Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/30/2016

A hairdresser was found dead in her apartment in Sydney, Australia, having been stabbed numerous times. Her Iranian husband has been arrested and charged with her murder. He is alleged to have become angry because his wife converted to Christianity.

In other news, an investigation has been opened in Harrisonburg, Virginia, after it was discovered that almost twenty dead people had registered to vote.

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

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Dean, DV, JD, JP, MM, Nick, Reader from Chicago, 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.

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Retooling the Anti-Nazi Laws

Actual Nazis are thin on the ground now in Germany, so the laws designed to suppress them have been sitting around gathering dust. But now the authorities have found a new use for them: tracking down and prosecuting opponents of mass immigration.

The article below was translated from the Czech by Raduit, who includes this brief note:

This Czech article explains how laws designed to hit the remaining Nazis in the ’60s in Germany are now used against the children and grandchildren of the people who agreed with the truncation of their freedom of speech.

The translated article from the news portal Parlamentní Listy:

Germany comes down hard on opponents of immigration, using a law created after the war to crack down on the Nazis

The historian Aleš Valenta, in co-operation with the Václav Klaus Institute, described on the Czech website Invisible Dog how the Powers That Be in Germany today deal with uncomfortable opinions. They are use a law that was originally directed against the Nazis to settle accounts with people who refuse to support immigration, the rights of sexual minorities, and so on.

During the ’60s of the last century, the Federal Republic of Germany adopted laws against so-called “incitement of the people” — Volksverhetzung. At that time these laws were directed against remaining supporters of Nazism that a democratic Germany had to deal with.

“At present Volksverhetzung has become a tool for suppressing opinions which diverge from the German opinion corridor, which prescribes how to write and talk about migration, women’s equality, sexual minorities, the German past and other ‘sensitive’ topics. The opinion corridor, determined by political correctness, has since the ‘90s steadily shifted to the left, so that now the very concepts of ‘right’ and ‘conservatism’ has escaped from its frame and become suspect in the eyes of the German ruling elites. Therefore the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which in its program subscribes to liberal and conservative values, is also threatened,” writes the historian.

The Alternative for Germany came under the scrutiny of authorities after its former deputy, Wolfgang Gideon, voiced some anti-Semitic remarks. Many of his colleagues identified these statements as unacceptable and left the party. In mid-July, moreover, the police conducted raids across the country on the grounds that hateful voices in debates on the Internet were growing stronger. Based on the legislation against “incitement of the people”, 38 persons were detained. The government also announced that it will focus on disseminating the ideals of democracy among young people.

The historian points out in this context that the Nazis and Communists in the past have followed the same path. They “drummed” the correct ideology into the heads of the young. Capitalism did not need anything like that in the 20th century because it attracted people by the very idea of freedom. Today, however, even under capitalism, freedom is being replaced by ideological doctrine.

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Hamed Abdel-Samad: “Islamism is as Old as Islamic History Itself”

Hamed Abdel-Samad is an Egyptian-German writer, and also an apostate from Islam. He lives under a constant threat of death for his writings about his former religion. In the following video from German TV he engages a Muslima about the violent, murderous tenets of her religion.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

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Police in Malmö at the End of Their Rope

The police in the southern Swedish city of Malmö have reached the limit of their capabilities. Six murders, twenty shootings, and countless carbecues — and that’s just for this year. It’s a small-town police force facing a Chicago-sized crime wave, but with Islam thrown in, it’s even worse.

Many thanks to Tania G. for translating this article from Danish public TV:

After Sunday’s shooting in Malmö, the Malmö police force are now begging the rest of Sweden for help. “We are stretched to the max” says the Police Chief.

After the shooting in Malmö last Sunday, in which a 19-year-old man was shot and killed and another three wounded, local police currently have so many big homicide cases that they are now asking for help from police forces in other parts of Sweden.

Malmö police now have six different homicide investigations from this year alone, at least twenty gunfire episodes since June, and an avalanche of car burnings throughout the summer.

“We simply can’t handle any more. We are quite simply tapped out,” says Malmö’s Police Chief Stefan Sintéus to the paper Sydsvenskan.

According to the paper, the Malmö police already have around twenty people on each of the five earlier homicides, and they have now asked other police jurisdictions for assistance, and that they take over the investigation for the shooting this past Sunday.

