Carnival floats in Germany traditionally mock political figures, and this year was no exception. Donald Trump was the most prominent example in the parades, and the new U.S. president was mocked mercilessly (and sometimes bawdily).
Meanwhile, a fashion designer in Italy just introduced new outfits featuring pussyhats in a fashion show in Milan.
In other news, a German hostage was beheaded by Islamic terrorists in the Philippines.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, Fjordman, JD, Reader from Chicago, Seneca III, 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.
J.C. Penney and Family Christian Stores are the latest retail giants to announce widespread store closings.
As you will see below, J.C. Penney plans to close between 130 and 140 stores, and Family Christian is closing all of their 240 stores. In recent months the stock market has been absolutely soaring, and so most people have simply assumed that the “real economy” must be doing well. But that is not the case at all. In fact, the retail apocalypse that I have been documenting for quite some time appears to be gaining momentum.
J.C. Penney is not in as rough shape as Sears is just yet, but it is definitely on a similar trajectory. In the end, they are both headed for bankruptcy. That is why it wasn’t too much of a surprise when J.C. Penney announced that they are getting rid of about 6,000 workers and closing at least 130 stores…
[…]
Back in 2010, Sears had a staggering 3,555 stores.
Before their recent announcement, Sears was down to 1,503 stores, and now this latest round of cuts will leave them with somewhere around 1,350.
Of course it won’t be too long before Sears has zero stores, and my regular readers know that I have been talking about the demise of Sears for a very long time.
The cold, hard truth of the matter is that the “real economy” is a total mess, and that is one of the primary reasons why these ridiculous stock market valuations that we are seeing right now are not sustainable.
One expert that agrees with my assessment is former Reagan Administration White House Budget Director David Stockman. In a recent interview, he explained why he believes that “everything will grind to a halt” after March 15th…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Seeking $54b Increase in Defense Spending, Cuts Elsewhere
President Trump plans to seek what he’s calling a “historic” $54 billion increase in defense spending, while pursuing cuts elsewhere in the federal government, as part of his upcoming budget plan.
White House budget officials announced the proposed military spending boost Monday morning, saying the president will seek a commensurate reduction in spending across other federal agencies. Minutes later, Trump previewed the move while addressing the nation’s governors at the White House.
“This budget will be a public safety and national security budget,” Trump said. He said the plan would include a “historic increase in defense spending to rebuild the depleted military.”
The president reiterated that he wants to better prepare the military to not only deter war but win wars when called to fight.
“We’ve got to win or don’t fight it at all,” Trump said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British MP: Trump Will Go Down in History as the Only Politician Condemned for Keeping His Promises
In an extraordinary session on Monday, British lawmakers debated a petition to deny U.S. President Donald Trump an official state visit to the United Kingdom. British Prime Minister Theresa May is standing by the invitation she issued to Trump during her January 27 visit to the White House, despite a petition signed by 1.8 million people. That petition says Trump should be allowed to enter the U.K. in his capacity as head of state, but he should not be accorded the honor of a state visit. State visit opponents, led by members of the Labor Party, said it would embarrass the queen to receive Trump, a man who once bragged about grabbing women by the genitals.
But in defense of Trump’s State Visit, Conservative Party lawmaker Nigel Evans noted that the American political and entertainment elite “sneered” at the notion of Trump becoming president, but 61 million Americans — “the forgotten people” — felt otherwise and put Trump in office. Now we may not like some of the things that he says, and I certainly don’t like some of the things that he said in the past, but I do respect the fact that he stood on a platform that he is now delivering. He is going to go down in history roundly condemned for being the only politician to deliver on his promises. I know that’s a peculiar — a peculiar thing in the politics that we’re used to here, that politicians actually stand up for something, and they deliver on them but the fact is, he is.
Evans said when the British people condemn Trump for being racist without evidence; or attack him in “an unseemly way,” they are actually attacking the Americans who voted for Trump.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
California: The Physical Collapse of a Social State
Welcome to California. It is a state of a perfect set of laws — at least in the minds of those wedded to the legislative pursuit of social justice. Under the one-party Democrat rules, spending on fairness tops $100 billion every year. Meanwhile, the basic infrastructure of the state, so necessary for the economy long and short term, is collapsing.
The California legislature has been busy making the news these days. They are determined to fight President Trump tooth and nail — and they are putting the taxpayers’ money where the legislature’s mouth is.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
CENSORSHIP — Twitter is hiding the positive replies to Trump’s tweets as well as the negative ones under Hillary’s tweets. Pro-Trump users are also being shadow-banned.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat Pat Caddell: The Media is the Enemy of the American People
CADDELL: “The fundamental danger is this: I talked about the defense of the First Amendment. When the press — the press’s job is to stand in the ramparts and protect the liberty and freedom of all of us from a government and from organized governmental power. When they desert those ramparts and they go to serve — to decide that they will now become active participants — when they decide that their job is not simply both, to tell you who you may vote for, and who you may not, but, worse — and this is the danger of the last two weeks — what truth that you may know, as an American, and what truth you are not allowed to know? They have, then, made themselves a fundamental threat to the democracy, and, in my opinion, made themselves the enemy of the American people.”
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Does Pluto Have the Ingredients for Life?
Pluto has long been viewed as a distant, cold and mostly dead world, but the first spacecraft to pass by it last year revealed many surprises about this distant dwarf planet.
Data from the New Horizons flyby finished downloading to Earth in October, and while it will take many years for scientists to complete their inventory and model the results, early studies offer intriguing hints of its complex chemistry, perhaps even some form of pre-biological processes below Pluto’s surface. Complex layers of organic haze; water ice mountains from some unknown geologic process; possible organics on the surface; and a liquid water ocean underneath — all of these features point to a world with much more vibrancy than scientists have long presumed.
“The connection with astrobiology is immediate — it’s right there in front of your face. You see organic materials, water and energy,” said Michael Summers, a planetary scientist on the New Horizons team who specializes in the structure and evolution of planetary atmospheres.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive — President Trump: New York Times ‘Intent is So Evil and So Bad, ‘ ‘They Write Lies’
“If you read the New York Times, if you read the New York Times, it’s—the intent is so evil and so bad,” President Trump said in the interview on Monday afternoon. “The stories are wrong in many cases, but it’s the overall intent. Look at that paper over the last two years. In fact, they had to write a letter of essentially apology to their subscribers because they got the election so wrong.”
He went on to say about the newspaper that “they write lies.”
