anti-Putin Protests Disappear From Russian School History Books
Guidelines for a unified text for middle and high schools are presented, sparking controversy over coverage of post- soviet period. Even the Church is ready to weigh into debate.
Moscow (AsiaNews ) — President Vladimir Putin is set to approve today, October 31, a document that summarizes guidelines for the only history text book for Russian middle and high schools shall be written. This was announced by a spokesman for the Russian Historical Society. The initiative, promoted by the Kremlin, is highly controversial and has sparked criticism from those who see it as an attempt by Moscow to impose a “government” version of events in Soviet -style propaganda.
As reported by the Russian media, the chapter covering the history of Russia’s post — soviet period could be the one with most cuts. The online Polit.ru newspaper writes that the 1990s war between oligarchs to hoard the country’s resources through privatization and their subsequent forced removal from the Russian political scene by Putin will be completely omitted. Years of fighting violent crime and agreements between the business world and the corridors of power — continues the newspaper — are summarized in the Guidelines for the text, with a generic “the state set the agenda on the issue of corporate social responsibility”. In any case, post- soviet Russia is the only period treated without analyzes or interpretations, mainstream media are keen to let people know.
The initiative of the unified textbook, ordered by Putin last February but already under discussion as far back as 2007, has garnered much criticism in the scientific world. The Russian head of state had asked to receive proposals on the new textbook by November 1, denouncing as “absolutely unacceptable” the number of history textbooks used in schools of the Federation , which rose from 41 to 65 since the beginning of the year last year.
In recent weeks, there had already been controversy over the fact that the ‘unified manual’ would cover the period up to 2012 , in order to include history of the Putin era . According to some experts, it is still too soon to evaluate and analyze the last thirteen years. Others have suggested to stop at 2000, and then prepare a separate section on the era where Putin can list the facts, but without interpreting them. The Russian news agencies recall that in June, both the Ministers of Education and Culture that had expressed the need to set the time limit in the study of national history to the year 2000.
Even if it cannot be described as a radical ‘ revision ‘ of the school curricula, some changes are bound to cause controversy : the becomes the Tatar- Mongol affair becomes the Golden Horde ( to please the Tatars historians) , the great ‘October Socialist Revolution’ will be ‘the Great Revolution of 1917 ‘ , the title ‘Stalinist socialism’ disappears from the period 1929-1941 (which , however, remains in the text) and it does not mention the number of victims of the purges of the leader, while it does recognize his establishing a dictatorship. The protests that accompanied the return of Putin to the Kremlin in 2012 are also omitted in favor of a general reference to protests for and against the government.
The guidelines shall establish twenty subjects recognized as “controversial”, allowing teachers to deal with different interpretations. They include the role of Stalin, the cost of the Second World War and the economic and political situation of the country in the 2000s.
The initiative, analysts point out, is part of Moscow’s broader policy to create a strong national identity, based on Christian values €‹€‹on the one hand and the other on the victory in World War II, while closing one eye on the crimes and atrocities the Soviet era.
Now a tender will be launched for the compilation of the textbook and the Russian Orthodox Church has promised it will make its contribution, especially regarding the Soviet period, where it is unwilling to accept any omissions or superficial approaches to the crimes and the repression implemented by the regime.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Top Putin Critic Urges Russians to Join Far-Right March
(AGI) Moscow, Nov 3 — Despite the alarm over a wave of xenophobia in Russia, blogger Alexei Navalny has called on people to participate in the Russian March, the traditional extreme right event in which tens of thousands of people will parade through Moscow on Monday’s National Unity Day. Navalny, a prominent figure in the opposition to Vladimir Putin who has never hidden his nationalism, wrote on his blog late on Saturday: “Participating in the Russian March is important”: “All those who are considering whether to go or not: go.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Karnataka: Christians Most Affected in Surge in Ethnic and Religious Violence.