One killed, three wounded in car

Sunday’s violent shooting targeted four men in a car, who were shot at by two men with automatic rifles. Around twenty rounds were fired, some of which hit the four men plus nearby apartment.

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Hungary the Model


‘I don’t need therapy — I’d rather move to Hungary’

According to a Hungarian news report, the Dutch government is dealing with the migration crisis by providing young women with what they call “therapy” to prepare them for the (non-negligible) possibility that they may be raped by an immigrant. Advance therapy for rape — isn’t that swell? Close your eyes and think of Holland, girls!

The article below discusses the whimsical T-shirt pictured above, among other aspects of the revolt against multicult in the Netherlands. It’s a reminder that Hungary is leading the resistance against Islamization and mass immigration in Europe. The Hungarian referendum coming up on Sunday (on whether to accept mandatory migrant quotas from the EU) is as significant for the future of Europe as last May’s Brexit vote in the UK.

Hungary deserves the support of immigration-critics throughout the West. It comes highly recommended as a tourist destination, as do the other countries of the Visegrad Group. For those who can’t make the trip, buying Hungarian products is a suitable alternative. Which, needless to say, makes me think of wine.

I consulted with the future Baron, who is a wine expert, and he says that Tokaji, a.k.a. Tokay, is the most well-known Hungarian wine. It’s a sweet white dessert wine, like a sauterne or an ice wine. But he says there are also dry reds, including Egri Bikavér (“bull’s blood from Eger”). From the wiki:

According to legend, the name originates from the invasion of Suleiman the Magnificent around 1552.

“To motivate and support the small group of soldiers during the Siege of Eger castle they were served delicious food and a lot of red wine. Among the Turkish soldiers it was rumored that bull’s blood was mixed into the red wine, as otherwise the strength and firm resistance of the town and castle of Eger could not be explained. Finally the enemy gave up.”

It has been suggested that the term Bikavér was coined by poet János Garay in 1846.

For the non-bibulous among our readers, there are other Hungarian products that may be worth a look. I noticed while browsing the web that most of Hungary’s exports are of technical products — it’s a very high-tech economy. But pork products were on the list. So… wine, pork, and maybe a Magyar agár puppy. How much more Islamophobic can you get?

And now for the Magyar-oriented Dutch girls. Many thanks to CrossWare for translating this article from the Hungarian news portal PestiSrácok.hu:

This is why Dutch girls want to move to Hungary

The Hungarian government’s immigration politics are more popular than the EU’s present policies. In the Netherlands young Dutch girls advertise on T-shirts that they would rather move to Hungary than undergo the preparation therapy organized by the Dutch government for migrant-violence (rape). [Yes you heard it right, they give them preparation for the certain rape and violence rather than protecting them from it — translator]

One of the latest programs in the Netherlands to prepare young girls for unavoidable migrant violence is to provide them preparatory therapy against rape. As a result some girls have begun to wear a T-shirt with the text: “I don’t need therapy — I’d rather move to Hungary” (Ik heb geen therapie nodig — ik moet gewoon naar Hungarije).

[“I don’t need therapy — I’d rather move to Hungary” Photo: Facebook.com]

The reaction of the young girls is not unique, and this shows in the popularity of the right-wing Party for Freedom. They want to ban and deport Muslim migrants, leave the EU — as urged in the election program of Geert Wilders, the leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV). The party leader — who was charged with hate crimes in the past but acquitted — wants to de-Islamize the Netherland and ban the Koran, mosques, Muslim schools and organizations, and close the migrant centers. In his one-page manifesto he also called for a ban on the burqa because it is an Islamic symbol. Based on the latest polls, his party the PVV is the most popular political power in the Netherlands.

They Put the Migrants into Prisons Instead of Apartments

The Netherlands is one of the most popular destination for migrants in Europe. In the last couple of years the Dutch government tightened its migration policies, but it seems like it is not enough. While in 2015 they provided apartments and language courses for migrants, in 2016 they found a solution for what to do with unused prison cells: in the past they had rented them to Belgium and Norway, but now they are using them as migrant accommodations. Of course they rebuilt the prisons, but the thick cell doors and prison grills on the windows are a reminder of the original functions. Based on an Associated Press report, the migrants do not mind the location; they only complain about the food.