Trump’s comments came in a discussion about the media generally, in a part of the exclusive Oval Office interview focused on “fake news” and “fake media” versus journalists who are trying to get it right. The president specifically praised this reporter, and Steve Holland of Reuters, as two examples of journalists who do try to accurately report the news—and made a distinction between “fake” media and the media as a whole.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Fourth Circuit Sets the Stage for a New National Gun Ban
In an unusual opinion that at times reads more like an op-ed at the New York Times than a legal ruling, the 4th Circuit Court last week upheld Maryland’s highly restrictive “Firearms Safety Act.” It’s apparent that the 4th Circuit acted in anticipation of a Hillary Clinton victory in November, in which case its decision would have gone unchallenged by the Supreme Court or affirmed, thus substantially laying the groundwork for the overturn of the Supreme Court’s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, and with that the effective national evisceration of the 2nd Amendment under a second Clinton administration. The 4th Circuit, like a lot of people, miscalculated, and their judicial overreach should push a heretofore reluctant Supreme Court to reinforce the Heller decision.
The 4th Circuit’s decision in Kolbe et al v. Maryland was a direct, if often legally incomprehensible attempt to greatly limit the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Heller and set the stage for a new national ban on semi-automatic rifles. Heller held that the 2nd Amendment confers an individual not a collective right to keep and bear arms. Kolbe, so long as it stands, says this individual right does not extend to any firearm with military utility, which is arguably pretty much every gun ever made.
That’s for the long term. More immediately, the decision transparently is an attempt to pave the way for a return of a national ban on AR-15-type rifles, falsely labeled by the Court and various gun banners “assault rifles.” Had Hillary won the election in November, as the Court expected, it would have been a done deal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Intel Chair: ‘Nothing There’ On Trump-Russia Link
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Monday that he will not subpoena President Trump’s tax returns as part of his investigation into links to the Russian government.
California Rep. Devin Nunes also said during a press gaggle on Capitol Hill that he’s been told by federal officials that “there’s nothing there” regarding allegations that Trump campaign advisers made improper contacts with Russian agents prior to the election.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Google styles itself as a friendly, funky, user-friendly tech firm that rose to prominence through a combination of skill, luck, and genuine innovation. This is true. But it is a mere fragment of the story. In reality, Google is a smokescreen behind which lurks the US military-industrial complex.
The inside story of Google’s rise, revealed here for the first time, opens a can of worms that goes far beyond Google, unexpectedly shining a light on the existence of a parasitical network driving the evolution of the US national security apparatus, and profiting obscenely from its operation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Hundreds’ of US Jewish Graves Attacked in Philadelphia
Police are searching for the vandals who damaged what one local rabbi said was nearly 500 headstones at a Jewish graveyard in Philadelphia.
Money is being raised to repair the graves and to identify and prosecute the apparently anti-Semitic attackers.
The vandalism comes less than a week after a Jewish cemetery near St Louis, Missouri, was defaced.
On Monday morning, more than a dozen Jewish Community Centers (JCC) in the US received telephone bomb threats.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I Celebrated Black History Month… by Finding Out I Was White
by Christine Michel Carter
Still, before this ancestry composition report, no one in my family told me they questioned if there was even a hint of European ancestry in our blood. My mother never discussed it and only just a few days ago my aunt “guessed” my grandfather could be the origin. I found it irritating all this information surfaced for me three decades after I was born, having assumed for twenty years I was just of a lighter complexion, then assuming I was Native American for the next ten.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moon Shot! SpaceX Announces Plans to Send 2 ‘Private Citizens’ Around Moon
Not since 1972 and the Apollo 17 mission has an astronaut been anywhere close to the moon. But that may be set to change next year.
Two “private citizens” will get to take a trip around the moon in late 2018, SpaceX announced on Monday.
SpaceX has already been launching rockets to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), and even has successfully landed a section of the rocket back on Earth on multiple occasions. Along with Boeing, the company is contracted by NASA to eventually lift astronauts up to the space station, which is due to happen in 2018, the company said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The 2017 Oscars ceremony registered the lowest TV viewership in nearly a decade, according to Nielsen Research.
Overall, 32.9 million people watched the ABC Academy Award telecast hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, marking the smallest audience since Jon Stewart hosted the program in 2008.
The 2017 audience is more than 10 million fewer viewers than just three years ago, when “12 Years a Slave” took home best picture before 43.7 million viewers.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Oscar Meltdown: ‘La La Land’ Mistakenly Named Best Picture, ‘Moonlight’ Really Wins
The 89th Academy Awards will likely be remembered not for the night’s big winners, but for a massive mistake, after presenter Faye Dunaway awarded “La La Land” the best picture Oscar that should have gone to “Moonlight” instead.
But it wasn’t her fault.
The official accountant of the Oscars, Price Waterhouse Coopers, gave her the wrong envelope.
“We sincerely apologize to ‘Moonlight,’ ‘La La Land,’ Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture,” the firm said in a statement. “The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rachel Dolezal, White Woman Who Identifies as Black, Now Jobless, May Soon be Homeless
Rachel Dolezal, the infamous white woman who for years passed herself off as African American and rose to become head of an NAACP branch, is now jobless, on food stamps and expects to soon be homeless.
A defiant Dolezal, 39, recounted her current plight to The Guardian. Dolezal said she’s only been offered jobs in reality television and porno flicks. A friend helped her come up with the money for February’s rent and she doesn’t know how she’s going to pay for March.
And she still says she’s not white.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Supporters Just Got Brutal ‘Welcome’ The Second They Showed Up to Oscars
The Hollywood elite are gathering together tonight to pat each other on the back and tell each other how great they are. These are the same people that feel the need to tell everyone in America how wrong they are. The American people are sick and tired of these elitists and their superior attitude and have decided to boycott this narcissistic event. So, Trump supporters that were in the Los Angeles area went to the Dolby Theatre, and that is when things turned violent.
A Trump supporter was violently attacked by a woman for protesting this liberal event. The woman is seen in the video wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat and carrying a sign. This young liberal woman apparently is ticked off at the free speech so she ferociously rips up her sign and then throws a punch. The Trump supporter is not taking this lying down and swings back landing a punch.
You can watch the altercation here.
[Comment: Watch the video, note the age of the anti-Trumpers. These are the products of the communist indoctrination centres called poublic education and universities. Their minds are now “mush” as described by KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov in his interview with G.Edward Griffith on “Subversion of western Societies”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ryan Clayton of Huffpost and another man handed out Russian flags at CPAC to manufacture a fake story.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Human Rights Chief Takes Swipe at Trump, Speaks of ‘Political Profiteers’
The United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights lashed out with an apparently veiled swipe at President Trump on Monday, warning about the danger of “political profiteers” amid reports the administration is looking at pulling out of the Human Rights Council over the group’s anti-Israel bias.