A report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs says that in the last three years there have been 222 episodes. The figure makes Karnataka the worst of the Southern States, and the fourth in whole country . President of the Global Council of Indian Christians ( GCIC ) : “At least 150 cases involving Christians. Police connivance grave”. Most of the crime is concentrated in rural areas.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Among the southern states of India, Karnataka is the worst in terms of ethnic or religious motivated violence, as has been revealed in a report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs , according to which in the last three years there have been 222 episodes. Most of this violence has affected the Christian community. “ The Global Council of Indian Christians ( GCIC ) — Sajan George , president of the organization tells AsiaNews — has reported 150 incidents against the minority in the last three years, including more than 40 in 2013 ..”
On a national scale, Karnataka is in fourth place after Uttar Pradesh (347 cases) , Maharashtra (326) and Madhya Pradesh (299) . In the southern region instead it is followed by Kerala (126), Andhra Pradesh (114) and Tamil Nadu (86 ) . The study presents the number of accidents that occurred in the Indian state distributed per year: in 2010 there were 71, 70 in 2011 , 69 in 2012 , 12 in the first quarter of 2013 .
According to Sajan George , the report “does not address the indifference of the State before the growing climate of intolerance towards religious minorities . Central and state governments have failed in implementing rules to curb the perpetrators of these crimes. At the same time, it is unacceptable hear about ‘impartial’ police officers when some agents apply excessive use of force against the Christians”.
Sajan George also revealed, “now the perpetrators of these attacks are concentrated in villages and rural and remote areas, where it is easier to stir up tensions between communities because policies are more lax and there is a lower level of education .”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Own State Run Media Reveals Red Dragon’s Plans for “Nuclear Strikes Against American Cities”
Chinese state-run media revealed for the first time this week that Beijing’s nuclear submarines can attack American cities as a means to counterbalance U.S. nuclear deterrence in the Pacific. On Monday, leading media outlets including China Central TV, the People’s Daily, the Global Times, the PLA Daily, the China Youth Daily and the Guangmin Daily ran identical, top-headlined reports about the “awesomeness” of the People’s Liberation Army navy’s strategic submarine force. “This is the first time in 42 years since the establishment of our navy’s strategic submarine force that we reveal on such a large scale the secrets of our first-generation underwater nuclear force,” the Global Times said in a lengthy article titled “China for the First Time Possesses Effective Underwater Nuclear Deterrence against the United States.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Attack on Wedding Convoy Kills at Least 30 in Nigeria
(AGI) Maisguri, Nov 3 — Gunmen have attacked a wedding convoy in Borno, north-eastern Nigeria, killing at least 30 people including the bridegroom, witnesses said. The attack was carried out by suspected Islamist Boko Haram guerillas, and took place on the Bama-Nanki road as the convoy was making its way back to Maidiguri, the capital of Borno, from Michika in the nearby state of Adamawa. The convoy included the bridal couple as well as relatives and friends. Meanwhile, the Nigerian media reported that the number of people killed in a stampede at a church in Uke, in the south-eastern State of Anambra, had risen to 28.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ghislaine Dupont: Africa Lover and Expert
Journalist Ghislaine Dupont, a leading reporter on African affairs for FRANCE 24’s sister station Radio France Internationale, was one of two French nationals murdered in northern Mali on Saturday.
She covered the continent for the French public broadcaster for more than 25 years, until her death at the hands of kidnappers alongside sound engineer Claude Verlon outside the northern Malian town of Kidal on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Witnesses have described how an ex-SAS man and a former Irish Ranger helped to organise the rescue mission which saved dozens of hostages during the Nairobi shopping mall attack.
In total at least 67 people died when al-Shabaab gunman carried out the siege at Westgate in Nairobi on September 21.
Children as young as five were shot up to five times by the terrorists.
But it has emerged that two security consultants took control of the rescue mission before authorities turned up which helped to save dozens of lives, according to The Observer.
Witness reports, photographs and video footage gives an idea of the bravery carried out by these two men.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mali Sources Say Two French Reporters Killed
(AGI) Bamako, Nov 2 — The two French reporters kidnapped in Kidal, northern Mali, have been killed, according to three different sources: the local governor, Bamako police and the local Tuareg. The reporters left Bamako for Kidal on Tuesday.