The Police Jump if Somebody Posts Something in Social Media

The Dutch government is very sensitive to negative opinions about the migration. A couple of months ago the police knocked at the door of young man who posted something on Twitter. The interesting part was that he had not said anything negative, just asked a simple question about the migration. This is when it came to light that the Dutch Police have a special unit that watches social media, and whoever posts “interesting” content will get a visit from them personally.

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Springtime for Bülent

As reported here earlier, on Monday morning EMISCO (the European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion) sponsored a side event at the OSCE/HDIM conference in Warsaw. It was chaired by Bashy Quraishy, the General Secretary of EMISCO, and featured remarks by Turkish Professor Bülent Şenay, a founding member of EMISCO. It was entitled “The Consequences of Islamophobic Discourse in the European Political Parties”.

A better title would have been “The Bülent ’n’ Bashy Road Show”. The two prominent Islamophobia-phobes acted out different roles in their production. At stage left we see Bashy and the Technicolor Dreamscarf, looking like a revolutionary meld of Che Guevara and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Sitting in stark contrast at center stage is Prof. Bülent, who resembles a college professor with his fashionable goatee and shaggy, tousled hair. In comedic terms, the former is a nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-nyuk Curly, while the latter is a stern and retributive Moe.

All joshing aside, though — there’s a hard edge under that affable college-prof veneer. When you listen to Prof. Şenay in this video, you’ll hear the steel core of Ottoman arrogance. Appearances notwithstanding, a similarity with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is easy to discern. It’s the Turkish variant of Sunni Islamic supremacism.

And it’s a serious, even ominous topic. These men want to criminalize what I say. Not just discourage it, not just write letters to the editor and boycott our sponsors, but criminalize our speech. They want people who say “Islamophobic” things to be arrested, prosecuted, and fined or thrown into prison. Which, incidentally, is currently the norm in Turkey.

And they’re the ones who constantly describe us as “Nazis”.

Bülent Şenay delivered his remarks after the question-and-answer period, thus making sure that his was the final word. He had dismissed questions about the undefined term “Islamophobia” as unimportant — “We all know what it means,” hence “I won’t define it,” and “We must define Islamophobia as a crime.” He spent the rest of his allotted time describing the alarming rise of “Islamophobia”, which is increasing everywhere in Europe. He made a point of telling the audience that he had consulted with all the major European political leaders in Europe, and they agreed with him — “Islamophobia” is a huge problem. When he talked to them about anti-Islamic expressions in the media, they responded that the media are independent, and not under state control. But he had doubts that they were being truthful with him — implying that the “Islamophobia” in European media (does anybody remember seeing any?) is state-orchestrated, and that therefore the state could crack down and eradicate it.

This is what we’re up against in Warsaw. It would all be burlesque theater, just a big laugh, except for the fact that venues like OSCE generate policy papers and action proposals that are uploaded to the United Nations and eventually adopted as legal instruments by the member states. So this is deadly serious stuff.

For more background on Professor Şenay, here are the notes from the video:

The OSCE Council member who responded to Stephen Coughlin’s question is the Turkish diplomat Professor Bülent Şenay, a founding member of the Governing Board of the European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion (EMISCO) and Diplomatic Counselor for Religious and Cultural Affairs at the Turkish Embassy in The Hague from 2008 to 2012. The authority he is afforded can neither be ignored nor underestimated.

Şenay has defined Islamophobes as “cultural terrorists” engaging in “psychological terror” and using such weapons as “film, video, audio cassettes, music, photocopiers, printed words, pictures…”

While he openly recognizes the status of the OIC, the most important data point you must know about Bülent Şenay is that he defines human rights as being subject to Shariah.

A final note — on the display screen in the background you’ll see an enlarged version of this image:

It makes a man quietly proud…

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.

Vehicular Jihad in Vienna

Jihad attacks using cars and trucks are becoming more and more common in Europe. We’ve seen them in the past in France, Britain, Germany, Austria, and probably other countries I’m not remembering. The most notorious such incident so far was the massacre in Nice back in July, which killed more than eighty people.

The latest instance of vehicular jihad occurred in Vienna yesterday. The amazing thing about it is that no one was actually hurt.

Many thanks to JLH for translating this brief report from the Kronen Zeitung:

Terrorist Driver in Vienna: 21-Year-Old Arrested

September 29, 2016

On Thursday in Favoriten (10th District), a 21-year-old man attempted to run down pedestrians with his car. Striking detail: the perpetrator — an Austrian with Turkish roots — is said to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” several times through his open window. He was arrested. On the back seat of his car lay a Koran. The incident is strongly reminiscent of the amok-driving spree by Graz resident Alen R., who was sentenced this evening to life imprisonment, and sent to an institution for the criminally insane.

On the same day as the verdict in the Graz amok trial, another terrorist driver caused fear and horror. Shortly before 11:00 am Thursday, the 21-year-old raced his Peugeot across Quellen Street. “He drove right at the pedestrians, aimed at them,” says the police spokesman, Thomas Keiblinger. According to witnesses, the driver repeatedly shouted “Allahu Akbar.”

A man was in a pedestrian crossing, when the man born in Vienna steered his speeding car at him. A last minute jump to one side saved him. He was uninjured. Two other pedestrians had a nasty shock.

Witnesses called police. Four patrols were finally able to stop and arrest the suspect at the corner of Quellen and Columbus. A Koran lay on the rear seat. As he was being arrested, he shouted Allahu Akbar.

The provincial office for security is investigating charges of intent to cause grievous bodily harm and membership in a terrorist organization. The incident is the cause of headlines in other countries. Among others, the Israeli daily paper “The Jerusalem Post” reported on the terrorist driver in Vienna.

I Understand People Who Deny Reality

The following essay by Henryk Broder discusses the tendency — and even the necessity — for ordinary people to escape to a dream world in these terrifying times.

Many thanks to JLH for translating this op-ed published last month in Die Welt:

I Understand People Who Deny Reality

by Henryk M. Broder
August 8, 2016

The word is, we must get involved with the refugees. All the knife-slashers and axe-swingers, well, they’re just traumatized lone wolves. What do you mean, “must”? Are all our problems now litmus tests?

There are rights that are not guaranteed in any constitution in the world. The right to lie, the right to be cowardly, the right to repress what you don’t want to know.

These types of behavior do not have a good reputation. Even small children learn that they should tell the truth and be courageous. No later than the onset of puberty, when they dream of being in the shoes of Lady Gaga or Justin Timberlake, they are yanked back into reality with pedagogic force, where they are offered part-time employment. Accepting the inevitable counts as courage.

Courage is at a premium, especially in the form of moral or “civil courage.” At least two dozen prizes a year are awarded for civil courage in Germany, The Paul Spiegel Prize for Civil Courage, the Eduard Zimmerman Prize for Civil Courage, the Jena Prize for Civil Courage, the George Leber Prize for Civil Courage, the Prize of the State Capital Wiesbaden for Civil Courage, the Prize of the City of Delmenhorst for Civil Courage, the Civil Courage Prize of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and many more.

A prize for civil courage can also be awarded posthumously, for example to a Munich citizen who was beaten to death by two youths who resented his wanting to stop them from robbing four other youths.

Wolfgang Schäuble paid tribute to the deceased’s actions as “downright exemplary.” He had “truly earned” the honor. Unfortunately, the hero of the day could not participate in the celebration.

And an actress was honored for her stand “against rightist extremism and anti-Semitism, and for the State of Israel’s right to exist.”

“I Can’t Take it Anymore”

Or a TV moderator who walked along with an AfD demonstration and interviewed several participants. It is said that on such occasions, you must not be quiet and go on your way. You must intervene, show the flag. If not, everything stays the same.

Really? Is there some duty to intervene? Do we have to stand in the path of floods, avalanches and vandals and try to stop them? I used to have a very fixed answer to such questions. Yes, we must!

Today, I am a little more relaxed about it. We can, but we don’t have to. I note that I have more and more understanding for people who don’t want to know what is going on around them. Who do not read newspapers, listen to the news, follow neither the “subjects of the day” nor “today’s journal.”

They say: “It’s too much. I can’t take it any more. I have to close myself off or I’ll go crazy.” Of course they are aware of what is going on around them. But hesitantly, and in small doses. At their workplace, with their parents, or on bowling night. Even second hand.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/29/2016

A small boy was gang-raped by four Pakistani teenagers in a migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. The victim is also an immigrant from Pakistan.

In other news, a commuter train failed to slow down this morning when coming into the station in Hoboken, New Jersey. It rammed the barrier at the end, hit a wall and caused part of the station roof to collapse. One person was killed and more than a hundred were injured.

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

Thanks to Dean, Fjordman, JD, Nick, Reader from Chicago, Reader from Indonesia, 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.

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All Eyes Are on Hungary

Other European countries are watching with great interest the migrant quota referendum that will be held next Sunday in Hungary.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for translating this article from the Polish news portal wPolityce.pl:

Correspondence With Hungary

In a week comes the Immigration Referendum, which will be a test for Viktor Orbán

I’m in Budapest. Subject number one in the local media, in political circles and among ordinary Hungarians in the streets is yesterday’s explosion at Oktogon Square. Initially it was said that the explosion in the center of the capital could have been the result of a leaky gas installation. It is now known that this was — as the pyrotechnics experts are claiming — a “homemade bomb.” As a result of the detonation two police officers were injured. So far it is not known who was the perpetrator of the attack. We’re all wondering whether the explosion was related to the referendum, which will take place next week, and whether it might influence the outcome.

In the streets of Budapest and other Hungarian cities everywhere you can see posters declaring that the perpetrators of attacks in Paris or rapes in Cologne were illegal immigrants. It’s a sign that our Hungarian cousins are preparing for the referendum to be held next Sunday, October 2nd. The question that citizens will be answering reads: “Do you want the European Union to be able to order, even without the consent of parliament, the compulsory settlement in Hungary of persons other than Hungarian citizens?”

The referendum will be held at the initiative of the ruling Fidesz party, which cares very much about victory. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that he hoped that Hungarians will forge the sword with which he’ll be able to fight the Eurocrats in Brussels.

There is no doubt that the majority of voters will oppose the compulsory quotas. According to recent surveys, about 80 percent Hungarians support such a result. For the referendum to be valid, more than a half of eligible voters must take part in it. And this is actually the only unknown.

Orbán is of course aware that turnout is his main problem. Therefore, in a recent interview he said that the outcome of the referendum will decide the fate of the country for the next generation. He added that anyone who does not take part in the vote will by his conduct send the message that he isn’t interested in the fate of his own country.

According to recent polls, about 53% of respondents expressed their intention to participate in the referendum. However, this is a small majority, within the limits of statistical error, and does not guarantee success next Sunday.

Hungarian media believe that the reason for the demobilization of the electorate was the recent statement by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. He stated that Brussels is withdrawing its plans to combat the immigration crisis, including the imposition of mandatory quotas on EU member states. If it turns out to be true — according to some Hungarian journalists — a referendum would be pointless. Others say that one declaration by a Brussels dignitary does not mean the final abandonment of earlier plans, but may result in some voters staying at home.

As I was told by Attila Szalai, an employee of the Institute for Research and Archive System Transformation, in the game that Orbán is playing the stakes are high. Victory in the referendum could in fact embolden other forces in the European Union, those opposed to immigration policy in Berlin and Brussels, and it could become the impetus for those forces to act.

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Viktor Orbán: We Must Stop This Compulsory Colonisation!

Next Sunday Hungary will hold a referendum to decide whether the country should accept a migrant resettlement quota imposed by Brussels. The upcoming decision by Hungarian voters may very well define a hinge-point, not just for the future of Hungary, but for all of Europe.

On Tuesday Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was interviewed about the referendum and other matters related to the migration crisis. Many thanks to CrossWare for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

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Forget Hate Speech — Now it’s “Message Crimes”

The Multicultural Left is fond of inventing new terms to describe the behavior of those who oppose them. The goal is to pigeonhole the doubleplus ungood thoughts of their ideological enemies so that they may be more readily punished. “Hate speech” was prominent for a while, to be followed by “micro-aggressions” and “triggers”. And just when you think you’ve got a handle on what the Social Justice Warriors are up to, so that you can argue against it, they come up with a new one.

The most recent addition to the lexicon of leftist grievance is “message crime”, which popped up at this year’s OSCE/HDIM conference in Warsaw. According to the annotated agenda, message crimes constitute

…a rejection of the victim’s identity which can have a marginalizing effect on entire communities. Secondary victimization, where representatives from broader society deny or minimize the seriousness of the incident, can also reinforce and perpetuate this message.

There is no real attempt to define the new term, just a catchphrase-laden description. And consider the terms used to describe these “crimes”: “rejection”, “identity”, “marginalizing”, etc. That is, the characteristics of what is being anathematized are so vague as to make any judgment entirely subjective.

