Canadian officials are concerned that the already massive wildfire in Alberta may double in size. 80,000 people in the Fort McMurray area have been evacuated, and 1,600 buildings have been destroyed. Tar sands oil production in the area has been halted due to the disaster.
In other news, several hundred youths protesting Austrian border controls at the Brenner Pass today threw rocks and smoke bombs at police, who responded with tear gas.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, JD, MC, Upananda Brahmachari, 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.
Greek Communists Protest Pension, Tax Reforms
ATHENS, Greece — More than 20,000 slogan-chanting, pro-communist protesters have taken to the streets of Athens to protest against the left-led government’s pension and tax reform bill, which is being debated in Parliament.
The march, organized by a union affiliated with the Greek Communist Party, ended peacefully in front of the Greek Parliament. It was joined by several farmers who have been protesting the planned reforms for months.
More communist rallies are expected Sunday, the day the reform bill goes to a vote. Protests will take place both in the morning and the evening.
There is no love lost between the governing Radical Left Coalition, known by its acronym Syriza, and the Communist Party, especially since many Syriza leaders, including Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, bolted from the Communist Party in the early 1990s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No Wonder We’re Poorer: Wages’ Share of GDP Has Fallen for 46 Years
The problem is that limiting financialization will implode the system.
The majority of American households feel poorer because they are poorer. Real (i.e. adjusted for inflation) median household income has declined for decades, and income gains are concentrated in the top 5%: Even more devastating, wages’ share of GDP has been declining (with brief interruptions during asset bubbles) for 46 years. That means that as gross domestic product (GDP) has expanded, the gains have flowed to corporate and owners’ profits and to the state, which is delighted to collect higher taxes at every level of government, from property taxes to income taxes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Since 2014 the US Has Added 450,000 Waiters and Bartenders, And No Manufacturing Workers
Behold: “Obama’s recovery.”
With Obama yet again on TV, taking credit for the Fed’s reflation of the stock market as somehow indicative of an economic “recovery” (“fiction peddlers” not allowed in the crowd), here is another way of showing the unprecedented transformation in the US labor pool: since December 2014, the US has added just under 450,000 waiters and bartenders, and no manufacturing workers.
[Comment: People turning to alcohol to drown their depression about the current economic climate. The PLANNED exodus of manufacturing might is part of the globalist takedown of the USA.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Good News for Working ‘Retirees’ — Wal-Mart Reintroduces “The Greeter”
With record numbers of older workers in the workforce, as the beach/sunset/walks-in-the-park vision of retirement crashes on the shores of reality, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel.
After a series of tests on ways to deter theft, Wal-Mart has decided that America’s favorite supercenter position will be making a comeback. This summer, Wal-Mart will be rolling out a program that will bring door greeters back to the entrances in hopes of reducing theft, and improving customer service.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Government Chemist Caught Making Crack in the Lab, Stealing Meth and Cocaine
The implications of her behavior are nothing short of disturbing
As if the futility, destruction, and absurdity of the decades-long war on drugs were not already painfully apparent, a Massachusetts state chemist involved in testing evidence for drug prosecutions was high on a variety of illicit substances, including crack, cocaine, meth, and acid, for most of the nine years she worked for the government, including one year working directly for a police lab.
The chemist was not only high on drugs she stole throughout her tenure — she cooked and consumed crack cocaine at work. Additionally, throughout the years she testified in scores of drug cases, whose verdicts — along with the Drug War itself — have now been called into question.
Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) from 2003 to 2012, switching labs twice throughout the years. She spent most of her time with DPH at a lab in Amherst, but also worked as a chemist for the Massachusetts State Police from 2012 to 2013.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Should You be Worried About Perfluorooctanoic Acid in Drinking Water?
Over the past few months, several communities in upstate New York and New England have detected PFOA — perfluorooctanoic acid, or C8, a chemical linked to a range of health issues from cancer to thyroid disease — in their drinking water.
PFOA is a fluorinated compound that is absorbed into our bodies through inhalation or ingestion. The chemical can then accumulate in our blood serum, kidneys and liver.
The stain-resistant and water-repellant properties of PFOA make it effective in products that act as coatings. Common consumer products with PFOA include Scotchgard, Gore-Tex and Teflon.
The qualities that make PFOA effective in consumer products also lead to its persistence in the environment. The chemical has been detected in the serum of the general US population and throughout the home and workplace.