In a speech to the opening of the latest council session in Geneva, High Commissioner Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein criticized “political leaders who today wage campaigns against universal human rights, or threaten withdrawal from international or regional treaties and the institutions which uphold them.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why No Support for These Solutions (Bills) In Congress?
There are two important bills — SOLUTIONS — sitting in house committees right now that are absolutely essential we need to get out of committee and to the floor for a vote. Then the senate does their dance. We constitutionalists wait and wait for some congress critter to get a bill introduced. Now we’ve got two very important ones and we need everyone to push them over the top.
1. Rep. Massie Introduces Bill to Abolish Federal Department of Education
WASHINGTON, D.C. — “ Today, Representative Thomas Massie introduced H.R. 899, a bill to abolish the federal Department of Education. The bill, which is one sentence long, states, “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018.” On the day of Betsy DeVos’ scheduled Senate confirmation for Secretary of Education, Massie said, “Neither Congress nor the President, through his appointees, has the constitutional authority to dictate how and what our children must learn.”
“Massie added, “Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development. States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school.”
“For years, I have advocated returning education policy to where it belongs — the state and local level,” said Rep. Walter Jones, an original co-sponsor. “D.C. bureaucrats cannot begin to understand the needs of schools and its students on an individual basis. It is time that we get the feds out of the classroom, and terminate the Department of Education…
“The Department of Education began operating in 1980. On September 24, 1981 in his Address to the Nation on the Program for Economic Recovery, President Ronald Reagan said, “As a third step, we propose to dismantle two Cabinet Departments, Energy and Education. Both Secretaries are wholly in accord with this.”…
2. This is a reintroduction since it died before due to lack of support:
H.R.193 — American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2017
“This bill repeals the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 and other specified related laws. The bill requires: (1) the President to terminate U.S. membership in the United Nations (U.N.), including any organ, specialized agency, commission, or other formally affiliated body; and (2) closure of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
“The bill prohibits: (1) the authorization of funds for the U.S. assessed or voluntary contribution to the U.N., (2) the authorization of funds for any U.S. contribution to any U.N. military or peacekeeping operation, (3) the expenditure of funds to support the participation of U.S. Armed Forces as part of any U.N. military or peacekeeping operation, (4) U.S. Armed Forces from serving under U.N. command, and (5) diplomatic immunity for U.N. officers or employees.”
Getting us out of the UN was one of my campaign issues when I ran for Congress (1996) because it is the tool of global tyrants seeking to destroy our sovereignty once and for all and suck us into a world governmental body.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wilbur Ross Confirmed as Commerce Secretary
The Senate voted Monday to confirm billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as secretary of commerce in President Trump’s Cabinet.
Ross is the 14th member of Trump’s Cabinet to be cofirmed, with seven nominees still to be voted on.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Child From 17th-Century Europe Might Have Rewritten the History of Smallpox
The deadly scourge goes back for centuries, but how many?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Malmo Rocked by Explosion as Swedish Police Deploy Bomb Squad to Block of Flats
AN EXPLOSION has rocked the troubled Swedish city of Malmo as police seal off a block of flats and deploy the bomb squad to the scene
According to local reports a suspected hand grenade was detonated in Lindangen area of the city, sending shrapnel flying into the air.
Swedish police received calls regarding the explosion at 9.19pm by people living in the suburb.
Police spokesperson Calle Persson: “We got calls from two people with five minutes apart.
“We think it’s a hand grenade that’s been detonated. National bombing protection has been alerted to the scene.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Parties Call for Deal to Block EU Referendum
A group of Danish political parties plan to push for a parliamentary deal committing all the country’s pro-European Union parties never to put the country’s EU membership to an in-out referendum.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dexit Warning: Denmark Next to Leave EU if Bosses Don’t Stop Criticising Brexit, MEP Warns
Anders Vistisen said the union risks being “overshadowed and left behind” if it continues to hit out at the UK for voting to leave.
The Vice Chair of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, took a swipe at the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Guy “Mr Brexit” Verhofstadt who called Theresa May’s pledge to deliver a new EU trade deal by 2019 “impossible”.
He warned if the EU does not “appreciate and work constructively with the UK’s objectives” it risks being overcome by popular discontent and “Denmark could well be the next country to leave the bloc”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Lawmakers Approve Censoring Comments Deemed Racist
With the specter of populism looming over a critical election year in Europe, the European Parliament has taken an unusual step to crack down on racism and hate speech in its own house.
In an unprecedented move, lawmakers have granted special powers to the president to pull the plug on live broadcasts of parliamentary debate in cases of racist speech or acts and the ability to purge any offending video or audio material from the system.
Trouble is, the rules on what is considered offensive are none too clear. Some are concerned about manipulation. Others are crying censorship.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Union Parliament Moves to Censor “Offensive Speech”
This is a story which would never take place in the United States, at least not yet and not with the official permission of the government. The European Union has obviously become increasingly alarmed over trends in popular sentiment rippling through their member countries. This started with Brexit, but has more recently cropped up with the candidacies of Marie Le Pen and Geert Wilders. Clearly such rabble rousing is not to be tolerated in the largely socialist paradise so something had to be done. The solution? The EU has passed new rules which will allow them to cut the broadcast of any “hate speech or offensive material”and then purge such speech from the official record. (Associated Press)
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Expect “Indiscriminate Attacks” By Islamic Terrorists, British Citizens Warned
Terror watchdog says threat most severe since IRA bombing campaign
Britain’s newly appointed terror watchdog has warned citizens to prepare for “indiscriminate attacks” across the UK, expressing “grave concern” over the number of terrorists returning to the country.
Max Hill, a career terrorism prosecutor appointed as the independent reviewer of terrorism-related legislation, warned British citizens have not faced a comparable threat of terrorism since the bombing campaign waged by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the 1970s.
Hill said there is an “enormous ongoing risk” while cautioning “it would be wrong to draw a simple comparison between Irish republicanism and the ideology of so-called Islamic State,” he said during an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.
“But in terms of the threat that’s represented, I think the intensity and the potential frequency of serious plot planning — with a view to indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians of whatever race or colour in metropolitan areas — represents an enormous on-going risk that none of us can ignore.”
While noting the severity of threat, Hill warned against any hysteria due to the statistically small number of successful terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
First Solid Sign That Matter Doesn’t Behave Like Antimatter
One of the biggest mysteries in physics is why there’s matter in the universe at all. This week, a group of physicists at the world’s largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, might be closer to an answer: They found that particles in the same family as the protons and neutrons that make up familiar objects behave in a slightly different way from their antimatter counterparts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Le Pen Might Win, Establishment Admits
Several French politicians, pollsters, and commentators have conceded that Marine Le Pen may win the French presidential elections in May.
A Le Pen victory would continue the populist trend set by Brexit and the election of Donald J. Trump as U.S. President last year, neither of which were forecast by insiders and industry pundits.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France Election: New Claims Over Le Pen FN Funding
A former aide to the French far-right presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, has made new allegations about fraudulent party financing.
Gael Nofri said that in 2012 the National Front (FN) had recruited him into Ms Le Pen’s presidential campaign team, using a fictitious European Parliament (EP) contract.
It was apparently a way for the FN to avoid declaring campaign spending.
The FN is already under investigation for alleged misuse of EP funds.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris vs Trump: Mayor Hits Back at ‘Unfriendly’ US President
The mayor of Paris Monday slammed disparaging comments by Donald Trump about the French capital and immigration policies in Europe, suggesting the US president should focus on issues closer to home.
Trump gave a bombastic address to a conservative rally outside Washington Friday in which he defended his crackdown on immigrants and criticised long-time allies France, Sweden and Germany.
Singling out the French capital, which has suffered terror attacks by Islamist militants in recent years, he quoted a friend ‘Jim’ who refuses to visit the European city, saying “Paris is no longer Paris”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders: Reclusive Provocateur, Rises Before Dutch Vote
SPIJKENISSE, the Netherlands — He wants to end immigration from Muslim countries, tax head scarves and ban the Quran. He is partly of Indonesian heritage, and dyes his hair bright blond. He is omnipresent on social media but lives as a political phantom under police protection, rarely campaigning in person and reportedly sleeping in a different location every night.
He has structured his party so that he is the only member, giving him the liberty to remain, above all things, a provocateur and uncompromising verbal bomb thrower.
Geert Wilders, far-right icon, is one of Europe’s unusual politicians, not least because he comes from the Netherlands, one of Europe’s most socially liberal countries, with a centuries-long tradition of promoting religious tolerance and welcoming immigrants.
How he and his party fare in the March 15 elections could well signal how the far right will do in pivotal elections in France, Germany and possibly Italy later this year, and ultimately determine the future of the European Union. Mr. Wilders (pronounced VIL-ders) has promised to demand a “Nexit” referendum on whether the Netherlands should follow Britain’s example and leave the union…
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German and Austrian Leaders Call for European Union to Close Ranks
Germany’s foreign minister and Austria’s chancellor have said the US and Russia were openly trying to destabilize the EU. Sigmar Gabriel called for EU-wide solutions to current challenges.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
How Ikea’s Billy Bookcase Took Over the World
The Billy bookcase is perhaps the archetypal Ikea product.
It was dreamed up in 1978 by an Ikea designer called Gillis Lundgren who sketched it on the back of a napkin, worried that he would forget it.
Now there are 60-odd million in the world, nearly one for every 100 people — not bad for a humble bookcase.
In fact, so ubiquitous are they, Bloomberg uses them to compare purchasing power across the world.
According to the Bloomberg Billy Bookcase Index — yes, that’s a thing — they cost most in Egypt, just over $100 (£79), whereas in Slovenia you can get them for less than $40 (£31).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary PM: West ‘Still Making Excuses for Crimes of Communism’
“Many in the West today are still making excuses for the crimes of communism; even the European Union itself is reluctant to unequivocally condemn them,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said.
Speaking at an event to mark Memorial Day for the Victims of Communism on Saturday, the populist leader noted the left wing ideology “emerged in the 20th century as an intellectual product of the West [but] in the end it was we Central Europeans who were forced to live under this originally Western idea”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
In Pics: German Carnival Floats Show Trump No Mercy
The floats at Karneval parades across southern and western Germany are known for their biting satire. This year the main target of their derision was only ever going to be one man.
Another float in Düsseldorf appeared to show Trump raping the Statue of Liberty, while a neighbouring sculpture inverted a controversial recent Spiegel cover by having the Statue of Liberty behead the US President.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pussyhats on the Catwalk as Milan Fashion Week Gets Political
Italian designer Angela Missoni brought the political fight to Milan fashion week by ending her autumn-winter 2017 show with models clad in Pussyhats, the pink protest symbols of women’s rights.
Supermodels including Gigi Hadid and Romee Strijd strutted down the runway in the Italian fashion capital on Saturday wearing Missoni’s variation on the pointy-eared hats which featured her signature bold stripes around the brims.
The knitted pink hats with cat ears first appeared on January 21st at the Women’s March in Washington, where protesters wore them as a sign of feminine solidarity the day after US President Donald Trump was sworn into office.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Minister in Madrid Dock Over Indyef Poll in Catalonia
A CATALAN minister goes on trial at the Supreme Court in Madrid today accused of helping organise the 2014 independence referendum in the north-eastern Spanish state.
Francesc Homs, a former spokesman for the government of Catalonia and a member of the Madrid parliament, is the latest target in what a leading diplomat describes as “an escalating campaign of intimidation from Madrid” as Mariano Rajoy’s government uses the judiciary to “decapitate the leadership of the independence movement and silence the Catalan people”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Murderer Deported to UK After 38 Years in US Jail
Demspey Hawkins, 57, killed Susan Jacobson, 14, on Staten Island, New York, in May1976 and now after campaigning from a Cambridge academic he is enjoying a new life in the UK.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How suspected corrupt police officer Faris K. managed to get a job in the high ranking Safety and Security Service despite a previous integrity conviction, is leading to consternation in the police ranks. Considering the screening process necessary to join the Safety and Security Service, former Geert Wilders security guard Rico Briedjal thinks it was difficult, but possible, he said to newspaper AD Members of the Service are calling for stricter screenings.
Faris K. advanced to the elite Safety and Security Service in 2013. He worked as part of the Wilders team, though not as one of Wilders actual body guards. K. worked as a “scout” and was responsible for assessing the risks around places Wilders was set to visit. This included analyzing the places, checking possible escape routes and routes to nearby safe houses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
PM Fears Scottish Government Could Call Second Referendum
The Government is preparing for Nicola Sturgeon to use the start of the country’s exit from the European Union to call another vote on Scottish independence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sistine Chapel Photographed in Unprecedented Detail
The famous frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, whose ceiling was painted by Michelangelo, can now be examined in minute detail thanks to an unprecedented photographic venture, the Vatican Museums have said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Appoints ‘Minister for Sex’ To Reverse Nation’s Plummeting Birth Rate
Spain has appointed its first Minister of Sex whose job will be to get people busy between the sheets.
The government hopes to boost Spain’s falling birth rate, which is one of the lowest in the developed world.
Prime minister Mariano Rajoy appointed Edelmira Barreira as the country’s sex tsar to get Spaniards to produce more babies.
The country is faced with a population crisis, with fewer births than deaths recorded for the first time last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: More Sympathize With Violent Islamist Extremism
Fewer Swedes are traveling to join groups such as ISIS, but there is an increase in the number of Islamist extremist sympathizers, according to the Swedish Security Service.
The Swedish Security Service reports that around 300 Swedes have traveled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS in recent years. But travel slowed last year, and estimates show that only 150 of the 300 have returned to Sweden.
“We see individuals who come home (to Sweden) and contact young people. There is a kind of network in Sweden that tries to encourage young and new people to join the cause. It goes on all the time,” said Anders Thornberg, head of the Security Service.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Violent Scenes in Bern as Police Clash With Protestors
Eleven people, including ten police officers, were injured in Bern on Saturday night in a clash between police and protestors demonstrating against the eviction of squatters from a building in the Swiss capital last week.
Around 200 people joined with the group RaumRaub in an unauthorized demonstration in the Schützenmatte area of Bern on Saturday evening, reported Swiss media.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Winterthur Mosque Presses Charges Against Duo Who Reported Imam for Inciting Murder
The association that runs the An’Nour mosque in Winterthur has lodged a complaint with police against two members of the congregation thought to have reported their imam for inciting murder — a day after ten people were arrested for allegedly beating up the duo in revenge.
On Tuesday morning police in the canton of Zurich arrested ten suspects in a raid on a dozen houses in Winterthur.
One was later released, but eight adults and one juvenile remain in custody, accused of having beaten up and threatened two individuals at the mosque last November.
The pair are thought to have tipped off a journalist about a controversial sermon given by the mosque’s imam in which he called for the congregation to kill Muslims who do not participate in common prayer.
The reporting of the sermon in early November led to the arrest of the imam, who is now facing criminal proceedings for inciting crime and violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Erdogan ‘Not Welcome’ To Campaign in Austria
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is “not welcome” to hold campaign events in Austria ahead of April’s referendum on strengthening his powers, the foreign minister in Vienna said on Monday.
Sebastian Kurz said that Erdogan campaigning over the controversial referendum would “increase friction” in Austria and “hinder the integration” of the country’s 360,000-strong Turkish origin minority, which includes 117,000 Turkish citizens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Child Sex Abuse Inquiry Finally Opens
The £20m Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has been plagued with delays and is on its fourth chairwoman, Alexis Jay, pictured, since it was set up by Theresa May in 2014.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ruthless and underhand tactics used by BBC licence fee agents can be exposed today.
Under an aggressive incentive scheme, hundreds of enforcement officers have orders to each catch 28 evaders a week.
Bosses promise bonuses of up to £15,000 a year, saying staff must gather evidence to take as many people to court as possible.
Homeowners who fail to pay can be fined and given criminal records.
Among the vulnerable targeted in the past seven days are a war veteran with dementia and a desperate young mother in a women’s refuge.
The revelations come from an investigation by a Daily Mail undercover reporter interviewed for an enforcement job by Capita.
The outsourcing firm is paid £58million a year to collect licence fees for the BBC, bringing in £3.74billion a year.
The reporter was told by bosses: ‘We will drive you as hard as we can to get as much as we can out of you because we’re greedy.’ He was encouraged to spy on homes and take money on the doorstep.
‘Cash, debit, credit card, we’ll take anything,’ one TV Licensing manager said. ‘I tell people I’ll take shirt buttons.’…
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
US President Donald Trump Sends Letter to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban
According to a press release from the Hungarian government, on Friday Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Press Chief announced that the “President of the United States Donald Trump has written a letter to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán thanking him for his message of congratulations written upon the President’s inauguration”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Head of Ambulance Union Confirms ‘No-Go Zones’ In Sweden
The head of the Swedish ambulance drivers’ union confirmed in a recent interview with journalist Paulina Neuding the existence of “no-go zones” where it is too dangerous to enter without police protection.
“I know it’s sensitive and controversial,” Gordon Grattidge said. “But for us it’s really a no go because we have directives not to go into dangerous situations.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Why Investors Are Worried About the French Elections
The Brexit referendum and President Trump’s election shocked markets in 2016.
The looming French elections could do the same in 2017.
Investors have grown increasingly concerned about the rise of populist French politician Marine Le Pen, who could soon become leader of the sixth largest economy in the world.
Le Pen’s campaign has focused on selling voters the idea that leaving the European Union and ditching the euro currency would help France regain its independence and boost the economy. She has also attacked globalization and warned of the dangers of immigration.
Polls show she is set to be among the final two contenders in France’s two-round elections, and odds are growing that she’ll win the whole thing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yes, Le Pen Could Win in France
With the polls narrowing and one of her main rivals embroiled in an expenses scandal, far-right leader Marine Le Pen could feasibly become French president in May, senior politicians and commentators say.
Even some of her rivals concede a victory for the far-right firebrand is possible.
“I think Madame Le Pen could be elected,” former conservative prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said this month.
Another former premier, the Socialist Manuel Valls, has also warned of the “danger” of assuming that Le Pen cannot win.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 100 Christian Families Escape Sinai After Chilling ISIS Threat
Egyptian Christians are fleeing the restive Sinai Peninsula, some with just the clothes on their backs, amid a series of killings and an explicit call by Islamic State for its followers to target the minority group.
The internal displacement has reached a scale rarely seen in Egypt outside natural disasters. Some 118 Coptic Christian families have fled the northern town of Al Arish—a hotbed of Islamic State activity in Egypt—since Thursday after a Coptic man was shot and killed in front of his family, state media and Christian activists said.
Seven Copts have been killed in north Sinai in the past month, all of the attacks unclaimed, according to state media.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German-Turkish Reporter Arrested in Turkey for ‘Terrorist Propaganda’
The Turkish authorities have arrested a German-Turkish journalist they accuse of producing terrorist propaganda and undermining the government.
Deniz Yucel, who works for Die Welt, was detained almost two weeks ago and has since been held in police custody.
He had earlier reported on leaked emails that allegedly highlight the influence wielded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the move “disappointing”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Half of Turkey’s Border Wall With Syria Finished
The Turkish government has completed more than half of its hundreds of miles long concrete anti-illegal invasion wall along its border with Syria, the head of the state-owned Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKI) has announced.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish ‘No’ Voices Muffled in Erdogan’s Referendum
As Turkey heads toward a constitutional referendum designed to grant its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan even greater powers, the polls predict a neck-and-neck race.
That doesn’t mean their chances are equal. While the April vote is likely to be free, whether it will be fair — given rising repression of political dissent and the ongoing state of emergency — is another question.
Take the case of Irfan Degirmenci, a well-known news anchor for Kanal D, who explained his opposition to the proposed changes in a series of tweets earlier this month. “No to the one who views scientists, artists, writers, cartoonists, students, workers, farmers, miners, journalists and all who do not obey as the enemy,” he wrote.
He was promptly fired.
Degirmenci’s dismissal has heightened fears among No campaigners that those who oppose the new constitution will be subject to threats and intimidation ahead of the referendum on April 16.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
United Arab Emirates Wants to Build a City on Mars
The United Arab Emirates has Mars in its sights, not only moving forward on a Mars orbiter but also establishing the first human settlement on the Red Planet by 2117.
UAE Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, unveiled the “Mars 2117 Project” on Feb. 14 during the 5th World Government Summit in Dubai. The announced the project with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Deep State War? Russian Officials Keep Dying Unexpectedly
Some were shot, while other causes of death are unknown…
(Zero Hedge) Six Russian diplomats have died in the last 60 days. As Axios notes, all but one died on foreign soil. Some were shot, while other causes of death are unknown. Note that a few deaths have been labeled “heart attacks” or “brief illnesses.”
1. You probably remember Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov — he was assassinated by a police officer at a photo exhibit in Ankara on December 19.
2. On the same day, another diplomat, Peter Polshikov, was shot dead in his Moscow apartment. The gun was found under the bathroom sink but the circumstances of the death were under investigation. Polshikov served as a senior figure in the Latin American department of the Foreign Ministry.
3. Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, died in New York this past week. Churkin was rushed to the hospital from his office at Russia’s UN mission. Initial reports said he suffered a heart attack, and the medical examiner is investigating the death, according to CBS.
4. Russia’s Ambassador to India, Alexander Kadakin, died after a “brief illness January 27, which The Hindu said he had been suffering from for a few weeks.
5. Russian Consul in Athens, Greece, Andrei Malanin, was found dead in his apartment January 9. A Greek police official said there was “no evidence of a break-in.” But Malanin lived on a heavily guarded street. The cause of death needed further investigation, per an AFP report. Malanin served during a time of easing relations between Greece and Russia when Greece was increasingly critiqued by the EU and NATO.
6. Ex-KGB chief Oleg Erovinkin, who was suspected of helping draft the Trump dossier, was found dead in the back of his car December 26, according to The Telegraph. Erovinkin also was an aide to former deputy prime minister Igor Sechin, who now heads up state-owned Rosneft.
If we go back further than 60 days…
7. On the morning of U.S. Election Day, Russian diplomat Sergei Krivov was found unconscious at the Russian Consulate in New York and died on the scene. Initial reports said Krivov fell from the roof and had blunt force injuries, but Russian officials said he died from a heart attack. BuzzFeed reports Krivov may have been a Consular Duty Commander, which would have put him in charge of preventing sabotage or espionage.
8. In November 2015, a senior adviser to Putin, Mikhail Lesin, who was also the founder of the media company RT, was found dead in a Washington hotel room according to the NYT. The Russian media said it was a “heart attack,” but the medical examiner said it was “blunt force injuries.”
9. If you go back a few months prior in September 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s driver was killed too in a freak car accident while driving the Russian President’s official black BMW to add to the insanity.
If you include these three additional deaths that’s a total of nine Russian officials that have died over the past 2 years that WeAreChange.com’s Aaron Kesel knows of — he notes there could be more.
As Kesel explains, it’s worth noting that governments, specifically the CIA, have for long periods of time had chemical concoctions that can induce a full systematic shutdown of a person’s nervous system and in some cases cause someone’s’ heart to explode.
Former CIA employee Mary Embree discusses the infamous heart attack gun and how she was tasked with finding a chemical concoction that would cause a heart attack. The weapon was first made public during the Church Committee hearings in 1975 by former CIA director William Colby. It was said to be very lethal and untraceable, by using this weapon a murder is made to look natural while the poison dissolves in hours.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Serious’ Fighting in Europe’s Oldest War
European and US diplomats have urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to back off from a wider confrontation after the latest flare-up in fighting in Europe’s oldest ongoing war. The French, Russian, and US envoys to the Minsk Group, which mediates in the conflict, reminded the warring parties of their “commitments to refrain from the use of force.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Organisation Announces RS 10 Lakh Reward for Beheading Tarek Fatah
A Bareilly-based Muslim organisation has announced a “reward” of Rs 10 lakh to behead Islamic scholar Tarek Fatah for allegedly promoting “un-Islamic” views through his TV programme.
“Tarek Fatah is conspiring to disrupt harmony between Hindus and Muslims. He is as an agent of our enemies. He must be stopped at any cost and our organisation will pay Rs 10,00,786 to any person who will decapitate him,” said Moeen Siddique, head of the council.
Fateh, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is known for his secular views against Islamic fundamentalism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Singapore Could Face Choice Between US or China, PM Says
Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, told BBC’s Hard Talk that increasing tensions between the US and China pose a difficult problem for his country. “We will be coerced to choose between being friends with America and friends with China,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
4 Million Solar Panels Seen From Space
On the Tibetan Plateau in eastern China, 4 million solar panels silently soak up the sun as part of the Longyangxia Dam Solar Park. It’s the largest solar farm in the world, spreading over 10 square miles of the high desert landscape.
Unlike the world’s largest ball of twine, it’s more than just a roadside attraction. The installation currently has the capacity to generate 850 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power roughly 140,000 U.S. homes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Hostage Beheaded by Muslims in Philippines
A German hostage in the conflict-wracked southern Philippines has been beheaded by Islamist militants, with the video being posted online by the terrorism monitoring group SITE.
In the video released on Monday, the hostage, 70-year-old Jurgen Kantner, can be seen in a jungle clearing with his hands tied behind him. He can be heard saying the words “Now he’ll kill me” before a man starts cutting Kantner’s head off with a large knife.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Life Expectancy Set to Hit 90 in South Korea
By 2030, nation’s girls can expect to live to 91, says statistical analysis.
South Korean women who will be living longest by 2030: there is a nearly 60% chance that their life expectancy at birth will exceed 90 years by that time, the team calculates. Girls born in the country that year can expect to live, on average, to nearly 91, and boys to 84, the highest in the world for both sexes (see ‘Ageing populations’).
The nation’s rapid improvement in life expectancy — the country was ranked twenty-ninth for women in 1985 — is probably down to overall improvements in economic status and child nutrition, the study notes, among other factors. South Koreans also have relatively equal access to health care, lower blood pressure than people in Western countries and low rates of smoking among women.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: Video Shows Beheading of Sailor by ISIS-Linked Terrorists
A German sailor who had survived two months as a hostage of Somali pirates nearly a decade ago was beheaded in the Philippines by Islamic terrorists, a short video released Monday showed, after a deadline to pay the man’s ransom passed.
Jurgen Gustav Kantner’s beheading was the first murder of a hostage by the terror group Abu Sayyaf since two Canadians were killed in June. Officials said they had sketchy information Kantner was killed because he was sick, Reuters reported.
The brief video circulated Monday by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites, showed Kantner sitting in a grassy clearing and saying “Now he kill me” shortly before a masked militant beheaded him with a curved knife.
A few gunmen muttered “Allahu Akbar” in the video that lasted 1 minute and 43 seconds.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Philippine Abu Sayyaf Jihadists Behead German Hostage in Video
Islamic militants in the Philippines have posted a video showing the beheading of a German hostage.
Jurgen Kantner was abducted from his yacht off Malaysia’s Sabah state in November. His companion Sabine Merz’s body was later found on the boat.
A deadline for a 30m peso (£483,000; $600,000) ransom expired on Sunday.
Mr Kantner, 70, and Ms Merz had been abducted before. They were held for 52 days in 2008 by Somali pirates and were released after a ransom was paid.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines President Said He Would Kill His Own Child in Drug War
The foul-mouthed Philippines president who’s bragged about throwing criminals out of helicopters and gunning down drug offenders in the streets has a new target: children as young as 9, including his own son.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who has said he will “kill all” the country’s criminals, is among the backers of a bill that would lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9, The Washington Post reported on Sunday evening.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Seoul Pins Assassination of Kim Jong UN’s Half-Brother on North Korean Government
The assassination of the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was directed by North Korea’s ministry of state security and foreign ministry, South Korean lawmakers briefed by the country’s intelligence agency said Monday.
Four officials of the state security ministry and two officials of the foreign ministry are among the eight suspects in the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the lawmakers quoted the intelligence agency as saying.
Kim died Feb. 13 at Kuala Lumpur’s airport in what Malaysian police say was a well-planned hit by two women who wiped a liquid on Kim’s face. Police revealed Friday that the banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent was used in the murder, raising the stakes in the case.
Malaysia’s health minister said Sunday that the dose of the nerve agent was so high that it killed him within 20 minutes and caused “very serious paralysis.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia, Australia Agree to Free Trade, Closer Naval Cooperation
Indonesian and Australian leaders on Sunday committed to free trade and closer naval cooperation as they urged countries in the Asia-Pacific region with competing territorial claims to obey international law.
Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo arrived in Sydney on Saturday on his first visit to Australia as his nation’s leader. He and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said they had agreed to finalize a free trade agreement this year.
Indonesia does not have a territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea, but there have been tensions because China’s so-called nine-dash line representing its claim to most of the sea appears to overlap with Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone extending from the Natuna Islands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Latest Poll Numbers in Ecuador Are a Bad Sign for Julian Assange
Ecuador will elect a new president April 2, and poll results are not looking good for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
According to a Feb. 23-24 survey of 2,834 Ecuadorans by the Cedatos polling agency, right-wing challenger Guillermo Lasso is leading the ruling party candidate, Lenin Moreno, by a margin of 52 to 48 percent.
Lasso has pledged to evict Assange from Ecuador’s embassy in London within 30 days if he is elected.
[Comment: I wonder how much support the globalists are giving to the anti-Assange candidate.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Antonio Tajani Calls for EU to Open Refugee Reception Centers in Libya
European Parliament President Antonio Tajani has called for the EU to set up refugee reception centers in Libya and to implement a “Marshall Plan” for Africa in order to curb migration to the bloc, Die Zeit reported Monday.
The Libyan centers should not become “concentration camps,” but should have adequate equipment to ensure refugees live in dignified conditions with access to sufficient medical care, Tajani said.
“We either act now or 20 million Africans will come to Europe in the coming years,” Tajani said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Asylum Seekers Stay in UK at £600k Cost Despite Reaching Italy First
TAXPAYERS were handed a £600,000 legal bill after the Home Office lost a court case against four asylum seekers who refused to leave the country.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Le Pen’s Rothschild Rival: Muslim Mass Migration ‘Unstoppable’
Le Pen’s opponent claims “global warming” behind Muslim migration
Europe “must get used to mass immigration” instead of resisting it, says French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.
Macron, former investment banker at Banque Rothschild and rival to Marine Le Pen in the French presidential race, shared his views at a “climate change” debate last week.
“We have entered a world of great migrations and we will have more and more of it,” Macron told the crowd. “In the coming decades we will have migrations from geopolitical conflicts that will continue to play, and we will have climate change migrations because the planet is in a state of deep imbalance.”
Macron also claimed “man-made climate change” was a “contributing factor” in the mass migrations of over a million Muslims that’s gripped Europe since 2015.
“France will not be able to stem it, and Europe will be affected immediately,” he said. “We will see a migratory phenomenon far greater than what we have seen [with migrants from] Syria.”
Macron’s comments come as no surprise given that Macron was working on an alliance with Hillary Clinton last year after hosting a private roundtable dinner in October to address how to counter the rise of populist movements worldwide.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Catholic Church Calls US Immigration Policies an ‘Act of Terror’
The Archdiocese of Mexico called President Donald Trump’s immigration measures “migrant terrorism” and said Mexican officials’ reaction is lukewarm and submissive.
In an editorial posted Sunday on “Desde la Fe’“ [From the Faith], a weekly publication, the Archdiocese said the new policies amount to “not only the application of an inhuman legalism but a true act of terror.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: Hungary Risks EU’s Wrath as Builds Second Border Fence
HUNGARY has begun building a second line of fence along its southern border with Serbia — a move likely to exacerbate criticism from some of the country’s European Union partners.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Rescues Encourage People Traffickers, Claims EU Borders Chief
CHARITIES rescuing migrants off the coast of Libya are encouraging people trafficking, the European Union’s border chief has claimed.
NGOs are merely encouraging more dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea by saving those who get into trouble, Fabrice Leggeri of EU border agency Frontex said.
His comments sparked fury from charities, who argued their actions were “not the cause but a response” to the migrant crisis.
Mr Leggier said: “We must avoid supporting the business of criminal networks and traffickers in Libya through European vessels picking up migrants ever closer to the Libyan coast.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
In a new interview, the head of Swedish ambulance drivers union says that Muslim ‘no-go zones’ are a “reality for us” and is requesting military equipment.
In the video Gordon Grattidge says that “we would have special equipment to be able to go with the police into dangerous situations.”
Later on, the interviewer asks “is it justified in your work to speak of no-go zones?”
“I know it’s sensitive and controversial, but for us it’s really a no-go because we have directives not to go into dangerous situations,” he replies.
Grattidge explains how it’s normally massive numbers of immigrants living in these areas. He says that within seconds it can turn from an attack on their vehicles to attacks on them personally. He adds that there have even been instances of grenades being thrown at police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Over 3,500 Attacks on Refugees in Germany: Report
There were almost 10 attacks per day on refugees and immigrants in Germany in 2016, according to figures released by the country’s Interior Ministry in response to a parliamentary question from MP Ulla Jelpke from the left-wing party Die Linke and cited by Funke Media Group newspapers on Sunday. In total last year, 3,533 attacks left 560 people injured, among them 43 children.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Strip New Somali PM of His Norwegian Passport’: Progress
Somalia’s new President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo, announced Hassan Ali Khaire’s appointment over Twitter on Thursday, just a day after he was inaugurated.
Khaire, 46, who came to Norway as a refugee in the late 80s, has like most of his compatriots taken advantage of an exemption Norway gives Somalis from its ban on dual citizenship.
Mazyar Keshvari, the Progress Party’s immigration spokesman has argued that Khaire’s appointment as his country’s leader removed any justification for his dual citizenship.
“He should be deprived of his Norwegian passport,” he told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “A country’s prime minister cannot have multiple nationalities. If conflicts occur, where they will their loyalties lie?”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Governor General in Malmö: “Diversity Makes Our Societies Stronger. Inclusivity is the Key”
In his keynote address, Johnston explained how Canada and Sweden can work together as partners in fostering best practices for successful integration of newcomers and refugees. In this regard he said that “one-third of Muslims in Canada report having experienced discrimination or unfair treatment in the past five years” emphasizing that “this is totally unacceptable.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What is the Truth About Crime and Immigration in Sweden?
by Tino Sanandaji
The U.S. media debate has been misleading, but the biggest problem is that the Swedish political establishment doesn’t want to know the answer.
Sweden has a growing problem with crime that is linked to immigration, but the Fox News segment was sensationalistic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Transgender in the Military: Still a Bad Idea
Transgenderism is a hot political topic. Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital, has written that transgenderism is a “mental disorder” that merits treatment, that sex change is “biologically impossible,” and that people who promote “sexual reassignment” surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder.
“The assumption that one’s gender is only in the mind regardless of anatomical reality, has led some transgendered people to push for social acceptance and affirmation of their own subjective ‘personal truth,’“ said Dr. McHugh. As a result, some states — California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts — have passed laws barring psychiatrists, “even with parental permission, from striving to restore natural gender feelings to a transgender minor.”
Dr. McHugh also said, “The pro-transgender advocates do not want to know that studies show between 70% and 80% of children who express transgender feelings ‘spontaneously lose those feelings’ over time. Also, for those who had sexual reassignment [sic] surgery, most said they were ‘satisfied’ with the operation ‘but their subsequent psycho-social adjustments were no better than those who didn’t have the surgery.’“
He also warned against enabling or encouraging certain subgroups of the transgendered, such as young people “susceptible to suggestion from ‘everything is normal’ sex education” and the schools’ “diversity counselors,” who, like “cult leaders,” may “encourage these young people to distance themselves from their families and offer advice on rebutting arguments against having transgender surgery.”
Dr. McHugh reported that there are “misguided doctors” who, working with very young children who seem to imitate the opposite sex, will administer “puberty-delaying hormones to render later sex-change surgeries less onerous — – even though the drugs stunt the children’s growth and risk causing sterility.”
The misguided psychiatrist at the naval hospital in 1990 was more interested in collaborating with a couple of dozen misguided Marines and their get-out-of-the-Marine Corps scheme even though his diagnosis would have forever stigmatized them with a mental disorder they did not have.
Such action comes “close to child abuse,” said Dr. McHugh, given that close to 80% of those kids will “abandon their confusion and grow naturally into adult life if untreated.”
‘“Sex change’ is biologically impossible. People who undergo sex-reassignment [sic] surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women. Claiming that this is civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pluto Could be Staging a Comeback — and it’s Not Alone
A proposal to massively expand the number of bodies called planets raises interesting questions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Did Greenland’s Vikings Vanish?
Newly discovered evidence is upending our understanding of how early settlers made a life on the island — and why they suddenly disappeared
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lars Bern writes on his blog:
[…]
The Sweden picture collapses like a house of cards.
Our hypocrisy will be thrown in our faces. The world will see that we are nothing more than a pitiful segregated class society, where immigrants are our new underclass. We now expect that every immigrant murder, rape, arson and other serious crimes will get much attention in the United States and the rest of the world.
I see today that a leading US news channel has a headline about the recent fire in an asylum accommodation – such things did not get international attention a week ago. Our time in the international spotlight as a good example is over!
The incident is extremely serious for a small country with a strong dependence of the outside world and with a number of foreign shareholders in Swedish companies. When it comes to decide on investments and initiatives, obviously many investors will tighten their ears and think both once and twice if it’s so smart to invest in a dysfunctional society such as Sweden. Competent people we want to attract to our companies will be reluctant to accept. Tourists will ask whether it is wise to travel to a country with rising crime rate and an undermanned police force. I know many large taxpayers, who today are considering emigration. A destroyed image of Sweden will harm the country on a wide range of areas.
Considering purely economic problems it should be added that the Swedish political elite now have made themselves enemies of the president of the world’s most powerful country and most important economy. They were previously adversaries to the management of our closest eastern superpower. We also see how the few friends they have left among European leaders are about to be replaced, even among the anti-globalists. Soon, the Swedish political elite, with its blind faith in globalism, stands alone in a hard world with just Palestinian terrorists as friends. Sveden’s voice in the world has been weakened at all levels and the exposed Sweedish people risks having to pay a high price.
(translated by Da Capo)
Antropochene: hushttps://anthropocene.live/2017/02/26/sverigebilden-rasar-ihop-som-ett-korthus/
Excellent work! Thank you.
This Rachel Dolezal kind of triggers my latent nationalism, her Czech name and central EU looks… That made me wonder what may have happened to her to say she is black?
According to Wiki: When Dolezal was a teenager, her parents adopted three African-American children and one Haitian child.
That could actually explain a lot, doesn’t it?
Imagine your own parents take in 4 children of completely different races and looks than you and your parents – and then loving them “like their own”? That actually makes their own children minority in their own family?
Simply rationally – what will a love and acceptance seeking teenager turn to, if your own white parents seem to prefer black children of foreign background?
No wonder she’s a mess. That’s a very sad story.
Dolezal was born in Lincoln County, Montana, on November 12, 1977,[10][23] to parents Ruthanne (née Schertel) and Lawrence “Larry” