A wildfire that broke out in Fort McMurray, Alberta at the beginning of the week has now grown into an inferno. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, and some have had to be evacuated from their emergency housing as the fire expanded even further.
In other news, the government of United Arab Emirates is considering building an artificial mountain in order to change the local climate and bring more rainfall to what is otherwise an extremely dry region.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, Fjordman, JD, JTJ, KS, 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.
German ESMT Study: 5% of Bailout Money Went to Greece’s State & People, 95% Went to European Banks
We have been knowing this and there have been reports in the past: that the majority of bailout money went -and still goes- to banks and the lenders and not to the Greek state or people. The bailouts were supposed to get Greece back on its feet — only that Greece was forced to stand on lenders’ feet who claimed the money who gave to Greece right away and thus with juicy interest rates. What was obvious to anyone adding together the bailout tranche of the first now bailout loans, is now confirmed by a detailed study conducted by the Berlin-based European School of Management and Technology.
According to German economic news daily Handelsblatt that has obtained a copy of the study exclusively:
The aid programs were badly designed by Greece’s lenders, the European Central Bank, the Europe Union and the International Monetary Fund. Their priority, the report says, was to save not the Greek people, but its banks and private creditors.
After six years of ongoing bailouts amounting to more than ‚¬220 billion, or $253 billion in loans, Greece just cannot get out of crisis mode.
This accusation has been around for a long time. But now, for the first time, the Berlin-based ESMT has compiled a detailed calculation over 24 pages. Their economists looked at every individual loan instalment and examined where the money from the first two aid packages, amounting to €215.9 billion, actually went. Researchers found that only €9.7 billion, or less than 5 percent of the total, ended up in the Greek state budget, where it could benefit citizens directly. The rest was used to service old debts and interest payments.
The report comes as the European Union and the Greek government prepare to hold negotiations about further debt relief. E.U. Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said he hoped all sides could reach an agreement at a special meeting of the Eurogroup of euro-zone finance ministers next Monday. Extensions of credit repayment periods, deferments and freezing interest rates are all being discussed. This “debt relief light” would not affect private investors — just the loans from Europeans.
At the moment, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her colleagues are not inclined to listen to the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, as he asks for a new multi-billion euro aid package. It is easy to understand why. The chancellor must feel she has seen it all before. She has experienced many near state bankruptcies since early 2010 when she put together the first bailout for Greece. (Handelsblatt)
“With these aid packages, especially the European banks were rescued, “ ESMT President Jörg Rocholl told Handelsblatt. Rocholl belongs also to the Scientific Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry of Finance. “With €86.9 billion euros old debts were paid, €52.3 billion were spent on interest payments and €37.3 billion euros were used for the recapitalization of Greek banks.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Janus’s Bill Gross: ‘Helicopter Money’ Is Coming in a Year or So
The next big monetary and fiscal policy move should include an airdrop of “money from helicopters” to stimulate the U.S. economy and avoid an extended recession, says Bill Gross, a portfolio manager at Janus Capital Group Inc (JNS.N).
Gross may not be entirely serious about “helicopter money,” but in his latest Investment Outlook note published Wednesday, he said the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury should engage in another round of quantitative easing (QE), printing trillions of dollars to buy government bonds and thereby boost the economy.
“Drop the money from helicopters,” wrote Gross, manager of the $1.3 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond fund.
“There is a rude end to flying helicopters, but the alternative is an immediate visit to austerity rehab and an extended recession. I suspect politicians and central bankers will choose to fly, instead of die.”
“Helicopter money” is an idea made popular by the American economist Milton Friedman in 1969, when he suggested that dropping money out of helicopters for citizens to pick up was a sure way to restart the economy and effectively fight deflation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rail Traffic Depression: 292 Union Pacific Engines Are Sitting in the Arizona Desert Doing Nothing
We continue to get more evidence that the U.S. economy has entered a major downturn. Just last week, I wrote about how U.S. GDP growth numbers have been declining for three quarters in a row, and previously I wrote about how corporate defaults have surged to their highest level since the last financial crisis. Well, now we are getting some very depressing numbers from the rail industry. As you will see below, U.S. rail traffic was down more than 11 percent from a year ago in April. That is an absolutely catastrophic number, and the U.S. rail industry is feeling an enormous amount of pain right now. This also tells us that “the real economy” is really slowing down, because less stuff is being shipped by rail all over the nation.
One of the economic commentators that I have really come to respect is Wolf Richter of WolfStreet.com. He has a really sharp eye for what is really going on in the economy and in the financial world, and I find myself quoting him more and more as time goes by. If you have not checked out his site yet, I very much encourage you to do so.
On Wednesday, he posted a very alarming article about what is happening to our rail industry. The kinds of numbers that we have been seeing recently are the kinds of numbers that we would expect if an economic depression was starting. The following is an excerpt from that article…
Total US rail traffic in April plunged 11.8% from a year ago, the Association of American Railroads reported today. Carloads of bulk commodities such as coal, oil, grains, and chemicals plummeted 16.1% to 944,339 units.
The coal industry is in a horrible condition and cannot compete with US natural gas at current prices. Coal-fired power plants are being retired. Demand for steam coal is plunging. Major US coal miners — even the largest one — are now bankrupt. So in April, carloads of coal plummeted 40% from the already beaten-down levels a year ago.
Because rail traffic is down so dramatically, many operators have large numbers of engines that are just sitting around collecting dust. In his article, Wolf Richter shared photographs from Google Earth that show some of the 292 Union Pacific engines that are sitting in the middle of the Arizona desert doing absolutely nothing. The following is one of those photographs…
Union Pacific Engines — Google Earth
As Wolf Richter pointed out, it costs a lot of money for these engines to just sit there doing nothing…
These engines are expensive pieces of equipment. When they just sit there, not pulling trains, they become “overcapacity,” and they get very expensive. Then there are engineers and other personnel who suddenly become unproductive. Some of them have already been laid off or are getting laid off.
All over the world, similar numbers are coming in. For example, the Baltic Dry Index fell 30 more points on Wednesday after falling 21 on Tuesday. Global trade is really, really slowing down during the early portion of 2016. What this means on a practical level is that a lot less stuff is being bought, sold and shipped around the planet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge, Wall Street’s Renegade Blog
Colin Lokey, also known as “Tyler Durden,” is breaking the first rule of Fight Club: You do not talk about Fight Club. He’s also breaking the second rule of Fight Club. (See the first rule.)
After more than a year writing for the financial website Zero Hedge under the nom de doom of the cult classic’s anarchic hero, Lokey’s going public. In doing so, he’s answering a question that has bedeviled Wall Street since the site sprang up seven years ago: Just who is Tyler Durden, anyway?
The answer, it turns out, is three people. Following an acrimonious departure this month, in which two-thirds of the trio traded allegations of hypocrisy and mental instability, Lokey, 32, decided to unmask himself and his fellow Durdens.
Lokey said the other two men are Daniel Ivandjiiski, 37, the Bulgarian-born former analyst long reputed to be behind the site, and Tim Backshall, 45, a well-known credit derivatives strategist. (Bloomberg LP competes with Zero Hedge in providing financial news and information.)
In a telephone interview, Ivandjiiski confirmed that the men had been the only Tyler Durdens on the payroll since Lokey came aboard last year, but he criticized his former colleague’s decision to come forward.
He called Lokey’s parting gift a case of sour grapes. Backshall, meanwhile, declined to comment, referring questions to Ivandjiiski…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Koch-Soros Insiders Attempt to Take Over Trump Campaign
A major effort is underway to co-opt the Donald Trump campaign by infiltrating it with Koch brothers/George Soros-linked operatives, inside sources have exclusively told Infowars.com.
Yesterday it was revealed that Steven Mnuchin would become the Trump campaign’s national finance chair. Mnuchin was an Investment Professional with Soros Fund Management LLC and spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs. He also has innumerable other affiliations with establishment financial institutions and corporations.
A press release was posted on the official Trump campaign website today confirming that appointment.
Questions are swirling as to whether the move was engineered by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who himself has close ties with and has worked for the Koch brothers, having overseen the New Hampshire chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the advocacy group founded by the Koch brothers.
Although Lewandowski may not be directly responsible for the infiltration, he could be being used as a dupe by Mnuchin and others as part of a move to either take control of the Trump campaign or contrive a media narrative that Trump has sold out to the establishment.
Any sign that Trump is dispensing with his outsider persona to cozy up to elitists will infuriate the New York billionaire’s base and derail his campaign.
Trump himself was likely unaware of Mnuchin’s background, according to our sources.
The effort to infiltrate the Trump campaign with establishment insiders kicked into high gear shortly after Trump gave his recent foreign policy speech in which he asserted, “We will no longer surrender this country or its people to the false song of globalism.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hacker Claims He Breached Hillary Clinton’s Email Server — ‘It Was Easy’
Romanian hacker Marcel Lehel Lazar, better known as “Guccifer,” was extradited from his native Romania to a detention center in Alexandria, Virginia, last month.
The curiously-timed move was widely assumed to have some connection to the Hillary Clinton email scandal, as Lazar’s exploits are the major reason the American people know about Hillary Clinton’s secret mail system.
Clinton was able to keep her official correspondence hidden from Congress and the Freedom of Information Act, until Guccifer hacked the America Online account of Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal. The former Secretary of State’s “Clintonemail.com” address appeared on some of the stolen Blumenthal emails.
Fox News scored a jailhouse interview with Lazar on Wednesday, and he made the bombshell claim that he did hack into Clinton’s server, which — as the world now knows — contained thousands of classified documents, some at the highest Top Secret level.
“For me, it was easy,” said Lazar. Then he made it less of a boast and more of a slam on Clinton’s weak system security: “Easy for me, for everybody.”
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Lawmaker: It’s Okay to Aim Guns at Cops if They Aim at You First
“I would never, ever point my firearm at anyone, including an officer of the law, unless they pointed their firearm at me,” asserted Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore in an interview with Steve Sebelius of KLAS-8. “Now, once you point your firearm at me, I’m sorry, then it becomes self defense. So, whether you’re a stranger, a bad guy — or an officer — and you point your gun at me; and I have to decide whether it’s my life … well, I choose my life.” Fiore’s obviously explosive statement comes amid her run for the Republican Party nomination for an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
During the interview, she characterized the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), in its overreach, as “nothing more than … a bureaucrat agency of terrorism.” Sebelius queried Fiore on whether she felt Second Amendment protections should allow citizens the right to brandish their firearms at a “duly authorized law enforcement officer who is just out there doing his job.”…
Known for her vehement support of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, Fiore asserted last year college women should arm themselves to prevent or thwart being raped — because everyone has “the right to defend him or herself from sexual assault.”
“If these young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them,” Fiore told theNew York Times. “The sexual assaults that are occurring would go down once these sexual predators get a bullet in the head.”
[Comment: She’s refering to those cases where police invade the wrong house and innocent people are getting killed by police.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Holocaust Study: Medical Errors 3rd Leading Cause of Death in US
The structures of medical propaganda are cracking.
The Washington Post (“ Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States,” May 3) reports on a new Johns Hopkins study. I’ll give you the Post’s explosive quotes and then analyze them.
“… a new study by patient safety researchers provides some context… Their analysis, published in the BMJ on Tuesday [‘ Medical error-the third leading cause of death in the US,’ 03 May 2016], shows that ‘medical errors’ in hospitals and other health care facilities are incredibly common and may now be the third leading cause of death in the United States — claiming 251,000 lives every year, more than respiratory disease, accidents, stroke and Alzheimer’s.”
“Martin Makary, a professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who led the research, said in an interview that the category includes everything from bad doctors to more systemic issues such as communication breakdowns when patients are handed off from one department to another.”
“‘It boils down to people dying from the care that they receive rather than the disease for which they are seeking care,’“ Makary said.
“His calculation of 251,000 deaths [per year] equates to nearly 700 deaths a day — about 9.5 percent of all deaths annually in the United States.”
“Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’ t require reporting of [medical] errors in the data it collects about deaths through billing codes, making it hard to see what’ s going on at the national level.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Paul Ryan Says He’s Not Ready to Support Trump
‘I think what a lot of Republicans want to see is that we have a standard bearer that bears our standards,’ he said.
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday that he cannot currently support Donald Trump, complicating the presumptive nominee’s efforts to unite the Republican Party around him.
“Well, to be perfectly candid with you, I’m just not ready to do that at this point,” Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “I’m not there right now. And I hope to, though, and I want to.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police in Annapolis — an hour’s drive from the heart of government in Washington DC — used a StingRay cell tower simulator in an effort to find the location of a man who had earlier robbed a Pizza Boli employee of 15 chicken wings and three sandwiches. Total worth: $56.77.
In that case, according to the police log, a court order was sought and received but in many other cases across the United States, the technology is being used with minimal oversight, despite the fact it is only supposed to be used in the most serious cases such as terrorism.
StingRay devices work by impersonating cellphone masts, so nearby phones connect to them and automatically hand over their unique ID numbers, allowing investigators to track the handsets and their owners by location…
There are strict restrictions on use of the device because it sucks up information on any mobile phones in the area, raising privacy concerns. It is also capable of effectively shutting down a specific phone, forcing it to be reset, or causing a service blackout in an area.
An outcry over the enormous use of the device by Baltimore City police led to a change in the law that required the cops to get a court order before carrying out surveillance except in extreme circumstances. But even with that law in place, information remains very limited on where and for what the devices are used and what is done with any data gathered.
The lack of a federal law also means that the rules around StingRay use vary widely across the country, with some states, including California, placing strict limitations around it, and others requiring minimal justification from law enforcement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump: Controlled Media is Finished
Donald Trump’s victory in taking the Republican Party nomination from under the noses of the establishment has proved, above all else, that the Internet has finally broken the controlled media’s stranglehold on news and information.
Trump has however been able to punch through the controlled media because of his self-financed campaign, and his ability to use the Internet to speak directly to voters. The US elections of 2016 can in fact, be the first to have been fought and won on the Internet, rather than on the television.
Proof of this is the fact that the anti-Trump faction spent an astonishing $75,723,580 ($75.7 million) on attack TV advertising during the campaign so far, comprising nearly 64,000 ad spots.
That is the figure for broadcast television alone. Anti-Trump ads also ran on cable and satellite television, but the tracking data does not capture that…
All of this had no effect whatsoever, mainly because Trump supporters were drawing their information directly from the source, rather than-as was previously the case-having to rely on the controlled media’s manipulation and distortion of the “news” to form an opinion.
Trump, for example, has 7.92 million followers on Twitter, and 7.3 million followers on Facebook. There have been millions of views of his speeches in YouTube, and an unknown number of hits on his website, which has an astonishing Alexa ranking of 2,679 in the US.
All of this means an incredible reach, which has completely undone the controlled media’s usual tactics of smear or blackout.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Intelligence Officer Sues President Barack Obama Over Legality of ISIS Fight
Who Is Capt. Nathan Michael Smith?
A U.S. Army captain filed a lawsuit against President Barack Obama Wednesday, alleging that Obama does not have the authority from Congress to wage the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. The suit comes after an American serviceman became the third soldier to be killed in Iraq since U.S. troops pulled out from the country in 2011.
Capt. Nathan Michael Smith, an intelligence officer deployed in Kuwait, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Washington. The 28-year-old said he supports the fight against the extremist group on military and moral grounds and considers the militants an “army of butchers,” according to court documents shared by the New York Times. But, the captain also wants the court to tell the president that he needs to ask Congress for a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force.
“Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, when the President introduces United States armed forces into hostilities … he must either get approval from Congress within sixty day to continue the operation, in the form of a declaration of war … [the] President did not get Congress’s approval for his war against ISIS [Islamic State group] in Iraq or Syria … the war is therefore illegal,” Smith’s court documents read.
Smith has urged the court to say that the war against ISIS goes against the War Powers Resolution because the Congress has not declared war or given the president an authorization to fight the militant group.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Alberta Cuts Nearly $15 Million From Wildfire Management Budget
The same day air tankers took to the sky to douse wildfires near Slave Lake, Paul Lane was telling his pilots the grim news that last week’s provincial budget could put them out of work.
Despite coming out of what Lane describes as “the busiest fire season in 25 years,” the provincial government has cut its tanker contracts by $5.1 million, and its base wildfire management budget by a further $9.6 million.
[Comment: Just under a month later, Alberta now has the worst forest fire in recent history. Coincidentally, the destruction of entire neighbourhoods all fits in with the enviro-wacko rewilding agenda — removing the “virulent human expansion settlements”…]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Evacuation as ‘Apocalyptic’ Inferno Engulfs Canadian Tar Sands City
The blaze in Fort McMurray, Alberta, started over the weekend, doubled in size on Monday, and grew into an inferno on Tuesday. It is expected to worsen on Wednesday as strong wind gusts and record high temperatures persist.
“It’s apocalyptic,” John O’Connor, a family physician who has treated patients with health problems in the region related to tar sands pollution, told the National Observer.
[Comment: Watch for refugees to get housing before these Canadian citizens.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Massive Wildfire in Canada Shifts South, Forcing New Evacuations
A massive wildfire raging in the Canadian province of Alberta grew to 210,035 acres in size and officials would like to move south about 25,000 evacuees who had previously fled north. More than 80,000 people have emptied Fort McMurray in the heart of Canada’s oil sands.
The Alberta government said Thursday that more than 1,110 firefighters, 145 helicopters, 138 pieces of heavy equipment and 22 air tankers were fighting a total of 49 wildfires, with seven considered out of control. Chad Morrison with AB Wildfire, manager of wildfire prevention, said the blaze grew rapidly, fueled by gusting winds, and he expected the fire to continue to grow Thursday because of dry conditions but it will be away from the community.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Front National Now Top Choice for French Youth
France’s Front National is now attracting voters of all ages, as a recent poll has revealed the Eurosceptic, anti-immigration party is now the top choice for 18-30 year olds.
With between 27 and 31 per cent of French youth saying they are ready to vote for Marine Le Pen, Le Point notes that the time of the Front National’s widespread demonisation now seems long gone.
Having voted decisively in the country’s 2012 elections for the current head of state, Francois Hollande, Le Monde reports that the latest study, done by Ifop for France’s National Association of Boards for Children and Youth (Anacej), shows young people in France have turned their back on the Socialist Party President.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
David Cameron will put curbing Islamic extremism at the heart of the Queen’s Speech amid concerns about his legacy.
The Prime Minister will introduce an Extremism Bill later this month which will include measures to ban organisations, gag individuals and close down premises used to ‘promote hatred’.
The crackdown will begin with the launch of an independent review of how Sharia courts are operating in Britain, according to the Times.
Home Secretary Theresa May is expected to announce the inquiry in the next fortnight.
It comes after she pledged to investigate claims of a ‘parallel’ justice system following revelations there were 85 Islamic courts dispensing ‘justice’ across the UK.
The review will be followed by the government’s legislative programme — which will include reforms to Britain’s care home and prison systems.
The bill — to be announced on May 18 — will seek to balance the action with a promise of extra help to bring isolated British Muslims into the mainstream…
| — Hat tip: JTJ | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Candidate for Mayor of London Calls Moderate Muslims ‘Uncle Toms’
Sadiq Khan was accused of being unfit to become London’s next mayor after footage emerged of him describing moderate Muslims of being “Uncle Toms”.
Labour is under fresh pressure over its handling of racism and anti-Semitism in the party amid revelations its London mayoral candidate used a racial slur, and criticism from the Chief Rabbi.
Ephraim Mirvis said Labour had a “severe” problem with anti-Semitism that would get worse if the party’s inquiry into the issue was used as “sticking plaster” to placate voters.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn set up an independent investigation into anti-Semitism and other forms of racism within the party as the row over the handling of controversial comments by prominent figures continued to engulf the party…
| — Hat tip: KS | [Return to headlines] |
The gaffe by Barnet Council could provide grounds for a challenge to the result of London Mayor or London Assembly elections after the results are declared tomorrow night.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The website also states that men must grow beards and advises women to cover their faces.
A British Muslim group has told its members that women should not be able to go further than 48 miles without a male chaperone.
Blackburn Muslim Association stipulates that it is ‘not permissible’ for a women to go more than 48 miles, roughly three days walk, without her husband or a close male relative.
The statement is on a question and answer section on the group’s website which offers ‘solutions and answers’ to religious, social or financial matters according to Sharia teaching.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
27 Lawmakers Warn Obama Against Transferring MANPADS to Syrian Rebels
JERUSALEM — On Wednesday, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) and 25 other members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to President Obama stating their opposition to the transfer of man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADs, to the Syrian rebels.
The lawmakers warned MANPAD proliferation to the Syrian rebels would represent a “serious threat to civilian airliners in the region — including Israeli airliners — and across the world.”
The letter was in direct response to a Wall Street Journal article last month reporting on CIA plans to possibly arm moderate Syrian rebels with more advanced weaponry if the truce in Syria continues to deteriorate and full-scale fighting resumes.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Palmyra Hosts Russian Concert After Recapture by Syrian Forces
The Kremlin’s favourite conductor, Valery Gergiev, has performed a triumphal concert in the theatre of Palmyra in Syria, following the complex’s recapture in March by Russia-backed Syrian forces.
Gergiev took to the stage on Thursday, at 5pm Moscow time, with musicians from St Petersburg’s Mariinsky orchestra. The concert was titled With a Prayer from Palmyra: Music Revives the Ancient Walls.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ramadi Photos Show How Iraqi City Has Been Reduced to Rubble After ISIS Left
From the once-thriving Haji Ziad Square to a pool hall and ice cream shops, thousands of buildings have flattened in Ramadi after the eight-month campaign to drive ISIS out of the city.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey PM to Quit, Handing Even More Power to Erdogan: What This Means for Turkey
Yesterday when we reported on the dramatic plunge in the Turkish Lira, which crumbled the most since 2008 on a report that a denied AKP party convention was going to take place, we predicted that this means a resignation of PM Davutoglu, who having been caught in a bitter power struggled with president Erdogan would likely resign, we said “if the convention is confirmed, it means that Turkey is about to be swallowed in yet another bitter political crisis, which will likely result in Erdogan concentrating even more power, unless of course he is stopped which in turn would meat more rioting, more civilian casulties, and even less media freedom to describe one nation’s collapse into a despotic, authoritarian state.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UAE Considers Building a Mountain to Boost Rainfall
The United Arab Emirates is considering an ambitious project to build a mountain that would help boost rainfall in the arid nation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A 16-year-old girl in rural Pakistan was drugged, strangled and burned alive on the orders of village elders for helping a couple elope.
Pakistani police arrested 15 members of a tribal council in in Makol in northwest Pakistan accused ofordering the killing of the teenager — including her mother and brother.
The murder of the girl has been labelled an ‘honour killing’, with her family members present at her ‘trial’ and allegedly supporting her death sentence.
The 16-year-old girl was set on fire last week in the townof Donga Gali, about 30 miles northeast of the capital,Islamabad, on the orders of the council, said district policechief Saeed Wazir.
Police said the honour killing was ordered as punishment forwhat the council deemed irreparable damage to the village’sreputation.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Film Star in French Exile After Death Threats
The feted star of an internationally-acclaimed film, Afghan actress Marina Golbahari, and her husband have been chased from their home to the brink of suicide in a filthy French asylum shelter after she was photographed without a veil.
Fearing for their lives, the couple has kept a low profile since they arrived five months ago for a film festival.
“We never thought of staying,” said her husband Noorullah Azizi. “We hardly packed anything.”
But death threats back home against them and their family, they said, ruled out a return.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Leaders Meet Amid Italy Fears of New Migrant Influx
EU president Donald Tusk travels to Rome on Thursday with fellow EU institution leaders and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for two days of talks likely to focus on next steps in Europe’s migrant crisis.
As the EU braces for more turbulence notably with next month’s “Brexit” referendum in Britain as well as renewed Greek debt talks, Italy is keen to keep the focus on forging a joint plan over migrants.
With over 28,500 migrants arrived since January 1st, Italy has once again become the principal entry via the Mediterranean, after the controversial EU-Turkey deal and the closure of the Balkan route north.
Rome fears that, unlike previously, Italy will be left hosting masses of new arrivals if, for example, Austria mounts stricter controls at the Brenner pass linking Italy through the Alps to northern Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Police Use Tear Gas to Force Migrants From School
Police have used tear gas on protesters and migrants who are occupying a local school in Paris in an effort to remove them.
The Jean-Jaure’s high school in Paris has been occupied by migrants for the past two weeks. Migrants from Yemen, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan have squatted in the school after is was left empty and closed in preparation for renovations. The 300 or so migrants were joined by left wing demonstrators after police had announced they would be evicting the migrants from the school Wednesday reports The Local.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Get Pakistani Chef Amid ‘Bad’ Italian Food Revolt
A Pakistani chef has been brought in to cater for 200 people living at a refugee centre in Emilia-Romagna, after they protested over the poor quality of the Italian food on offer.
The new appointment comes after protests last Wednesday, during which 30 refugees from the Coop Dimora d’Abramo refugee centre in Reggio Emilia occupied their local police headquarters complaining the food they were served was “no good” and “cooked badly”, Il Resto del Carlino reported.
In the wake of the protests, the traditional Italian trattoria which currently prepares the meals, Il Locomotore, has promised to do more to satisfy the refugees’ tastes.
“We’re talking with the reception centre at the moment and will bring in a new Pakistani chef, specialized in African cuisine to cook a meal for the migrants once a week,” Il Locomotore employee Paolo Masetti told Il Resto Del Carlino.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Next Wave: Million More Migrants About to Flood Europe Unless RAF Intervenes
MARCO GIANNANGELI for the Express reports, DAVID Cameron must allow RAF transport aircraft to drop vital aid into Syria, or risk another million refugees leaving the war-torn country bound for Europe, a medical charity has said. Doctors in Syria have asked David Cameron to allow RAF aircrafts to drop the vital aid.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘People Smugglers in British Car’ Shot in Chase in France
Police shot a UK-registered car carrying suspected people smugglers after a chase that crossed from Belgium into France, the state-owned Belga news agency said.
The Audi car carrying four men crashed near Dunkirk in northern France after a reported 200km/h (125mph) chase.
All four were seriously hurt. Two of the men were shot, Belga said.
Soon after the men were stopped, dozens of migrants were found in a lorry in Belgium in a linked operation.
Prosecutors told the agency there was strong evidence the men were involved in a trafficking ring.
France’s La Voix du Nord newspaper said the chase began after a lorry driver in Belgium called police when he saw men trying to help 17 migrants into his lorry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugee Nightmare 2.0 — the EU’s 2nd Migration Tsunami Has Begun
A tidal wave that may be double the size of last year’s deluge.
The migration tsunami that swamped Europe with 1.5 million “refugees” in 2015 is roaring back with a tidal wave that may be double the size of last year’s deluge.
In fact, most citizens of the European Union countries appear to be unaware that their unelected and unaccountable rulers at the European Commission, in their own European Economic Forecast report issued last fall, announced precisely that. That is, they projected (with apparent acceptance and approval) that three million refugees/migrants would arrive in Europe in 2016.
The warming spring/summer weather along the Mediterranean now means calmer seas are returning, which means many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants encamped along Africa’s northern coast, particularly in Jordan and war-wracked Libya, will soon be headed to Greece and Italy on boats.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland Proposes Barbed Wire Fence Along Italian Border
Following on news of an increased presence of the Swiss army at the border with Italy to address a possibly uncontrolled influx of migrants during the summer, a senior official has proposed the construction of a barbed wire fence along the border.
Andreas Glarner, the specialist on asylum policy for the ruling Swiss People’s Party (UDC), has asked local municipalities to stop accepting any further asylum-seekers and proposed the use of barbed wire at the border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Destruction of the Indigenous Peoples of Europe is Not an Accident!
Illegal Muslim refugee trafficking now creating chaos at the Greece-Macedonia border, and the constant flood of boats arriving from Libya, reveal a network that uses structured routes that seem unstoppable as they generate money for the mafia, corrupt politicians and the terrorist organisations involved like ISIS. Meanwhile, much of the migration flood through Libya is of Africans, all pouring in to a Western Europe whose population has already been dramatically transformed by six decades of mass Third World immigration and the relentless promotion of mixed marriages by the mainstream broadcasters and advertising agencies.
This scenario seems to fit perfectly with a now not-so-secret plan of the New World Order known as the Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan for the most anti-human and anti-Christian elite schemes in history: The ‘painless’ but systematic genocide of the native peoples of Europe.
This plan was devised — or at lleast set in motion — by an Austrian diplomat and Freemason named Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894- 1972). The Kalergi family roots can be traced back to Byzantine royalty via Venetian aristocracy. Coudenhove-Kalergi was actually the first proponent of a unified Europe back in the 1920s and for this reason Coudenhove-Kalergi is recognised as the founder of the hugely influential movement for a United Europe…
The Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan becomes evident in 1925 when he writes approvingly in Practical Idealism (Praktischer Idealismus): “The man of the future will be of mixed race. Today’s races and classes will gradually disappear owing to the vanishing of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-Negroid race of the future, similar in its appearance to the Ancient Egyptians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals.”
The crazed anti-white and anti-Christian bigot wrote further that it was the ‘destiny’ of a Jewish ‘master race’ to rule over the resulting mixed and rootless population of his new Europe.
This book is very hard to get a hold of today. In Germany the book is practically censored, although it isn’t present on the official list of books censored by the German government. In 1990, the publishing company, “Independent News,” [Unabhängige Nachrichten], published a summary of the book and contemplated printing it in its entirety, but the government initiated a police search of the premises and the only copy of Praktischer Idealismus was confiscated. The book is not mentioned on the official internet pages of the Pan-European Movement.
Double attack
Coudenhove-Kalergi’s plan for the total destruction of Christian Europe had two pincers. The first — the destruction of the nation-state through the creation of a single European central government — has been pushed forward quite openly, and is well-known and -understood by opponents. The second — the destruction through mass immigration and the promotion of integration and interbreeding — has clearly been promoted just as vigorously by the same elite groups, but as it fits within the United Nations definition of genocide (and is therefore a crime under international law) it is has done under cover.
The two pincers are complimentary: It’s one thing to destroy the nation-states of Europe and replace them with a European super-state, but as long as the peoples who created them remain, there is always the possibility of popular revolt and the overthrow of the new imperium. Once the peoples themselves, however, have been destroyed through a mixture of mass immigration, birth control and abortion, and artificially promoted miscegenation, then the ‘danger’ of a nationalist and traditionalist counter-revolution is gone forever. The mixed and rootless herd of human cattle thus produced can them be ruled over forever by the elite identified by Coudenhove-Kalergi as the proper masters.
[Comment: Individuals cannot stand against a dictatorship. Only groups formed into nations. This is why nationtions are being destroyed with mass migration.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Donald Has a Message for the Former Mexican President
Despite Vicente Fox apologizing to Donald Trump yesterday, the presumptive Republican candidate remained defiant, telling the former Mexican President, “Get your money ready because you’re going to pay for the wall.”…
During an appearance on MSNBC yesterday, Trump reiterated his support for a temporary halt on Muslim immigration, asserting, “They are destroying Europe. I’m not going to let that happen to the United States.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two-Year-Old Honduran Toddler Abandoned by Smugglers in Texas at Border
A two-year-old toddler was found by U.S. Border Patrol agents wandering near the Rio Grande River in Hidalgo, Texas. This is the third time in ten days a toddler or minor has been abandoned by smugglers in this sector.
Border Patrol agents went out to rescue the little boy after discovering him wandering alone, information provided by the Border Patrol to Breitbart Texas revealed. When the agents arrived the boy was with a group of 13 other illegal aliens who had recently crossed the border. The agents took the toddler into custody along with the other 13 individuals.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
‘Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Murdering Scum …’
Over the last week or so, news outlets have reported on aspects of the Obama administration’s attempts to deposit as many foreign criminal and culturally bankrupt miscreants as possible within the borders of the United States. Recently, it was reported that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has withdrawn his state from participation in the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program. As a result, administration officials are working feverishly to execute an end run around Christie’s efforts to ameliorate the effects of the program in that state. Their apparent intent is to claim the federal government has the authority to continue resettling refugees there regardless of what New Jersey has to say.
As chummy as Chris Christie has been with Barack Hussein Obama, he obviously needs to keep his job after failing to stay in the running as a GOP presidential hopeful, and Obama isn’t going to be in office forever — so far as we know. Thus, Christie is probably bowing to internal pressure with regard to this issue.
An April 29 Fox News piece reported that the Obama administration is “bowing to international pressure and pursuing under-the-radar alternatives” toward bringing in more Syrian and other refugees this year. A March 30 “high-level meeting” on Syrian refugees in Geneva, Switzerland, convened by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees saw the U.N. high commissioner calling for countries to pursue “alternative avenues” for refugees, such as student visas, work visas and “expanded family reunification programs.”
Which means that the U.N. high commissioner for refugees is essentially instructing national governments in how to circumvent the will of provincial, state, local governments and their constituencies in relocating hostile, uneducated, unskilled Muslims to Western nations. Some of these transplants will almost certainly be operatives of Islamist terror organizations, as several recent Muslim refugees in Europe proved to be…
It is indisputable that the Obama White House catalyzed widespread instability in the Middle East and parts of Africa, and thus the Muslim invasion of Europe. I have written here and elsewhere on the topic of European and Western elites’ orchestration of the European refugee crisis and their desire to expand this to America for the purpose of coalescing power, neutralizing individual liberties and expanding the global reach of their international socialist cabal.
[Comment: Another good article by Erik Rush. Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
51 Families Sue Over Illinois High School’s Transgender Bathroom Policy
A group of 51 families whose children attend a high school in Illinois filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday, attempting to reverse a policy that allows a transgender student to use girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-specific facilities.
The families are challenging a policy at Township High School District 211 that was mandated by the U.S. Department of Education to accommodate the transgender student, who was born male but identifies as a female.
“It’s an organic group of parents and students who came together and said, ‘We have to do something about this-we can’t just roll over and allow the federal government to force our school to commingle the sexes in locker rooms,’“ said Jeremy Tedesco, a lawyer representing the families.
The suit, which challenges the Education Department’s authority to redefine the term sex in Title IX of U.S. law to include gender identity and to enforce it against schools, is the first of its kind, Tedesco told The Daily Signal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Planned Parenthood Helping Transgender Patients With Sex Changes
Planned Parenthood has found a new niche that could prove nearly as controversial as providing abortions: helping transgendered people through the sex-change process.
In the wake of last summer’s undercover videos that appeared to show Planned Parenthood officials selling baby body parts for money — which is illegal — legislators in several states have looked for ways to deny funding to the women’s health giant.
While Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing, they have stopped accepting reimbursements for providing fetal parts to researchers. However, the gender reassignment process may enable the organization to make up the lost cash by other means.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What Really Drives the LGBT Agenda
In light of the controversy over North Carolina’s “transgender bathroom bill” and the spirited legal activism ostensibly concerning the civil rights of homosexuals over the past few years, many wonder why there is such a high degree of concern over these issues, given that this faction represents less than 4 percent of the population in America.
Particularly in the case of the new North Carolina law — the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act — which prevents individuals who identify as “transgender” (excluding post-operative transsexuals) from using public restrooms based on their preferred gender identity of the week, the blowback has been puzzling.
It might be expected that someone like rock icon Bruce Springsteen (Sorry, fans; he’s always been a no-talent bum in my estimation, but I established myself as a musical snob long ago) might do something like peremptorily canceling his band’s tour date in Greensboro, North Carolina, in solidarity with the LGBT community, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also found it necessary to issue bans on nonessential government travel to North Carolina to protest the law — which, by the way, is being universally referenced as an “anti-LGBT measure” by the establishment press. Forget the fact that a key argument for the law was to keep pedophiles and sexual predators (i.e., “counterfeit transgenderites”) out of the wrong public restrooms.
So, why is the political left so concerned about the supposed rights of homosexuals, transvestites and assorted sexual deviants?
Well, here’s why — and it’s quite simple: Leaders on the left are aware that a socialist state must be the sole arbiter of morality. It must be able to decree absolutely anything and establish any social convention it deems appropriate, including that which many in any given social order would consider profoundly amoral or primally repellant.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It’s been so hot and dry in the first few days of May in Alberta and Saskatchewan that a fire like what is happening now comes as no surprise. There’s a lot of brave people fighting it with all they’ve got. Saskatchewan is sending help to Fort Mac. It galled me to see Fox News report on this and run a clip of Trudeau offering a few words.Just because it’s “up there in Canada” I guess. Trudeau is on record as hating anything Albertan.He’s a snob. If there’s no chance for a selfie then he’s not interested. Especially if it’s West of Winnipeg. The Alberta government are socialists ,too many who would rather see the end of oil. The only one close by with any genuine concern is Brad Wall,premier of Saskatchewan. Albertan’s would rather he was running the government in Alberta.It is the start of a tough Summer ,but Fort Mac will eventually rebuild. That’s the Canadian spirit that no government can dispute !
Right, right and right! Brad Wall, the best premier in Canada. Trudeau will I’m sure turn out to be just as bad as P.E.T., only in a different way.
One could say Albertans brought it on themselves, voting in Notley; just goes to show, one should think well before voting. And they voted in a moslem mayor in Calgary, (even before London!) and re-elected him; is there something in the Alberta water?
Fort Mac will rebuild, but slowly, because of the Notley effect.
“Switzerland Proposes Barbed Wire Fence Along Italian Border”
The headline of this article is misleading – it was just one politician who proposed it and he already got a lot of heat for that…
*** Gov. Chris Christie has withdrawn his state from participation in the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program. ***
Before Mr. Christie found it expedient to effect this withdrawal for purposes of remaining in office, it suited him just fine for there to be “refugee resettlement” in his state. When “resettlement” (aka “sticking it to your fellow Americans”) is only a problem for others, it’s no problem. When it becomes a problem for him politically, however, then ” resettlement” is the work of Satan.
This whole “unstoppable” immigration issue and the wildly dishonest manipulation of the concept of “refugee” are satanic. Centuries of human experience are being jettisoned by leaders who have cut their ties to their own people and become caricatures of sensible human beings. Like the scientists on Laputa they need periodically to be struck with inflated bladders to recall them from their earnest reveries.
Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission, for example, spouts lunatic ideas about multiculturalism that signal the need for psychiatric intervention or banishment one, all while he has the demeanor and armored self assurance of the fanatic.
“It must be able to decree absolutely anything and establish any social convention it deems appropriate, including that which many in any given social order would consider profoundly amoral or primally repellant.”
Yep, that’s the real point. Get people used to totalitarianism and show them what happens to them should they resist. Next up: forced breeding.
“The United Arab Emirates is considering an ambitious project to build a mountain that would help boost rainfall in the arid nation.”
This is laughable, but I encourage it as it’s less funds available to buy real estate in the West or fund terror and mosque buildings. These joke countries with obscene amounts of money due to the luck of nature, are searching for a reason to exist. I’m sure a glass dome over the Mountain might even enable the creation of a middle east Ski resort. I’ll send the Emir an email.