Which is exactly what is wanted, since “message crimes” are thought crimes. Identifying and punishing the “criminals” will be left to the minions of Big Brother — the panels, commissions, and foundations that form the nexus of power in the new UN-based world order. They are the ones who will sit in judgment on all wrongs and make decisions concerning anyone who is unfortunate enough to commit a message crime.

The important word here is crime — just as with “Islamophobia”, the intention is to criminalize certain categories of speech. Since no real definitions are adduced, actionable examples may be chosen arbitrarily and subjectively, and then used against political enemies in a court of law. This is what’s coming soon to the OSCE Region, if the lefties have their way. Germany has already established a working model of this system.

Below is a paper about “message crimes” presented on Monday afternoon in Warsaw by Dave Petteys of the ACT For America 5280 Coalition.

Prevention and Response to Hate Crimes
HDIM Warsaw, Poland Sept 26, 2016
Working session 11

The Annotated Agenda of this OSCE Conference devised a new term: Message Crimes.

What “message” does it send to the citizens of Germany, especially young women, when Government officials and the media ignore and cover up over a thousand rapes in Cologne on New Year’s Eve?

What “message” does it say to the citizens of Rotherham, UK when 20 years of systematic sexual abuse of over a thousand young girls was covered up by local authorities lest they “damage community relations”?[1]

What “message” does it send to citizens when the press either ignored the issue or euphemistically referred to the perpetrators as “Asian gangs” when the whole world knows they were Muslim men?

Certainly covering up for, and making excuses for Islamic groups and failing to hold them accountable only increases their contempt and lack of respect for the rule of law in the OSCE Region. It also leaves us powerless to prevent their imposition of their Shari’a norms on our society.

Rather than enhancing dialogue and understanding with Islamic groups, this appeasement and failure to stand up for Western laws and culture by Western governments will only lead to the eventual annihilation of Western Civilization!

The ACT 5280 Coalition recommends that Western Governments begin to appreciate the contributions of Western Civilization to humanity and develop some backbone to defend it.

1.   www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28939089
 

For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.

The Kabuki Theatre of Presidential Debates

This post is for Gates of Vienna’s historical record but it can’t chronicle anything substantive.

The ‘debates’ have long since become scripted farce. Less and less do they deal in reality. Instead, they are performances designed to reassure the mainstream media that it’s still relevant. For far too long the political stage has been a vaudeville performance with our mainstream media acting as the managers of farce.

Why do we continue with the show? Debates clarify nothing. They change no one’s mind. They do nothing to return us toward a more “republican” (make that a small ‘r’, just as the original meaning of democrat requires a lower case ‘d’) form of governance. You remember what comprises a republican way of governance, right? That’s where the Constitution is the gold standard — to coin a phrase — by which we measure the worth of our public servants. Sadly their worth now lies in their (literally) stolen wealth, what they have scraped from the tax trough and the bribes fees they collect after leaving office. That applies with few exceptions to both parties.

For the last seventy-plus years the Democrat party in America has owned our large cities. Those places are in serious trouble precisely because of this exclusive ownership. We used to understand the value of competing ideas and the dangers of corruption and slavery without the regular infusion of innovation. Now we simply turn away from the insoluble problems fomenting in the inner city cages or we pass judgment on those who find themselves trapped in those hellholes.

Here’s a brief video which sums up the process of September 26th’s vicious encounter:

After watching this latest performance I went to bed disheartened, mad at myself for wasting my time. I hadn’t watched one of those things in years, for the reasons outlined by Brian Lilley in that video.

That was no debate; it was a beatdown. It was injustice in the flesh: the ruling class in the form of Hillary Clinton and her journolist-servant moderator, Lester Holt. Holt (who called Trump a racist and accused him of lying) proceeded to bully one candidate whilst playing softball with the other. Trump’s a big boy; he hardly needs my sympathy. However, I will note that Trump has voiced repeatedly a central concern many others share — i.e., that this election will be rigged. I thought so when Obama was re-elected in 2012 after a first term marked by failure in his foreign policy and socialist chaos in his domestic schemes. He effectively used the Executive branch as a bully pulpit to cut the Legislative branch out of the loop. Now, after eight years, he is leaving our country in a shambles.

What transpired in that ‘debate’ was merely more of the same make-believe we’ve had forced upon us for well over a generation now. Just to name one federal bureaucracy which rules through fear and intimidation, look at the odious KGB IRS. The Internal Revenue Service has unconstitutional seizure and arrest powers far worse than many totalitarian governments… and now they’re armed. Just ask Tea Party organizations how they’ve been harassed by the IRS. You won’t see any leftist orgs, the kind George Soros uses to foment chaos, at risk of an audit. No business should be held under a microscope for decade, yet Donald Trump has been audited every year for more than that time.

The same treatment will never apply to the Clinton Foundation, even though the latter never seems to do anything beyond collect cash for obscenely expensive “speeches” by the Clinton machine. Even The New York Times has questions about the former Secretary of State’s dealings with Russia’s acquisition of uranium.

But that subject never passed the moderator’s lips during the Monday Night Fight.

What was particularly ugly in that debate was the aftermath. I haven’t seen this incident remarked upon elsewhere, but what happened afterwards was the perfect coda to the whole encounter. In those few moments after the candidates left their lecterns to shake hands with one another and then with the moderator, both families came up on the stage to congratulate their respective warriors. Then, somehow, Clinton followers completely filled the front rows in the audience, deftly managing to prevent Trump followers any access to the stage or to Trump. The Trump family was treated to the full monty awkwardness of a public cordon sanitaire, forced to wave to a few distant faces we were never permitted to see, though you could hear a few voices of encouragement. As Trump looked over at the stage business with Hillary’s family, you see him ‘get’ the message; he turned and quickly herded his family offstage. Here is one version of the debate which shows that bit of theatre (the one I watched appears to have been removed). Scroll to the end of the video and roll back until you see the candidates shake hands with Lester Holt… then watch carefully to the end… That’s the petty level of optics at which the Clinton machine operates. However, Trump is a quick learner. Madame Secretary & Co. won’t get the opportunity to finesse that power-play a second time.

As for the moderator, Lester Holt, let’s compare and contrast his previous history with the candidates. Here is an interview he did with Donald Trump back in May. And another in June, where Holt is even more aggressive.

In contrast, here’s ol’ Lester “interviewing” Hillary in July. He throws softballs and then lets her ramble without interruption.

Compare and contrast and ask why this man was chosen as the purported “moderator”.

America is a mess precisely because those in power, politicians and their handlers, make facile, ignorant judgments about affairs domestic and foreign. Those judgments and their subsequent actions have earned America her current sad reputation. Our supine Congress forces us to live in servitude to extra-legal judgments and decisions. To add insult to injury, this legislative branch spins its wheels while passing more regulations. As the Baron often says, “justice has to be seen to be done”. For several presidential reigns now justice has been hiding. Or perhaps The Powers That Be knocked her off her pedestal and left her in the outer darkness along with the bust of Churchill.

Below the fold are a variety of links I found to be helpful in considering the ramifications of this tedious Theatre of the Absurd; some of the information may prove useful to you also.

There is also an excerpt from Angelo Codevilla’s thoughtful essay regarding the end of our republic.

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ICAN’T

A commenter on last night’s news feed asked me whether I was going to cover the ICANN controversy — i.e. the termination of American oversight of the DNS system of the Internet as of October 1. It’s a complex topic, off my remit, and I’m too ignorant to write about it at length. But here is my brief reply.

I cover it via the news feed — there have been many items on it. I don’t have time to write about it myself, because I don’t know enough about the topic in depth, and would have to spend hours researching it. But I’ll outline what little I know.

ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), and under it IANA (the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), are to be removed from the control of the Department of Commerce and handed over to “multilateral” (international) oversight, presumably the United Nations.

This has been coming on for many years, since long before Obama was president. There was resistance from Bush, but basically none from Obama. And more likely, active assistance at the behest of the UN crowd.

Now that Congress has totally surrendered its traditional role, there is nothing to stop a President from doing harm to the country. Congress — under the leadership of the REPUBLICAN Party, mind you — could stop this nonsense if it had the testicular fortitude. But it has institutionally gelded itself. So as far as I can tell, we are governed by the whim of the president with the permanent bureaucracy as his eager administrator.

We are to be handed over to the UN, and there isn’t a damned thing we can do about it.

Many thousands of people have been writing their Congressbeings for many months, to no avail. Congress is useless. All it does is roll over for the president. Its major function seems to be to pass continuing resolutions.

Although maybe I’m being uncharitable — it overrode its first Hussein veto yesterday. It only took eight years for it to manage one of those!