A growing number of communities near industries or military bases that used PFOA have confirmed that their drinking water has been contaminated. What does the science say about the potential health effects of PFOA exposure?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Perpetually Re-elected Progressive Elite, the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream media, and their pet poodle pundits make fun of Trump by calling him a “Reality TV Star.” They just don’t get it. Half the country wishes they were reality TV Stars. They say he is brash, uncouth, and disrespectful to the army of political hacks he has been confronting and will continue to confront. They just don’t get it. People want someone who will stand up for the Country Party in the face of the Government Party that has controlled both major parties for so long.
The list of disconnects between the imperial rulers in Chicago-on-the-Potomac and the great unwashed out here in fly-over country is massive. It is easily more than enough to define a complete breakdown in the social contract of a limited government. A social contract forged in the Declaration of Independence and enshrined in the Constitution which defines the legitimacy of the current regime.
The Progressive megaphones tell us this is the strongest economy in American History and that President Obama is the greatest chief executive of modern times. They even fantasize about the “Obama Boom.” Working people laugh when you try to sell them this obvious propaganda. The government tells us that we have reached full employment. Anyone who reads should know that over ninety-three million able bodied Americans no longer work and only a little over 150 million are working. Yet the government tells us there is 5% unemployment when the numbers say it is closer to 40%. Our leaders tell us there is no inflation no matter how many trillions of fiat dollars they print, and all of us who shop for our own food, buy our own clothes, or pay utility bills know otherwise…
They tell us and they tell us and they tell us, we just don’t believe them anymore.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Accuses Bush, Graham of Breaking GOP Loyalty Pledge
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump on Saturday accused former primary rivals Jeb Bush and Sen. Lindsey Graham of breaking a candidates’ pledge to the party’s eventual nominee.
“Jeb Bush isn’t an honorable person. Lindsey Graham isn’t an honorable person,” Trump said at a rally in Spokane, Washington, ahead of the state’s May 24 primary.
All 17 major GOP presidential candidates in September 2015 purportedly signed the loyalty pledge, which was issued by the Republican National Committee and also committed the signees to not running as an independent or write-in candidate, or supporting a candidate from another party.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Officials Fear Massive Canada Wildfire Could Double in Size
Canadian officials fear a massive wildfire could double in size by the end of Saturday as they continue to evacuate residents of fire-ravaged Fort McMurray from work camps north of Alberta’s oil sands city.
Thousands more displaced residents will get a sobering drive-by view of their burned out city as convoys continue Saturday.
Police and military will oversee another procession of hundreds of vehicles, and the mass airlift of evacuees will also resume. A day after 8,000 people were flown out, authorities said 5,500 more were expected to be evacuated by the end of Friday and another 4,000 on Saturday.
More than 80,000 people have left Fort McMurray in the heart of Canada’ oil sands, where the fire has torched 1,600 homes and other buildings. The mass evacuation forced as much as a quarter of Canada’s oil output offline and is expected to impact a country already hurt by a dramatic fall in the price of oil.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Warns Against Hofer Victory
European Parliament President Martin Schulz has issued an official warning against Austria if it dares to elect the Freedom Party’s (FPÖ) Norbert Hofer on May 22.
Opinion polls show Hofer and his opponent, the Green-communist party’s Alexander Van der Bellen, at 50 percent each in the race.
Schulz, a veteran Socialist Party of Germany (SPD) politician, said that “Europe’s character will be changed if the extremist right wins the elections in Austria.”
Speaking during a radio interview with the Italian channel RAI 3, Schulz called on all those who oppose Hofer to “mobilize” against him-a blatant attempt at interference in the Austrian political process.
[Comment: Threats and intimidation by the EU to nation states not to elect anti-EU governments. These globalists really are economic thugs. “How dare the cattle try to stop the glorious world socialist power!” What’s next? A horse’s head in Norbert Hofer’s bed? (Reference to the movie about the mafia “The Godfather”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
London’s New Muslim Mayor Defended Al-Qaeda Member
The revelations about Khan’s ties to jihadis and Islamic supremacists did not stop him from being elected. This is the New Britain, and much, much more is to come as it continues on its merry journey of appeasement of Islamic supremacists, on it way to becoming a Sharia state.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Prime Ministers Listen Too Much to Voters, Complains EU’s Juncker
Prime Ministers must stop listening so much to their voters and instead act as “full time Europeans”, according to Jean-Claude Juncker.
Elected leaders are making life “difficult” because they spend too much time thinking about what they can get out of EU and kowtowing to public opinion, rather than working on “historic” projects such as the Euro, he said.
The president of the European Commission ridiculed British leaders for acting on “national reflexes” and telling voters they had successfully defended the country’s national interest in post-summit press conferences, rather than “speaking over Europe in the proper way”.
He said: “I remember the highly exciting period when we were preparing the Maastricht treaty, and step by step we were moving in the direction of the single currency… It was a shared sentiment of foreign ministers and Prime Ministers that we were in charge of a big piece of history. This has totally gone.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sadiq Khan: Global Figures and Media React to London Mayoral Victory
Labour’s Sadiq Khan has been elected Mayor of London, becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor.
The news has prompted headlines around the world, and Politicians and city leaders have taken to Twitter to congratulate him, including the left-leaning mayors of New York and Paris.
A commentary in German news magazine Der Spiegel describes Mr Khan’s win as a “victory over Islamophobia”, and says London is breaking new ground. “The mayoral election shows that London is more liberal, clever and tolerant than the Conservative mudslingers would like to think,” it says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-CIA Officer: US Knows Syrian Rebels Cover for Al-Nusra Front
The US government is fully aware that the allegedly moderate opposition in Syria is working closely with the al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of the al-Qaeda terror group, but publicly pretends the two groups are separate, former CIA counterterrorism officer Philip Giraldi told Sputnik.”The so-called moderate rebels are in cohabitation with the Nusra Front, so this is not surprising,” Giraldi, a former CIA Case Officer and US Army Intelligence Officer who spent 20 years overseas working on terrorism cases, said on Wednesday.
The US government attempted to include the al-Nusra Front in the new ceasefire agreement in Aleppo, but the Russian government insisted on excluding the Islamist organization as unacceptable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Sputnik in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
In reality, the opposition groups supported by Washington in their bid to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, were almost totally under the control of the al-Nusra Front and its masters, al-Qaeda, Giraldi pointed out.
The Obama administration has been well-briefed about the true relationships between the secular bodies and the al-Nusra Front behind them, but it has refused to acknowledge these realities publicly, Giraldi observed.”Indeed, the so-called ‘moderates’ have largely been absorbed by the Nusra Front,” he explained.
“Washington is aware of the relationship, but for political reasons prefers to maintain that the two groups are separate,” he stated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NATO Would Lose a War to Russia Within 36 to 60 Hours
NATO possesses almost no ability to defend Ukraine
The United States-Russia relationship is already in bad shape, and U.S. diplomats are hurting it further by sending conflicting messages about Ukraine’s future relationship with NATO.
First, NATO and Kiev signed a letter of intent in February for cooperation between their special operations forces. Two months later American ambassador and current NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow said it was time to bring the Ukrainian military “in line with NATO standards.” Barely one week later, though, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO ruled out NATO expansion for the “next several years.”
These muddled messages only cause confusion, provoking Russia while potentially false hope for Ukraine. For that reason, it’s time for Washington to make clear that Ukrainian accession to NATO is not on the table. Here’s why.
First, NATO possesses almost no ability to defend Ukraine. Russia has 270,000 troops and 700 jet fighters positioned on Ukraine’s southern and western borders. And as Russia demonstrated in 2015 when it sent 150,000 troops to surround Ukraine, Moscow can quickly mobilize its military in the event of a conflict.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hindu Temple Care-Taker Stabbed by Pro-Jihadi Goons for Denying Ransom in Islamic Bangladesh.
Hindu devotee attached to ISKCON temple stabbed brutally in Satkhira (BD) by Muslim perpetrators for denying ransom of Tk 3 Lakh
Gopaldas Prabhu |HENB | Satkhira | May 6, 2016:: A Hindu devotee of a local ISKCON unit and being its care-taker of the fisheries and orchard within the temple complex, was injured in an attack by some Muslim miscreants for refusing to pay ransom at Kamalkati-Shalkhali village in Ashashuni upazila in Satkhira district in Bangladesh in early Friday.
Samiran Sarkar, brother of the victim, said that the miscreants swooped on Pankaj Sarkar, 57, who was then sleeping in a room adjacent to Shyamsundar ISKCON Temple.
The miscreants thrown Pankaj out of his bed and finally stabbed him in the head twice with a machetes leaving him injured in a pool of blood.
Miscreants led by notorious Ziaur Rahman alias Afgan Zia carried out the attack after failing to realize Tk 3 lakh (US $ 3830.00) ransom from Pankaj which they had demanded from him three months ago, alleged Samiran. The Muslim miscreants put Pankaj under a pressure for the ransom for last three-four days.
Later, Pankaj was rushed to Ashashuni Upazila Health Complex and his condition is believed to be critical.
On the basis of a diary made by Palash Sarkar, son of Pankaj Sarkar, a Police case being No.14 dated 06.05.2016 under section 143/447/323/326/307/385 of penal code has been initiated in Ashashuni PS against the perpetrator Ziaur Rahman and his gang.
Munshi Asaduzzaman, officer-in-charge of Ashashuni Police Station, said police is investigating the incident to nab the perpetrators.
…
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
‘Solar Kids’ Become Paralyzed Each Night
Pakistan brothers, aged 9 and 13, are normal active children during day
(WVIT) The two brothers have come to be known as the “solar kids” and their case has completely mystified Pakistani doctors.
Ages 9 and 13, the boys are normal active children during the day. But once the sun goes down, they both lapse into a vegetative state — unable to move or talk. Javed Akram, a professor of medicine at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had no idea what was causing the symptoms.
“We took this case as a challenge. Our doctors are doing medical tests to determine why these kids remain active in the day but cannot open their eyes, why they cannot talk or eat when sun goes down,” he said, as he visited the pair at his hospital.
[Commenter RLJPE: “What is the problem with a few defective genes, caused by Muslim inbreeding brought about by the marriage of first-cousins. This practice, which has been prohibited in the Judeo-Christian tradition since the days of Moses, was sanctioned by Muhammad and has been going on now for 50 generations (1,400 years) in the Muslim world. This practice of inbreeding will never go away in the Muslim world, since Muhammad is the ultimate example and authority on all matters, including marriage. The massive inbreeding in Muslim culture may well have done virtually irreversible damage to the Muslim gene pool, including extensive damage to its intelligence, sanity, and health. Close to half of all Muslims in the world are inbred. In Pakistan , the numbers approach 70%.”]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pelosi, Vicente Fox Plot to Defeat Trump, Mexican Calls Trump Voters Lazy Drunks
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox also said that he is “becoming a fan of” Clinton, who he compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Latin America’s toughest critic of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spent 30 minutes with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in Mexico this week plotting to help the Democrats defeat the businessman and give the presidency to Hillary Clinton.
In an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner Friday, former Mexican President Vicente Fox also said that he is “becoming a fan of” Clinton, who he compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and he disparaged Trump supporters as lazy, uneducated, TV watching drunks.
He complained that that Mexico buys billions of dollars of items from the United States that create 10 million American jobs, but Trump supporters still “don’t respect us.”
He added, “We need to wake up that citizen. We need them to take them away from the TV and drinking beer, to working hard, to getting the skills, to getting knowledge, and they will come along, like everybody else.”
[Comment: Margaret Thatcher…really?…such bold faced lies…Communist globalists of a feather flock together. take a look at the trade deficit with Mexico before NAFTA and compare it to the trade deficit now.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
40% of Residents Born Outside UK
Islam taking over UK
In London the religion of the Labour candidate for the city’s mayor became an issue only when his Conservative opponent made it one, by attempting to link his rival to Islamist extremism in a campaign criticised as divisive and racist.
Abroad, however, it seems the faith and family background of Sadiq Khan is seen through a somewhat different prism: in much foreign media coverage of the elections, it was overwhelmingly more important than his politics.
“Sadiq Khan likely to become the first Muslim mayor of London”, was the headline in France’s leading left leaning news weekly L’Obs. The country’s largest commercial broadcaster, TF1, went for: “Sadiq Khan: Muslim, immigrant’s son, self-made man — and future mayor”? The Metronews freesheet went further, saying a Khan victory would make the Tooting MP “the first Muslim mayor of a European capital.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Police Tell Blonde Victim of Muslim Migrant Assault to Dye Her Hair
A student attacked by a gang of four men has accused police of blaming her because she had blonde hair and sexy clothing.
The incident happened when the young woman, identified only by her first name Sabina, who lives in the capital Vienna had been waiting for a train on the S6 line at the city’s main Westbahnhof station.
The 20-year-old, who was hospitalised after the attack by four men in which she was beaten and robbed, told Heute newspaper: “I felt so helpless.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Afghans Endure ‘Jungle’ Squalor in Hope of Better Life
A lilting Afghan melody wafts from a makeshift bakery on the muddy lane snaking through the shanty town in the French port city of Calais.
“Go on your journey and be assured,” is its comforting refrain. Carried with the inviting aroma of freshly baked naan bread, it transports you momentarily to Afghanistan.
But Afghans drawn to this corner of the squalid camp they call “the Jungle” are exhausted and anxious on the last leg of a dangerous journey to Britain, which lies across the Channel. For some, it is the second time round.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds Protest Again at Brenner Pass Checks
Several hundred young protesters clashed with Italian anti-riot police Saturday near the Austrian-Italian border during a demonstration against Vienna’s proposed anti-migrant measures.
The protesters, who briefly occupied the small train station at the Brenner Pass, were confronted by police as they tried to cross the border from Italy into Austria.
Some threw stones and smoke bombs at police who responded with tear gas, an AFP photographer at the scene reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Austria Border Controls Would be ‘Political Catastrophe’
Austria imposing controls on its border with Italy would be a “political catastrophe” for Europe, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Saturday.
Vienna is threatening to resume checks on the Brenner Pass between the two countries as part of a package of anti-migrant measures if Italy does not do more to reduce the number of new arrivals heading to Austria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kenyan Invader Murder in Vienna
Austrian police in Vienna have held a crisis meeting to discuss “foreigner criminality” after a nonwhite invader from Kenya beat a white woman to death with an iron bar this week.
The nonwhite criminal, aged 21, had been resident in Austria for the past eight years and despite an extensive criminal record, had never been deported.
The victim, identified as 54-year-old Maria E., as attacked for no discernible reason by the nonwhite with an iron bar as she was walking along Vienna’s Brunnenmarkt on her way to work as a cleaning lady at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
A 41-year-old colleague of the woman who had been with her at the time of the attack managed to hide behind a market stall and call police.
She later told police that when they saw the man up ahead holding the meter long iron bar they crossed to the other side of the street but the attacker suddenly jumped out from between two market stalls and immediately started brutally attacking the 54-year-old.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Arrivals in Italy Top 30,000 for 2016: Navy
Italy’s coastguard has coordinated the rescue of another 1,800 migrants, lifting the total plucked from stricken boats since the start of 2016 to more than 30,000, the navy announced on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yonatan Jakubowicz, a senior official at the Israeli Immigration Policy Center, said the event highlights the close ties most Eritreans maintain with their home country, and dispels claims that they are asylum seekers who fled to Israel out of concerns for their safety. Jakubowicz noted that most Eritrean citizens living in Israel even paid a 2% income tax to the Eritrean government, in return for certain services.
“It’s time to end this bluff once and for all that the illegal immigrants from Eritrea are asylum seekers. The overwhelming majority of them are migrant workers who keep close ties with their families and native country, and even participate actively by the thousands in events organized by their home country’s embassy,” said Jakubowicz. […]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Evolutionary “Out of Africa” Theory Gets DNA Jolt
The evolutionary “out of Africa” theory-which holds that humans evolved in Africa and split off on different evolutionary paths as they migrated away from that continent-has been given yet another jolt by new DNA studies which have called the dating behind the belief into question.
The new development involves measurements of the rate at which children show DNA changes not seen in their parents-the so-called “mutation rate”-which have challenged the established view about major dates in the human evolutionary theory.
These changes have forced geneticists to “think again about key dates in human evolution,” according to a new study issued by researchers at the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, published in the latest edition of Current Biology.
The team, led by Johannes Krause from Tübingen University, was able to reconstruct more than ten mitochondrial genomes (mtDNAs) from modern humans from Eurasia that span 40,000 years of prehistory.
The samples include some of the oldest modern human fossils from Europe such as the triple burial from Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic, as well as the oldest modern human skeletons found in Germany from the site of Oberkassel close to Bonn.
The researchers show that pre-ice age hunter-gatherers from Europe carry mtDNA that is related to that seen in post-ice age modern humans such as the Oberkassel fossils.
This suggests that there was population continuity throughout the last major glaciation event in Europe around 20,000 years ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It would be very nice of you if you included the story that Russia is offering land to foreigners in its far east. I only hope Afrikaners take note.
http://newobserveronline.com/russia-offers-free-land-foreigners/
I think we all know now, as you have posted this at least 3 times. Why don’t you get in touch with an Afrikaner organisation yourself – I’m sure you can find details on the internet?
I understand where migrants can find rocks, but where do they get smoke bombs? Especially while they are still on the move. I wonder who is providing them.
Smoke bombs, guns, ammo, chemical explosives and much more are entering porous borders and secreted in safe houses. These are then transported locally in backpacks and distributed. After planning and logistics are worked out a signal is given and Europe erupts in flames. This is a tried-and-true formula. Just don’t be there when it happens.
*** disparaged Trump supporters as lazy, uneducated, TV watching drunks ***
This is a filthy lie. I do not watch TV.