Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/6/2016

The German Social Democratic Party (SPD) is concerned about PEGIDA, AfD, and other far-right groups, and thinks they should be put under government surveillance. According to a paper issued in advance of an SPD conference in Berlin, anti-immigration groups need to be watched because of increased attacks on refugees and asylum centers.

In other news, the prime minister of Slovakia says that his country is sending 25 police officers to assist Macedonia with the policing of its borders.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, DV, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, LP, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» A Shocked Wall Street Reacts to China’s “Surprising” Devaluation
» German Unemployment Edges Up to 6.1 Percent in December
» Italy: Food Prices Outpaced Inflation by 11 Times Says Coldiretti
» Stock Markets All Over the World Crash as We Begin 2016
 
USA
» First Major El Nino Storm Hits California
» Long Before Militia in Oregon, Eric Holder Was in “Armed Standoff” At Columbia ROTC Building
» Obama’s Back Door Attempt to Intimidate Americans Through Gun Control
» The Latest: Wounded Boy: 2, Rescued After Being Held Hostage
» Why is Marco Rubio Co-Sponsoring a Left Wing Bill That Strips College Students of Their Rights?
» Word’s Greatest Gun Salesman, Barack Obama, Shatters Own Record
 
Canada
» Man Charged With Attempted Murder After Machete Attack Near Eaton Centre
 
Europe and the EU
» Cologne Citizens Protest Against New Year Gang Assaults on Women
» Cologne Mayor Mocked for Advice on Avoiding Sex Assaults
» Football: Zidane Vows to Bring His Style to Real Madrid
» Germany: Major Anti-Islamisation Protest Planned Following Mass Migrant Rape Scandal
» German Social Democratic Party Calls for Surveillance on PEGIDA
» How Iceland Escaped From the One Bank
» Italian Consumption Set for Biggest Rise in a Decade in 2016
» Italy: Cost of Medicine Up 2% in 2015 Says Aifa
» Italy: Three Libyan Terror Suspects Arrested at Genoa Port
» Italy Loses Single Component of Juncker Cabinet
» Italy: PD Attacks M5S Over Translation of FT Article
» Rise of ‘Super-Gonorrhea’: Antibiotic Overuse Causing Stds to Become Untreatable While Venereal Diseases Spread More Rapidly in Modern Decadent Society
» Terrorism: French PM Wants More Power for Prosecution, Police
» Tommy Robinson: PEGIDA UK Figurehead ‘To be Charged With Assault’ Days After Launch of Anti-Islam Group
» UK: Paedophile Imran Khan ‘Caught Snatching Girl Due to Pink Glitter From Her Shoes’
» Year After Attack, France’s Jews Learn to Live Under Armed Guard
 
Middle East
» Erdogan Arch Foe: Police Chiefs Go on Trial Over Turkey Graft Claims
» Gulf States Fear “Political Awareness” Among Nepali Migrants
» ISIS Kills Young Woman Who Dares to Defy It
» Mideast Chessboard: Did Saudis Execute Shiite Cleric to Manipulate US?
» The Looming Confrontation With Turkey and Advancing Syrian Democratic Forces
» Turkish Civil Servants to Have Time Off for Friday Prayers: PM
 
Russia
» Hackers Caused a Blackout for the First Time, Researchers Say
» Over 300 Firms With Chinese Investment Operate in Russia’s Khabarovsk
 
Far East
» South China Sea: Vietnamese Fishermen Attacked by Chinese Ships
 
Immigration
» Barack Obama is Importing War Into America
» Canada is Proudly Open to All Ethnicities
» Cologne Mass Sexual Assaults Fuel Refugee Tensions in Germany
» Italy Ready to Step Up Controls on Border With Slovenia Amid Refugee Influx
» Merkel Under Fire on Migrants After New Year Sex Assaults
» Slovakia Sending Police to Help Macedonia
» U.S. Christian Groups Support Muslim Refugees, Ignore Persecuted Christians
 
Culture Wars
» Another State Rebels Against Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Mandate
» Tunisian LGBT Rights Group Shams Given 30-Day Suspension
 

A Shocked Wall Street Reacts to China’s “Surprising” Devaluation

Less than a month ago, and just days after the Yuan was finally inducted into the IMF’s hall of reserve currency fame, the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trade System, a part of the PBOC, made it very clear that what was about to happen would not be pretty, when it announced — in a statement which clearly everyone ignored — that going forward it would index the relative strength of the CNY not to the USD but the a basket of currencies (against which the USD to which it is pegged has been soaring).

At the time we explained that “what this means is that for anyone who thought the Yuan devaluation is over, now that the currency is at the lowest level relative to the dollar since 2011, the reality is that the devaluation relative to everyone else is only just starting.

And, with the PBOC’s warning that the “RMB is relatively a strong currency among the major international currencies” the real devaluation is, just as we warned four months ago, about to be unleashed. Expect at least a 15% reduction in Trade-Weighted terms in the coming weeks and months, especially if the Fed hikes.

One month later, it appears that not a single person heeded this warning, and now that the PBOC has unleashed a whopper of a devaluation round…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

German Unemployment Edges Up to 6.1 Percent in December

Labor market in Europe’s biggest economy remained solid

(ANSA-AP) — BERLIN — Germany’s unemployment rate edged up to 6.1 percent in December as a result of seasonal factors, but the labor market in Europe’s biggest economy remained solid.

The Federal Labor Agency said Tuesday that the unadjusted jobless rate was up from 6 percent in November, with 2.681 million people registered as unemployed. That was 48,000 more than the previous month but 82,000 fewer than a year earlier.

The agency said the rise was “purely due to seasonal factors.” In seasonally adjusted terms, the unemployment rate was static at 6.3 percent, with 14,000 fewer people out of work than in November.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Food Prices Outpaced Inflation by 11 Times Says Coldiretti

‘Market distortions still exist’ says farmers association

(ANSA) — Rome, January 5 — Food consumer prices grew 11 times the average rate of yearly inflation (+0.1%) but those earnings did not benefit those who produced the food, Coldiretti farmers association said Tuesday.

“The trend in food prices reflects seasonal conditions but it also the result of distortions that still exist and occur after the products leave the field and before they reach the table,” Coldiretti said.

“In that phase, prices rise an average of five times, albeit with differences between fresh produce and processed foods”.

Coldiretti added that Italian family spending on food and beverages rose by an estimated 0.3% in 2015 after contracting for seven consecutive years. The positive trend is expected to continue this year, the association said.

Food spending is the second most important family budget item after housing, and is a key indicator of the state of the national economy, Coldiretti said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Stock Markets All Over the World Crash as We Begin 2016

The first trading day of 2016 was full of chaos and panic. It started in Asia where the Nikkei was down 582 points, Hong Kong was down 587 points, and Chinese markets experienced an emergency shutdown after the CSI 300 tumbled 7 percent. When European markets opened, the nightmare continued. The DAX was down 459 points, and European stocks overall had their worst start to a year ever. In the U.S., it looked like we were on course for a truly historic day as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 467 points at one stage, but some very mysterious late day buying activity helped trim the loss to just 276 points at the close of the market. The sudden market turmoil caught many by surprise, but it shouldn’t have. The truth is that a whole host of leading indicators have been telling us that this is exactly what should be happening. The global financial crisis that began in 2015 is now accelerating, and my regular readers already know precisely what is coming next.

The financial turmoil of the last 24 hours is making headlines all over the globe. It began last night in China. Very bad manufacturing data and another troubling devaluation of the yuan sent Chinese stocks tumbling to a degree that we have not seen since last August. In fact, the carnage would have probably been far, far worse if not for a new “circuit breaker” that China recently implemented. Once the CSI 300 was down 7 percent, trading was completely shut down for the rest of the day. The following comes from USA Today…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

First Major El Nino Storm Hits California

The first major El Nino storm of the season has battered southern California, bringing heavy rain to the drought-stricken region and causing flooding and mudslides in some areas.

The National Weather Service said 1.42 inches (3.6 cm) of rain fell at the Los Angeles airport, breaking the old record of 1.32 (3.4 cm) set in 1979.

Heavy rain was also reported in other parts of the state, forcing several roads to shut down and prompting flash flood warnings and power outages…

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

Long Before Militia in Oregon, Eric Holder Was in “Armed Standoff” At Columbia ROTC Building

The Daily Caller reported back in 2012:

As a freshman at Columbia University in 1970, future Attorney General Eric Holder participated in a five-day occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned.

Holder was then among the leaders of the Student Afro-American Society (SAAS), which demanded that the former ROTC office be renamed the “Malcolm X Lounge.” The change, the group insisted, was to be made “in honor of a man who recognized the importance of territory as a basis for nationhood.”

That protest ended with the demands of the group met, and no arrests. How will the situation at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge — where a group has taken up arms over a territorial dispute — end up? Hopefully, just as peacefully.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Back Door Attempt to Intimidate Americans Through Gun Control

Shameful. Obama wiped away more fake tears as he announced further gun control measures today. He is absolutely sidestepping Congress and this is a clear Constitutional overreach. This comes at a time that terrorism is growing exponentially here in the US due to Obama’s open border’s policy and his refugee resettlement program…

Mark Levin has come out and slammed Obama’s executive order as sheer intimidation. The White House is broadening the definition of what a gun seller is in an attempt to bully collectors and hobbyists who sell firearms privately. Obama is going after not just gun show dealers… he’s going after individuals who are privately selling guns. Levin is also saying that this is a new broader definition, which will include factors such as how quickly collectors and hobbyists sell guns they acquire, whether they sell guns for more than they paid for them and how often and in what quantity they sell firearms. Bureaucrats and politicians will decide whether the law is being violated as they deal with people individually. That isn’ t law or justice, that is blatant tyranny. Levin calls this proposal shameful and says they are pushing this without any statutory basis whatsoever.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Latest: Wounded Boy: 2, Rescued After Being Held Hostage

ATLANTA — The latest on a man with gun who held a 2-year-old boy hostage in a standoff with police in the Atlanta suburbs on Wednesday (all times local):

4:40 p.m.

Police say a 2-year-old boy with a serious gunshot wound was rescued from a home where his father held him hostage during a standoff that lasted 18 hours in a neighborhood in Atlanta’s northeast suburbs.

Gwinnett County police Cpl. Michele Pihera says the father and child were each found with a gunshot wound when authorities entered the home after hearing gunfire around 4:40 p.m. Wednesday. Pihera says the father shot himself.

Pihera says both were taken the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The standoff began around 10 p.m. Tuesday when someone called police to report that a man threatened to shoot everyone at the home then take his own life…

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

Why is Marco Rubio Co-Sponsoring a Left Wing Bill That Strips College Students of Their Rights?

Last year, left wing nut bar, Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill, offered one of those bills with an utterly Orwellian title that enables the left to cover their malicious acts with virtuous words. This bill was titled the Campus Accountability and Safety Act. The bill was a direct response to the whole “campus rape” hysteria that led to a pathological liar being able to make a career of accusing an innocent man of rape and the tarring of an entire university and fraternity system for condoning rape.

This bill is evil. Period. Full stop. There are no redeeming features in it.

Early last month, the National Review did a review of the bill by two guys who are not Republicans (one Democrat and one independent) but at least one of them was involved in defending the Duke lacrosse team.

When it comes to due process on campus, Republicans in Congress, who campaigned on vows to rein in the Obama administration’s abuses of executive power, have largely acquiesced in its bureaucratic imposition of quasi-judicial tyranny. For more than four years, the White House and the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) have used an implausible reinterpretation of a 1972 civil-rights law to impose mandates unimagined by the law’s sponsors. It has forced almost all of the nation’s universities and colleges to disregard due process in disciplinary proceedings when they involve allegations of sexual assault. Enforced by officials far outside the mainstream, these mandates are having a devastating impact on the nation’s universities and on the lives of dozens — almost certainly soon to be hundreds or thousands — of falsely accused students.

One might have expected an aggressive response by House Republicans to such gross abuses of power — including subpoenas, tough oversight hearings, and corrective legislation. Instead, most of them have been mute. In the Senate, meanwhile, presidential candidate Marco Rubio of Florida, Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa, and rising star Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire have teamed with Democratic demagogues Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Claire McCaskill of Missouri in co-sponsoring a bill that would make matters even worse.

What the bill does is make campus rape an offense that is not investigated by police and adjudicated in court but rather an administrative offense that does not allow the accused to defend themselves, sets the standard of proof at “whatever”, and subjects the schools to fines if they do not convict enough of the accused.

The hearing’s climate was captured by Representative Jared Polis (D., Colo.), who asserted: “If there are ten people who have been accused, and under a reasonable-likelihood standard maybe one or two did it, it seems better to get rid of all ten people.” In a scene that would have made the framers of the Constitution weep, campus-rape activists in the hearing room applauded this effusion.

But for his bill to move in a Congress dominated by Republicans, McCaskill and her kkklique had to get Republicans on board.

Meanwhile, powerful Senate Republicans have jumped onto Obama’s anti-due-process bandwagon. Six of them, led by Rubio, Grassley, and Ayotte, joined Gillibrand, McCaskill, and four other Democrats in co-sponsoring the benign-sounding but dangerous Campus Accountability and Safety Act (CASA).

With key Republicans along for the ride, McCaskill and Gillibrand produced a bill designed to advance the administration’s agenda. Its language presumes the guilt of all students accused of sexual assault by repeatedly calling accusers who have not yet substantiated their claims “victims,” without the critical qualifier “alleged.” CASA would also order colleges to provide a “confidential advisor” for these “victims,” with no comparable help for the accused. And it would require universities to publish data on the outcomes of their campus sexual-assault cases (which only Yale does now), apparently in the hope that doing so will invite Title IX complaints against any college that finds an insufficient number of accused students guilty.

Further, McCaskill has said that CASA, by making adjudication processes uniform for all institutions, is designed to help “remove the underpinning of . . . lawsuits” by accused students who say they were railroaded. No wonder McCaskill believes that “victims” might see themselves as “better off doing the Title IX process” than going through the criminal-justice system.

A full list of co-sponsors is here.

Sadly, this is not some bill that Rubio was snookered on.

The Washington Examiner’s Ashe Schow asked each sponsoring senator’s office how CASA would ensure due process for accused students. An Ayotte spokesperson declined to answer Schow’s questions, justifying the senator’s co-sponsorship by repeating the canard that one in five college women is sexually assaulted.

A Rubio spokesperson replied, “This bill does not address this issue.” When asked whether college officials or law enforcement would have the most authority to investigate allegations, the spokesperson responded: “The victim will have the most authority.” This reflected (at best) an astonishing misunderstanding both of the need for impartial adjudication of such serious charges and of the fact that at the investigative stage there is no “victim”; there are an accuser and an accused.

Senator Rubio owes us an answer on this. Why did he co-sponsor a bill that establishes a Star Chamber for prosecuting the very ill-defined crime of sexual abuse? Why does he want our sons held hostage to the whim of anyone who wishes to accuse them of assault? Why is the accused not allowed to confront the accuser? Why is the accused not allowed counsel? Why are colleges given a quota of convictions in order to avoid sanction?

Supporting this bill is not the act of a man that believes in either the Constitution or civil liberties.

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

Word’s Greatest Gun Salesman, Barack Obama, Shatters Own Record

by Bob Owens

President Barack Obama, the man perennially regarded as the “world’s best gun salesman” thanks to a mix of hostile anti-gun rhetoric and lawless executive actions which have driven many Americans to fear their government, has unexpectedly eclipsed his previous record sales high by roughly 2 million guns.

A record number of firearms background checks were conducted by the FBI in 2015 — equating to roughly 44 every minute.

The agency reported Monday that it conducted a total of 23,141,970 checks last year, eclipsing the prior yearly record of roughly 21.1 million checks set in 2013.

The background checks are conducted through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System for gun purchases from federal firearms licensees and for permits to carry guns, and while the checks serve as an indicator of gun sale trends in the U.S., each check does not always equate to a sale.

Obama’s record-shattering performance suggests that the President actually sold in excess of 25 million guns, as a number of states accept concealed carry permits instead of a NICS background check and most private sales cannot be run through NICS because politicians have have steadfastly refused to let citizens use the background check system themselves over “privacy concerns.”

To give you some idea of the enormity of the President’s accomplishment, the U.S. military—widely regarded as the most powerful force in world history—could completely re-arm every single soldier, sailor, airman and Marine on active duty with less than two million guns. Obama has helped sell more than ten times that number in a single year, and in excess of 100 million guns in his seven years in office.

Not one to rest on his laurels, President Obama will deliver an hour-long anti-gun address on CNN Thursday night filled with more half-truths and lies that will likely help gun sales in 2016 surge to ever greater heights.

Tag-teaming in an election year with Democrat Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O’Malley, there is every reason to believe that this anti-gun “Dream Team” could push actual single-year firearms purchases over the 30 million gun mark for the first time in history, helping drive nation’s record low per-capita murder rate to unheard-of record lows.

As Robert Heinlein suggested, an armed society is indeed a polite society.

Thank you for helping prove that point, Mr. President.

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

Man Charged With Attempted Murder After Machete Attack Near Eaton Centre

A man has been charged with attempted murder following what police call an unprovoked attack on another man near Toronto’s Eaton Centre Wednesday afternoon.

Arlington Thompson, 35, also faces charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon. Police say the man had a 30-centimetre machete, which he allegedly used in the attack. Police say the man also had a 20-centimetre hunting knife. Police now have both weapons.

The attack left a 30-year-old man with several injuries. Police say he is in stable condition in hospital.

Toronto Police Sgt. Gale Corra said the two men had no previous contact and no history with each other.

“They may have just been crossing each other on the street,” said Corra.

Police say they were called at 4:37 p.m. ET about the incident, which happened near Bay and Dundas streets.

A witness, Terence Yip, who works in technological support and maintenance for CBC, told CBC News that he was heading south on Bay Street when he heard yelling. He said one man was swinging at a man who was holding a guitar. Yip said a woman was yelling for police. He said a lot of people were in the area at the time.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Cologne Citizens Protest Against New Year Gang Assaults on Women

Citizens of the western German city of Cologne protested against violence toward women during the New Year celebrations, local media reported Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On the New Year’s Eve, some 90 women in Cologne were robbed, threatened and sexually assaulted by small groups of aggressive men after police officers scattered the crowd of some 1,000 men allegedly of Arab and North African origin. Local police do not rule out more appeals from women.

Some 250 men and women came to the rally in front of Cologne’s cathedral, protesting against violations of law, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported, citing police sources, on Tuesday.

The newspaper said that people organized the rally via social media and called for proper investigation as well as for better protection of women.

Investigation into the reported incidents is underway, according to German police.

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

Cologne Mayor Mocked for Advice on Avoiding Sex Assaults

Henriette Reker, 59, told a Tuesday press conference about last week’s mob attacks that girls and young women could avoid trouble by staying over “an arm’s length” away from strangers.

The comment sparked anger and ridicule amid a heated debate about the ugly scenes blamed on men of Arab and North African appearance which have led to more than 100 criminal complaints in Cologne.

One Twitter user joked that when a man sat down beside her on the subway, she “immediately smashed the window to gain an arm’s length. Safety first!”

Others posted Reker’s words with pictures of Star Wars villain Darth Vader, cartoon cyborg-detective Inspector Gadget and a Hindu deity, all with their arms extended…

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

Football: Zidane Vows to Bring His Style to Real Madrid

6,000 flock to 1st training session

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 5 — Some 6,000 fans came to watch Zinedine Zidane’s first session as Real Madrid trainer at the Di Stefano stadium. Florentino Perez’s choice was greeted with joy by the fans, after a negative experience with Rafa Benitez in the position. Zizou, calmer than he had been in the presentation immediately after his was given the job, announced in a press conference that his Real will be “more on the offense” and that he will seek to infuse his “style” in the team with the sole aim being that of winning. “When you play in this jersey, winning is fundamental,” he stressed. “We’re in the last 16 in the Champions League and we want to go as far as we can. We have a good position in La Liga and many months and important games ahead. There is room for improvement.” Zidane mentioned Carlo Ancelotti, who told him that “the most important thing in football is to win matches and make the players happy”, and said hat he had focused a great deal on this, using “simple words” with Ronaldo and the others in front of the fans. “I told them that I was happy, that a new adventure was beginning and that there are results to achieve. The message is clear: the work and intensity in the matches are important.” He didn’t speak much about individual players but did say he would continue to focus on the ‘BBC trio’ (Bale-Benzema-Cristiano Ronaldo) and that he trusted the players that thus far had not lived up to expectations. He did not respond to more technical questions, simply saying that “it’s only the first day”. Zidane added that he did feel pressure, “but in the right way. I hope to restore hope and win through good playing, dedication and work.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Major Anti-Islamisation Protest Planned Following Mass Migrant Rape Scandal

A heavy police presence met a small, spontaneous protest in Cologne last night following the mass sex assault against German women by migrant males on New Year’s Eve.

Locals are standing up against the loss of their city to migrant gangs, and the politicians who apparently treat citizens with contempt for opposing the change.

German counter migration movement the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) have called a mass protest for this Saturday afternoon at the square outside the railway station where the attacks happened.

Announced within the past few hours, the march is likely to attract thousands, and not just of long-standing PEGIDA members, but also of ordinary Germans and the citizens of Cologne.

For many, the realisation that the German mainstream media and government have been apparently colluding in the cover-up of migrant sexual violence has provided a sudden and rude political awakening…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

German Social Democratic Party Calls for Surveillance on PEGIDA

Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) said Wednesday it was seeking to keep the right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and anti-Islamization Pegida group under surveillance.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The SPD deputies are due to meet on Thursday in Berlin for a two-day conference with internal security and integration at the agenda.

“Violence against refugees, refugee homes, helpers and politicians by right-wing extremist violence perpetrators have reached worrying levels,” SPD said in an eight-page paper, obtained by Der Spiegel.

In the future, “dangerous right-wing extremist tendencies in the AfD party and groups such as Pegida [must] be monitored by the intelligence,” the SPD paper reads.

In the paper, the SPD also calls for better equipment of the German security authorities, especially with regard to the fight against Islamist terrorism.

Far-right movements are gaining support in Germany amid rising anti-migrant sentiments as Europe faces its biggest refugee crisis since World War II.

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

How Iceland Escaped From the One Bank

Austerity causes the economy to get even sicker, leading to larger deficits, more borrowing, and thus even higher interest payments to the parasitic One Bank. Debt slavery. The response from these puppet governments to this vicious circle? Even more Austerity. If something fails, do much more of it.

However, one Western nation that was caught up in the original Crash of ‘08 did not climb aboard this treadmill of economic suicide and blackmail: Iceland. As a result, alone among the nations of Europe, Iceland enjoys real robust economic growth. The standard of living of its population is once again risingrather than falling as it is throughout the rest of the Corrupt West.

How? How did one, small island nation succeed while every other Western government failed miserably and completely? As with the economic suicide now practiced throughout the Corrupt West, Iceland’s success also traces back to the same four words: “too big to fail.”

What happened when Iceland’s Big Banks (more tentacles of the One Bank) arrogantly demanded that the government rubber-stamp the principle of crime of “too big to fail” — sacrificing the System in order to save the Big Banks? Iceland’s government responded that it had a different, radical idea: it would sacrifice the Big Banks, and save the System.

Iceland’s Big Banks folded. As with all blackmailers, the One Bank responded to Iceland’s refusal to be blackmailed by immediately lashing out in revenge. Among other things, it attacked Iceland’s currency (i.e. manipulated it lower), yet another criminal conspiracy for which the Big Banks have now been convicted.

However, Iceland’s government stood firm and did not cave in to the attempted extortion by this crime syndicate. It weathered the financial/economic reprisals. It proved that “too big to fail” was always nothing more than a lie and a myth created by the banking crime syndicate. No entity within any system could ever be more important than the system itself. This was always elementary logic. Iceland has validated that logic.

Iceland refused to be blackmailed. Iceland refused to take on the extra debt (and debt slavery) that came with the blackmail. Iceland refused to touch its social programs. Iceland has the strongest economy in the Western world.

[Comment: Iceland shows the way.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Consumption Set for Biggest Rise in a Decade in 2016

More than one third of Italians see 2016 as year of hope — report

(ANSA) — Rome, January 5 — Consumption of Italian families is set to rise 1.4% in 2016, its largest annual increase in the past decade, a report showed on Tuesday.

The Coop report said that 2016 was seen as “the year of hope” by more than a third of Italians.

Another sixth of Italians are associating the year with change, while for 14% the prevailing sentiment is fear.

Based on its survey of spending intentions, the report found that per capita consumption will still remain around levels seen in the 1990s and more than 1,700 euros less compared to 2007.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Cost of Medicine Up 2% in 2015 Says Aifa

Citizen co-pays up 20 million euros over 2014

(ANSA) — Rome, January 5 — The cost of medicine rose around 2% in the first eight months of 2015, Italian State Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) data showed on Tuesday.

The number of prescriptions fell 2% to a total of 399 million in the same period, AIFA said.

Hospitals spent over four billion euros on pharmaceuticals in the period, going beyond forecast upper spending limits, the agency said. The regions of Tuscany, Puglia and Sardinia spent the most.

The national health service spent some 5.7 billion euros, which was 0.7% lower compared to the same period in 2014.

The report also found that the share of pharmaceutical spending footed by citizens in the first eight months of 2015 exceeded one billion euros, up about 20 million euros compared to the same period of the previous year.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Three Libyan Terror Suspects Arrested at Genoa Port

Pics hailing ISIS found on cellphones

(ANSA) — Genoa, December 5 — Digos anti-terror police have arrested three Libyan citizens as they disembarked at Genoa port from a ferry coming from Tunis, police said Tuesday.

The three aged 50, 43 and 39 were arrested Sunday evening and face charges of money laundering aggravated by international terrorist intent.

They were named as Abdel Kader Alkurbo, 50, travelling on a Swedish passport, Muhamad Ali Mosa Lufty, 43, resident in Brussels, and Mohamed Abdel Mohamed Amar, 39, travelling on a Belgian passport.

Police found on their cellphones pictures of armed children, scenes of war and of people hailing Islamic State (ISIS), wounded people and images linked to jihad.

The suspects were traveling without any luggage in three identical Hyundai cars.

After the arrests, police made blanket checks of Internet points in Genoa in a bid to find jihadi sympathisers.

Controls have been stepped up in the wake of the November 13 Paris terrorist attacks that killed 130 people.

The arrests follow on the December 31 arrest at Genoa airport of a man and a woman, both allegedly from Iran, heading to London with fake Belgian documents. The two were booked on terrorism charges. Their cell phones also contained images of weapons and warfare. A preliminary investigations judge said they may be part of an international terrorist cell.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Loses Single Component of Juncker Cabinet

Legal expert Carlo Zadra quits after clash with Selmayr

(ANSA) — Brussels, January 5 — Italy protested Tuesday after losing its only component of the cabinet of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, legal expert Carlo Zadra.

Zadra quit and was replaced by a Briton after clashing with Cabinet Chief Martin Selmayr.

“This is unacceptable,” European Affairs Undersecretary Sandro Gozi told ANSA.

He said Italy was pressing for the slot to stay Italian.

“Starting 2016 without an Italian would certainly not facilitate relations with Italy,” Gozi said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: PD Attacks M5S Over Translation of FT Article

Grillo’s movement accused of ‘softening’ key passages

(ANSA) — Rome, January 5 — The Democratic Party (PD) of Matteo Renzi and the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S) led by Beppe Grillo were at loggerheads again on Tuesday, this time over the translation into Italian of an article on the movement published by the Financial Times.

The row broke out after PD MP Giampaolo Galli accused M5S of “softening” key passages of the article in translation.

Grillo replied by launching a twitter campaign with the hashtag #piddinibugiardi (PD-ers liars).

“FT: “Five Star Movement comes of age” Trad. it.:”Il M5S è mature (M5S is mature)” Give a dictionary to PD MPs”, Grillo wrote.

The translation of other parts of the article are also contested. In truth, the disagreements seem to have their roots largely in differences between the version of the article that appeared in the print edition of the newspaper on December 29 and the one that appears on line, particularly concerning the headline and subtitle.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Rise of ‘Super-Gonorrhea’: Antibiotic Overuse Causing Stds to Become Untreatable While Venereal Diseases Spread More Rapidly in Modern Decadent Society

(NaturalNews) An untreatable “super-gonorrhea” epidemic is threatening to become widespread globally due to overuse of antibiotics and an increase in casual sex encounters encouraged by so-called “hookup apps” such as Tinder.

Health officials in Great Britain discovered the strain in March of 2015 and have since confirmed at least 16 cases of the antibiotic-resistant strain of the disease, all of them involving heterosexuals.

Gonorrhea is the second most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) after chlamydia and is often treated with ciprofloxacin, even though the use of that particular antibiotic has not been recommended since 2005…

The new super strain of the disease is resistant to the first-line antibiotic azithromycin and could potentially become untreatable, according to the researchers.

Gonorrhea is a serious illness, and although some of those who are infected show no symptoms, the disease can cause long-term damage, including infertility and pelvic inflammation in women, and can blind newborn children whose mothers are infected.

The potential spread of an untreatable strain beyond England’s borders is a very real possibility.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Terrorism: French PM Wants More Power for Prosecution, Police

‘To make emergency measures permanent’, Le Monde

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JANUARY 5 — More power to prosecutors and police and less to investigating judges is the French prime minister Manual Valls’ plan, according to a Le Monde report Tuesday on a draft law the government is drawing up. Le Monde reports that in the text sent by the government to the Council of State (constitutional court), the government intends “permanently strengthen measures and procedures made available to administrative and judicial authorities, beyond the temporary legal framework that came in as part of the state of emergency”. The draft law aims to “strengthen the fight against organized crime and its funding, the effectiveness and the guarantees of the criminal procedure”, and is not expected to be ready prior to February. Night searches, for example, can be ordered — according to the new law — even by prefects and not only by investigating judges and can be carried out on private homes as a preventative measure.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Tommy Robinson: PEGIDA UK Figurehead ‘To be Charged With Assault’ Days After Launch of Anti-Islam Group

Tommy Robinson says he expects to be charged with common assault in the coming days after claiming to have been told by officers he had to present himself at Luton Police Station. The former leader of the far-right English Defence League (EDL) — who launched the UK branch of European anti-Islam protest group Pegida just days ago — was arrested in August on suspicion of attacking a fellow prison inmate, but had originally been told no further action would be taken.

The alleged assault occurred while Robinson was serving his last days in prison for a 2014 conviction of mortgage fraud. He says he acted in “self-defence” after Muslim inmates at Peterborough prison allegedly attacked him with a cup of boiling water containing sugar.

Robinson, 33, revealed to IBTimes UK: “The police told my solicitors I was going to be charged with battery. I was told this allegation was dropped and then two days after the Pegida UK press conference they say I’m going to be charged.

“Whatever this is all about, it’s a complete fabrication. It’s all to do with that press conference. The amount of stupid things they’ve arrested me for in the past, it’s ridiculous.”

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Paedophile Imran Khan ‘Caught Snatching Girl Due to Pink Glitter From Her Shoes’

Child rapist Imran Khan, 34, was jailed for life last year after grabbing the little girl off her bike, exposing himself and throwing her into his boot near her home in Burnley.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Year After Attack, France’s Jews Learn to Live Under Armed Guard

Ever since a jihadist attack on a kosher store left four people dead a year ago, France’s Jews have grown used to soldiers patrolling their neighbourhoods and schools.

While a comfort to some, the fact that the large Jewish community is forced to live under armed guard only heightens the sense of being a target.

ADVERTISING”I don’t feel safe here anymore. As Jews we are a preferred target, in a country which itself is a target” of jihadists, said Noemie, 27, who escaped the bloody hostage drama…

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

Erdogan Arch Foe: Police Chiefs Go on Trial Over Turkey Graft Claims

A US-based Turkish preacher who has emerged as an arch-enemy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went on trial in absentia Wednesday along with several former police chiefs charged over the corruption allegations that hit the Turkish leader in 2013.

Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan turned chief foe, was not present at the start of the proceedings in Istanbul, with Washington failing to grant Turkish requests for his extradition from his secluded compound in Pennsylvania.

He is being tried along with dozens of former police officers, including the former head of Istanbul police Yakup Saygili and the city’s ex-deputy criminal police chief Kazim Aksoy, both of whom are said to have ordered the graft probe…

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

Gulf States Fear “Political Awareness” Among Nepali Migrants

More than a million, perhaps two million Nepali migrants, many illegal, work in the Gulf monarchies. All are affiliated with Nepali political parties or related groups that organise celebrations as well as cultural and sports events among migrant communities. Human rights groups have been complaining for years about the way Nepali workers are exploited.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Millions of Nepalese migrant workers in the Gulf States have been threatened with dismissal if they do not immediately refrain from political activity.

Employers fear workers’ affiliation with Nepali party organisations, whose leaders are often invited to conferences and meetings in the Gulf monarchies, often paid by migrants themselves.

Sources in Nepal’s Foreign Ministry report that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and other Gulf States have raised the issue officially with Nepali authorities.

According to Nepali government data, at least a million Nepali live and work in the Gulf countries. Unofficial estimates put the number at two million, many employed in the underground economy.

All of them belong to at least one Nepali political party or to groups affiliated with them.

Government officials report that Nepalis working abroad raise funds and organise visits of political leaders in the countries where they live, as well as cultural and sporting events.

Host countries do not take kindly to such activities, which raise “political awareness” among migrants.

Nepal’s Foreign Ministry said it has already warned its citizens abroad about abstaining from any activity that could jeopardise trade relations with Gulf monarchies.

The countries in the area have not yet made specific requests,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tara Prasad Pokhrel, “but workers must seriously take the responsibility and obligations imposed by their places of residence.”

“These states are very important to us and are favoured destinations for our citizens,” he added. “Workers abroad contribute significantly to our nation’s GDP. They must cease any action that might offend their employers.”

Gulf “countries are strict on politics and religion,” said Yagya Bahadur Hamal, Nepal’s ambassador to Kuwait. Harischandra Gimire, the former deputy chief at the consular section of Nepal’s Embassy in Qatar, agrees. “Migrant workers should avoid any activity related to religion and politics.”

For years, human rights organisations have complained about the lack legislative protection for Nepali workers abroad. Last year, after Nepal’s devastating earthquake, some Gulf States even prevented migrants from returning home to visit relatives or attend funerals.

In Qatar, migrant workers are employed under a sponsorship system known as kafala that effectively ties labourers to their employer and makes it difficult for them to change jobs before their contract expires or without getting their boss’ approval.

Several humanitarian organisations have also criticised the practice of seizing workers’ passports, paying their wages on an irregular basis and providing them with inadequate health insurance.

For the International Trade Union Confederation, such conditions favour labour exploitation.

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

ISIS Kills Young Woman Who Dares to Defy It

(CNN)Ruqia Hassan was 30, a woman who dared to defy ISIS in its stronghold of Raqqa, Syria. She seemed to sense that one day she would pay with her life for her words and prayers. She was right.

According to the social media accounts of citizen journalists from Raqqa, Hassan was killed sometime late last year. But ISIS only informed her family of her death this week, saying she had been “executed” for “espionage.” CNN is unable to independently confirm the circumstances of her death.

It’s believed to be the first time that ISIS has killed a female citizen journalist in Syria.

Hassan was known by the pseudonym Nisan Ibrahim and was one of a number of young activists in Raqqa who tried to get word to the outside world of what was really happening in the city…

           — Hat tip: DV [Return to headlines]
 

Mideast Chessboard: Did Saudis Execute Shiite Cleric to Manipulate US?

The execution of a prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, which sparked outrage and protests among the Shiites, was a “deliberate provocation” by the House of Saud to achieve three ambitious goals, political commentator Patrick Buchanan asserted.

Riyadh wanted to demonstrate “the new ruthlessness and resolve” of Saudi monarchs, the analyst noted in an opinion piece for Information Clearing House. The oil kingdom also tried to “crystallize, widen and deepen a national-religious divide between Sunni and Shiite, Arab and Persian, Riyadh and Tehran.”

In addition, Saudi Arabia sought to undermine the thaw in relations between Iran and the United States, as well as put an end to the Iranian nuclear deal.

Broadly speaking, the execution served Saudi national interests, which involve among other things America’s backing of any Riyadh’s activities, regardless of how ruthless they are.

“Like every regime in the Middle East, the Saudis look out for their own national interests first. And their goals here are to first force us to choose between them and Iran, and then to conscript US power on their side in the coming wars of the Middle East,” Buchanan warned.

The incident, which the analyst referred to as a “hubristic blunder,” should serve both as a wake-up call and a lesson for the American political leadership since Saudi interests and ambitions rarely coincide with Washington’s national interests. Take the global campaign against Daesh, which many nations consider a top foreign policy priority. Apparently, Saudis do not share this sentiment.

“The Saudis went AWOL from the battle against [Daesh] and al-Qaida in Iraq and Syria. Yet they persuaded us to help them crush the Houthi rebels in Yemen, though the Houthis never attacked us and would have exterminated al-Qaida. Now that a Saudi coalition has driven the Houthis back toward their northern basecamp, [Daesh] and al-Qaida have moved into some of the vacated terrain,” the analyst explained.

The same is true when it comes to oil. Saudi Arabia has been behind the oil price collapse, which is badly affecting the fracking industry in the US.

Saudi Arabia is not the only US ally in the region, whose reckless actions could have led to dire consequences. Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian bomber in Syrian airspace could have ended in a military confrontation, if Moscow was less rational.

“Had Vladimir Putin chosen to respond militarily against Turkey, a NATO ally, his justified retaliation could have produced demands from Ankara for the United States to come to its defense against Russia,” Buchanan observed.

Washington appears to have chosen wrong allies in the Middle East.

“In Syria’s civil war — with the army of Bashar Assad battling ISIS and al-Qaida — it is Russia and Iran and even Hezbollah that seem to be more allies of the moment than the Turks, Saudis or Gulf Arabs,” the analyst noted.

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

The Looming Confrontation With Turkey and Advancing Syrian Democratic Forces

This Business Insider article by Fabrice Balanche of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) reflects the potential confrontation by advancing Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), composed of Kurdish PYD, Arab and Assyrian units with Erodgan’s Turkey after seizing the strategic Tishrin Dam and crossing to the West Bank of Euphrates River with the support of US coalition air support. The border area is a largely rural agricultural area with mixed Arab and Turkmen population. There is evidence that the Arab tribes in the region would pledge support for the PYD led SDF. There is a possible link up between advancing Assad forces with Russian air support and SDF units cutting off IS from the open border to Turkey possibly resulting in isolating the self declared Caliphate of the Islamic State at Raqaa. The Kurds consider this border region as historically Kurdish legacy area. The Russians have already coordinated with the advancing Kurdish YPD led SDF in northern Aleppo province. The combined Saudi/ Turkish Jaish-al Fatah (JF) rebels are defending a supply road against Kurds to the West and Assad forces to the south. Russian aerial bombardment could result in loss of control and encirclement of the JF rebels. Hence, the likelihood of a dilemma for the US coalition in the war against ISIS with a NATO ally determined to bar any Assad-SDF linkup closing off the current open border with Turkey.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish Civil Servants to Have Time Off for Friday Prayers: PM

The Islamic-rooted government of Turkey will give civil servants time off work to attend the weekly Friday prayers in mosques, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Tuesday.

“We are working on a regulation that will allow the Friday lunch breaks to be used in a way that will not hinder the freedom of worship,” Davutoglu told lawmakers of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“After that, every Friday will be a (religious) celebration” he said…

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

Hackers Caused a Blackout for the First Time, Researchers Say

Hackers caused a power outage in Ukraine during holiday season, researchers say, signalling a potentially troubling new escalation in digital attacks.

“This is the first incident we know of where an attack caused a blackout,” said John Hultquist, head of iSIGHT Partner’s cyberespionage intelligence practice. “It’s always been the scenario we’ve been worried about for years because it has ramifications across broad sectors.”

Half of the homes in Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk region were left without power for several hours on December 23rd, according to a local report that attributed the blackout to a virus that disconnected electrical substations from the grid. Researchers at iSight on Monday said their analysis of malware found on the systems of at least three regional electrical operators confirmed that a “destructive” cyberattack led to the power outage.

Electrical outages can lead to ripple effects that leave communities struggling with things like transportation and communication, according to security experts who have long warned about the potential for cyberattacks on the power grid.

In this case, the attackers used a kind of malware that wiped files off computer systems, shutting them down and resulting in the blackout, Hultquist said. At least one of the power systems was also infected with a type of malware known as BlackEnergy. A similar combination was used against some Ukrainian media organizations during local elections last year, he said.

A blog post from cybersecurity company ESET also reported that BlackEnergy malware helped deliver the destructive component “in attacks against Ukrainian news media companies and against the electrical power industry.”…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Over 300 Firms With Chinese Investment Operate in Russia’s Khabarovsk

More than 300 enterprises with Chinese investment are operating in the Russian Far Eastern Khabarovsk Territory.

KHABAROVSK (Sputnik) — More than 300 enterprises with Chinese investment are operating in the Russian Far Eastern Khabarovsk Territory, totalling 45 percent of foreign investment, the local government said.

“The total number of companies with Chinese investment among all enterprises with foreign investments exceeds 45 percent. Over 300 enterprises with investment from China are operating in the Territory,” the Khabarovsk Territory government said Saturday.

Chinese business is investing in trade, catering, construction, wood processing and exploration work, it specified.

The stated total amount of Chinese investment into joint projects in Khabarovsk is 1.2 billion rubles ($16.5 million at current exchange rates).

Among the newer plans is a joint multi-company cooperation agreement signed last fall to construct an assembly plant for a Chinese heavy duty Howo truck at the Komsomolsk territory of priority social and economic development.

China’s investment activity in Khabarovsk Territory has increased with Moscow’s pursuit of its Far East development policy, the local government notes.

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

South China Sea: Vietnamese Fishermen Attacked by Chinese Ships

In 2015 tens of thousands of fishermen have been victims of the “red empire”. Beijing’s navy threaten and sink vessels. Hanoi slams an “inhuman and aggressive” attitude. The last incident occurred on January 1. Beijing pursues “imperialist” policy in spite of the protests of Vietnam and the Philippines.

Hanoi (AsiaNews) — “In 2015, in a single year, tens of thousands of fishing families have been victim ‘red empire’ attacked by para-military vessels flying the flag of China. They have threatened and used violence against Vietnamese fishermen. They have an inhuman and aggressive attitude within the territorial waters of Vietnam”, denounce associations and groups of fishermen to AsiaNews. They complain of ongoing violence and abuse at the hands of ships, boats and vessels registered to Beijing, which ply the waters of the South China Sea.

The Chinese government wants to control this disputed territory, — to the detriment of Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations in the region — for its exclusive economic and commercial use.

The last case dates back to the first day of 2016, when the Vietnamese vessel NGQ TS 98459, based in Quang Ngãi province was hit and sunk by a vessel flying the Chinese flag. The incident occurred near the CO Island, less than 40 miles (70 km) from the Vietnamese coast.

Mr. Huᔳnh Thạch, captain and owner of the boat, said that “suddenly my vessel was struck and flanked by a ship flying China’s colors. The collision injured several fishermen who were swept into the sea. The captain added that the Chinese ship “hit our vessel a second time, to ensure that it would sink”.

“After the impact — he concludes- two people aboard the Chinese vessel we have looked at us and pointed to our boat as it sank”.

Some local fishermen adding that today” people are afraid to sail the waters of the central provinces of Vietnam, “for fear of attacks from China. This is why we are appealing to the government in Hanoi, to protect our workers who operate across national borders”.

At the center of the dispute is control of the Fiery Corss Reef, in the Spratly Islands, where last July China built an artificial atoll; an area of 2.74 km2, the result of a project that has cost the coffers of Beijing at least $ 12 billion.

China also built on the atoll 9 port bridges, two helipads, 10 antennas for satellite communications and military radar stations. Finally, Beijing built an airstrip over 3 km long and 60 meters wide, which allows take-off and landing for strategic bombers over the Spratly, from which Beijing can control the airspace of the western Pacific.

This test landing has infuriated Vietnam and the Philippines who have both lodged formal complaints. However, the grievances of Hanoi and Manila have had no practical effect to China, which pursues its “imperialist” policy in the region.

The Chinese government claims most of the sea (almost 85 per cent), including sovereignty over the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands, in opposition to Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia. The Philippines — which is seeking a non-binding international ruling at the UN court — together with Vietnam, is increasingly worried about Beijing’s imperialism in the South China and East China seas.

For the United States, which backs the claims of Southeast Asia nations, Beijing’s so-called ‘cow tongue’ line — which covers 80% of the 3.5 km2 — is both “illegal” and “irrational”.

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

Barack Obama is Importing War Into America

Look at Europe. The first and most obvious thing we see is the increase in Muslim terrorism, whether successful or stifled before it could take place, often being committed by Muslim “refugees.” At least two of the perpetrators of the Paris bombings and mass shootings back in November had Syrian passports and had been processed through Greece as refugees. Other Muslims have plotted attacks in Belgium, in Holland, in France, and elsewhere where they’ve been allowed to settle in large numbers.

But the overt terrorism isn’t all that Europe is suffering. Muslim “refugees” have been perpetrating a “rape jihad” all across Europe, and especially in Germany and Scandinavia, which culminated this past New Year’s Eve in a mass sexual assault in Cologne, Germany, that involved over a thousand “refugees.” Norwegian police recently declared Oslo (the capital) to be “lost.” German police recently admitted to losing control of immigrant neighborhoods. Even as useful idiots push a petition to ban Donald Trump from the UK, British police have had to admit that Trump was actually right, and there ARE “no-go zones” all across Britain where they’ve lost effective control of their own cities to the Muslims. The head of the Swiss military forces has declared that Europe faces a civil war due to the influx of migrants and the aggression they are bringing with them. Politicians all across Europe—apparently having joined the NRA—are exhorting their people to arm themselves for self-defense. Two known members of an ISIS death squad who were posing as refugees were recently arrested in Finland. Muslims have spread fliers all across Sweden threatening the Swedes to either convert to Islam or die. Muslims have vandalized and burned down church buildings everywhere they went. Muslims all across the continent confidently and publicly proclaim that they’re going to “breed out” the native Europeans and establish a caliphate across the continent.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canada is Proudly Open to All Ethnicities

We are open to others as Erna Paris wrote, but we have the right to demand of others that they accept our values and leave their oppressive repressive ethic behind

Prime Minister Trudeau talked about our generosity to others and his hopes for our embracing a new group of refugees. “After all, we share values of love, hope, and compassion. It’s what we do and it’s who we are.” Yes we are generous. We will be spending 1.2 billion over the next six years to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees. But the Prime Minister has confused feelings with values. We may share love, hope and compassion, but we don’t share the same values with Islam, the belief held by our new refugees. Sharia Law, political Islam, moderate Islam, teaches values, morals and ethics that don’t mesh with ours. There’s no middle ground between an ethic that teaches that all people have equal intrinsic value and considers life itself as sacred, with a system that starts with a hierarchy of human value and promotes the concept of martyrdom. We don’t share the idea that women are second class. We don’t believe in honour killings or the literal interpretation of an eye for an eye, hanging gays, stoning women, the ideal that some people are inherently inferior to others.

According to a 2013 Pew Research Survey, 10% (160 million) Muslims worldwide support religiously motivated violence against civilians in certain situations. 70% of Muslims in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa and 18% of European Muslims believe that Sharia law should be official national law. 230 million Muslims believe that execution is justified for apostasy. 340 million Muslims justify killing women who have extramarital sex. Suicide bombings against non-Muslims are supported by 30% of Muslims aged 18-29, in France, Britain and the US. 280 million Muslims support whippings and cutting off hands as punishment for crimes and 280 million are in favour of stoning unfaithful wives. (The truth about islamophobia)

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Cologne Mass Sexual Assaults Fuel Refugee Tensions in Germany

German leaders expressed shock over dozens of apparently coordinated sexual assaults against women on New Year’s Eve in the western city of Cologne blamed on “Arab-looking men,” but warned against anti-migrant scapegoating.

Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a thorough investigation of the “repugnant” attacks, ranging from groping to at least one reported rape, allegedly committed in a large crowd of revellers during year-end festivities outside the city’s main train station and its famed Gothic cathedral.

Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said she had called Cologne’s mayor, Henriette Reker, to express her “outrage” over the violence, which she said required “a tough response from the state”…

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

Italy Ready to Step Up Controls on Border With Slovenia Amid Refugee Influx

Italy is ready to enhance security along its border with Slovenia amid an increased inflow of refugees to the country from the northeast, local media reported Tuesday, citing government sources.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The number of arrivals to Italy has been growing since European countries, including Sweden and Denmark, closed their borders late last year.

Between 300 and 400 migrants are currently arriving through Slovenia each week, Corriere della Sera newspaper reported. As part of the stricter controls, police would carry out checks along road and rail border crossings into the country, according to the paper.

Europe is currently struggling to cope with a massive migrant crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety and refuge in the stable and wealthy EU states.

On Monday, the Danish government introduced temporary border controls at the country’s border with Germany, after Sweden imposed identity checks on people arriving from the Danish territory earlier in the day. The measures were taken in a bid to control the flows of arriving refugees.

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

Merkel Under Fire on Migrants After New Year Sex Assaults

German Chancellor Angela Merkel came under mounting pressure Wednesday for her welcoming stance toward migrants, which opponents have linked to a shocking rash of apparently coordinated sex attacks in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.

Police in the western city told AFP they have received more than 100 complaints by women reporting assaults ranging from groping to at least one reported rape, allegedly committed in a large crowd of revellers during year-end festivities outside the city’s main train station and its famed Gothic cathedral.

ADVERTISINGVictims blamed men of “Arab or North African” appearance, enflaming a heated public debate about Germany’s ability to cope with the nearly 1.1 million asylum seekers the country took in 2015…

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

Slovakia Sending Police to Help Macedonia

To cope with the influx of migrants

(ANSA-AP) — ANKARA — Slovakia’s prime minister says his country is ready to deploy 25 police officers requested by Macedonia to help the Balkan country cope with the influx of migrants.

Robert Fico said on Tuesday that the officers will be deployed Feb 1. Macedonia, which is not a member of the European Union, is part of the so-called Balkans route that refugees have used on their way to rich Western countries. Slovakia previously sent dozens of police officers to EU member states Hungary and Slovenia to help with the migrant crisis there.

Fico says “radical measures” are necessary to be taken to protect the external border of the EU’s Schengen borderless zone.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Christian Groups Support Muslim Refugees, Ignore Persecuted Christians

According to recently released figures from the State Dept., the United States has let in a miniscule number of Christian refugees from Syria—only 34—during the four years since the Islamic State began its campaign of mass slaughter. Put differently, although Christians amount for 10 percent of Syria’s population—and so should at least be 10 percent of the refugees accepted into the States—only two percent of those accepted are Christians.

This disparity is being ignored by influential U.S. Christian groups. The Church World Service (CWS) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have both called for the resettlement of 100,000 Syrian refugees in the United States next year. Yet advocacy for especially persecuted Christians is lacking among these U.S. Christian organizations.

The CWS, for example, does not even mention the special plight of Christians on its website’s call to help Syrian refugees; it primarily features pictures of Muslims. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops—which touts itself as the world’s largest refugee resettlement organization and even received$80 millionfrom the federal government in 2014 for its Migration Fund—also oftenfailsto mention Christians in its public advocacy for the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

Refugee Resettlement Watch charges that “The Bishops [of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] surely are not telling local priests and parishioners that they are raking in millions of dollars of cold hard cash from federal taxpayers for refugee resettlement activities.And, they aren’t telling them that they are NOT advocating to save the persecuted Christians of Syria through this program” (emphasis in original).

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Another State Rebels Against Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Mandate

In the latest move indicating the U.S. Supreme Court is far out of step with many Americans, lawmakers in South Carolina have proposed a law that would withdraw recognition of “same-sex marriage.”

“I represent the people, and the people have shown several times that they are opposed to this, and are in favor of traditional marriage,” state Rep. Bill Chumley, R-Woodruff, said in a report Tuesday by GoUpstate.com.

He was joined by state Rep. Mike Burns, R-Taylors, in prefiling a bill in the state House, the South Carolina Natural Marriage Defense Act, to “define marriage as between one man and one woman.”

Derek Black, a University of South Carolina law professor, told GoUpstate.com in an email that it’s “the task of the courts to interpret the Constitution and it is the task of legislators to act in accordance with the Constitution and other validly enacted laws.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisian LGBT Rights Group Shams Given 30-Day Suspension

‘Non-compliance with rule-of-law principles’

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JANUARY 5 — The Shams association, which works for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Tunisia and seeks the decriminalization of homosexual activities, has been ordered to suspend its activities for 30 days.

The group made the announcement on its Facebook page.

The vice president of the association, Hedi Sahly — who sought refuge in Paris after receiving death threats for her work in the group — told local media that the suspension was for non-compliance with rule-of-law principles and that the association had been fined on the basis of Article 45 of the law on associations. The official recognition of Shams, the first pro-LGBT association in the country, on May 18 last year had sparked heated debate in Tunisia. Some saw it as progress in the field of the rights of minorities, while the mufti called on the authorities to revoke their decision, since it was “a threat to future generations through the promotion of deviant and perverse behaviors”.

Criticism generally came from the most conservative part of society, such as imams who said it was setting a “dangerous precedent against Islamic teachings”. Shams has made a name for itself in recent months for its defense of citizens sentenced for “homosexuality” and has struggled to get Article 230 of the criminal code abolished, on the basis of which it is considered a crime.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

11 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/6/2016

  1. You mean “and other ‘far-right’ groups”, surely? I listen to most PEGIDA speeches and AfD videos online and haven’t found them to be truly far right at all.

    • I was going to say the same, Guest, but you beat me to it. Merkel, Reker, corporate-owned media outlets, et. al., consider PEGIDA and AfD enemies of the state and therefore censured and incarcerated. But the progressives are imploding as they reach deep into their bag of idiocy to justify genocide against whites. Merkel’s words are now incoherent and rambling and everything must be scripted, while Reker blames the victims for daring to be out in public celebrating the new year. Merkel is being closely watched for mental instability while a movement is underway to recall Reker. Perhaps there is hope.

  2. So… it’s a week since the assaults occurred. No arrests, authorities have “no clue” who did it. Police are saying that there is slight chance that anyone will be actually held responsible.

    I am assuming that it was newish asylum seekers after all. Otherwise, they’d say something. Maybe they’ll eventually fire some fall guy from the police to make up for everything, and that will be it. This is much worse than my cynical predictions would have been.

  3. Yes, they were newly arrived asylum seekers! Most of them, says the police in Köln, according to Die Welt today.

    “POLITIK KÖLNER POLIZISTEN Aktualisiert vor 9 Minuten
    Die meisten waren frisch eingereiste Asylbewerber
    Polizisten dementieren Angaben ihrer Führung, wonach die Täter von Köln unbekannt seien. Die meisten Kontrollierten seien Syrer gewesen. Den Tätern sei es vor allem um “sexuelles Amüsement” gegangen.”

    • Ah. Finally we have leaks. Thank goodness for the whistle blowers.

      Whether or not Europe will be able to do anything in the near future depends on whether there is massive discontent amidst the police and the armed forces, ready to stand on the side of the people.

      Btw, don’t blame Syrians. Most of the “Syrians” aren’t.

      • “Most of the controlled, allegedly, are Syrians”, Die Welt says.

        And, like you are saying, Vera, most of the “Syrians” aren’t. There are just so many layers of lies and PC to work through to get to the facts here.

  4. Islamic sexual harassment, as most of us know, is a tactic of invasion, and they won! No-one arrested. Police clueless. Political elite does nothing.

    What ought to happen is that women should be armed so that the next Muslim invader who tries, gets his sexual organ shot to pieces! That would send a message!

  5. What’s with a government that allows vile lunatics to pass through its borders and attack – in various gross and disgusting ways – the young women of that country?
    And then pretend they didn’t! and forbid anyone else to say they did! We are allowing them to mainline delusion and lies, endlessly. If one keeps burying the truth under
    filthy lies, eventually the truth will disappear and no-one will remember it! O, my beloved Austria – O our once beautiful Europe – what have they done to you?!

  6. Cleaning up refugees from jihadists:

    ‘Seed’ the next civic festival with police women and volunteer female martial arts decoys. Secretely surround the entire area with large numbers of military. Wait till the party gets rolling and the groping begins. Let the military encirclement begin to close. When the sack tightens, close the knot and arrest everyone. Buses are standing by. Put jihadist gropers in busses and deport the whole bunch back to MENA.

    Repeat and rinse after every civic gathering-festival.

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