France launched a military campaign in January to support the Malian army in their attempt to reclaim the northern part of the country, a region under the control of the Tuareg rebels and Jihadist groups close to al-Qaeda. A few days ago, four French hostages were released in Niger after being held captive for over three years.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Refugee Evictions Under Fire From Council of Europe
The Netherlands must continue to provide failed asylum seekers with food, clothing and a roof over their heads, the Council of Europe’s social rights committee said in a preliminary ruling on Thursday.
This means the Netherlands may not evict anyone who has failed to win refugee status from a refugee centre or other accommodation, pending a final ruling, Nos television said.
The Dutch Protestant Church made a formal complaint to the council in February, arguing that the justice ministry’s policy contravenes the European social charter.
Courts
The cabinet can ignore the ruling, but this may have consequences because the courts take the council’s position seriously, Nos television said.
The Netherlands has a policy of evicting failed asylum seekers from refugee centres if they refuse to cooperate with their deportation. Refugee organisation Vluchtelingenwerk estimates some 5,000 would-be refugees are put on the street every year.
The organisation will help refugees who are evicted to take legal action against the Dutch state, Nos said.
Families
In 2010, the Council of Europe ordered the Netherlands to stop evicting families with young children from asylum seekers centres because this conflicts with the European social charter and other human rights legislation.
The Netherlands has now stopped this practice.
Earlier this month, another Council of Europe commission said the Netherlands needs to do more to tackle racism in Dutch society and should draw up a national strategy to combat racial discrimination.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Don’t Tread on Me’ Symbol Banned From Navy Uniforms for Being Too Radical?
Navy SEALs have reportedly been ordered to stop wearing the ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ symbol on their uniform. The Navy Jack has been a symbol of patriotism in the United States for over 200 years. Now, the emblem is considered too radical by some officials in the government.
The American military will soon consist of overweight, veiled Mexican lesbians, fighting to make the world safe for sharia law.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
High School Names First Lesbian Couple Homecoming ‘Princess and Princess’
High school homecoming is a fall rite of passage, and this year one lesbian couple earned the first “princess and princess” title at a school in Portland, Ore. Laurel Osborne and Sophia Schoenfeld were named to Cleveland High School’s homecoming court in a move the school’s principal said “speaks volumes.” Unlike other high schools, Cleveland takes a different approach to nominating school royalty. Each class selects six people for the court, and the candidates then participate in a relay to determine which couple will be crowned king and queen, with the remaining contenders dubbed princes and princesses. Osborne and Schoenfeld, who were nominated by their senior class, were the first duo in the school’s history to gain the title of “princess and princess.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Conducts Surprise Nuclear War Drill as China Selects U.S. Targets
Moscow launches four ICBMs in a large-scale nuclear drill as Chinese state media, brandishing detailed maps, show how Beijing’s nuclear submarines can attack U.S. cities. On Wednesday, Russian strategic forces carried out a large-scale surprise military drill that included the test launch of two land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and two submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Meanwhile, President Obama continues to let U.S. missile capabilities wither, caving to Russian demands to halt previously planned expansion. To placate Moscow, Obama has betrayed our allies in Poland and the Czech Republic by abandoning plans to deploy ground-based interceptors and missile defense in those countries. Our Chinese friends have also noticed how the US has become an “easy” target and carried out on July 24 a third test of a long-range DF-31A road-mobile ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. with nuclear warheads.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16018659
those cookies keep on turning up!
What are we to make of the Arab Spring?
It has receded enough in the rear view mirror, but it seems to have generated the Lampedusa effect. Lampedusa is Europe’s fate writ large. Are these young Arabs and Blacks on boats defeated Fundies? Opportunistic economic refugees? Or the triumphal liberals looking for their reward in the unsuspecting west?
A mix of three perhaps.
Do we sink these ships? Look after the cargo? Repatriate the cargo?
What are we to make of the Arab Spring?
It was a media event sparked by the horrific suicide of one desperate young man who’d been hemmed in once too often by a corrupt bureaucracy.
Due to the lack of any real economic infrastructure in those MENA countries, there is no there ‘there’…no place for ambitious young people to find gainful employment or build their lives. But like the West, that particular demographic is going to disappear as the world population peaks and then begins to seriously drop off in mid-century.
Not: what was it?
Instead: What are we to make of it?
I couldn’t care less how North Africans live or die. Just as long as they don’t spoil Europe.
My sense of them is that they are low intelligence specimens, with enough cunning to see they can rob rape and razzia in the unsuspecting West.
What has intelligence got to do with it? We only help those with a certain level IQ? There goes half of Europe and America, then.
If one fails to see the connections between how North Africans live or die and how Europe fares…well then Europe will continue to become less and less safe. If the young men of MENA had some chance of making their way in the world, of marrying and establishing a home *where they live* then Europe would be far safer.
Those otherwise doomed men rob & rape out of a deep nihilism; Islam itself is nihilistic and malign but it’s not invincible. If those young males had half a chance at life they wouldn’t climb all the fences, swim the treacherous currents, take a chance on dying in those boats (which cost them dearly)- iow, do whatever it costs to reach some thin slice of possible opportunity.
Western aid is very wrong-headed; it does nothing to help the systemic problem.
I am not saying poverty is the root cause of their suffering; I am saying that a modest prosperity would reduce the dangers to the rest of the world.
You think Islamic men “rob and rape out of a deep nihilism” inspired by their religion? Or is it just North African ones?
Well, considering the crime rate in the US, what’s during those men?
Christianity? Judaism?
Or aren’t western religions operating the same perhaps…
Quote:
If one fails to see the connections between how North Africans live or die and how Europe fares…well then Europe will continue to become less and less safe. If the young men of MENA had some chance of making their way in the world, of marrying and establishing a home *where they live* then Europe would be far safer.
end
Word.
I am entertained by Mencius Moldbug’s take on it. The young men thought that burning things would be cool fun and so they burned things. In a culture that gives the crown of heroism and power, with almost unlimited license for rape and razzia, to its young men, what else can you expect?
Now I note that the Iraqis want us back.
The Saudis are angry that we have not sent our own young men into Syria.
Of course they’re angry, of course they miss us!
They want another opportunity to kill, kill, and kill more Westerners!
What next? An engraved invitation from Egypt? Libya? Another from Pakistan tomorrow?
Somalia the day after?
We’ve taken all the fun out of their game by fighting with DRONES! And now they can’t get over it.
My point expressed better.
Their ambition is to rob rape and razzia.
Rob Raperazzia could almost be the comedy name for them.
Like the Trayvons.
Young men with ambition are not in the street burning things. They are in the lab or in the library, or working any rubbish job they can get.
These Cargo people are looking for gibsmedat.
When the inhabitants of the “3rd world” were impoverished in the 20th century, and looking at the West from the outside, they had enough pride in themselves and their historical cultures to
1. stay at home, and
2. if they became educated in the West, they decided that their education should benefit their native countries, not just themselves.
The move to the West involves a similar abandonment of the historical identity among those coming here.
To advocate for multiculturalism is to despise what one sees in the mirror.
Regarding the inconsistencies in reporting about the LAX shooter, did anyone else notice that initial reports repeatedly described the shooter as blond? His hair turned out to be quite dark in the driver’s license photo published later. – Does it strike anyone else as strange that only one photo of the shooter has surfaced and that so little about his life has yet been revealed? Not the usual pattern of reporting. – And how about that facial hair in the d.l. photo? Looks like he’s trying to grow a beard, but the photo is oddly cropped so that you can’t see his full chin. Why? If there’s fuzz on his chin as well, then his peach fuzz facial hair – an attempted full beard but no mustache – would be consistent with Islamist beard requirements. – And lastly, try googling his full name. The very first page of google results contains multiple citings from Turkish newspapers. How many other US terrorism incidents have Turkish newspapers getting the most hits? Is there some connection between the shooter and Turkey?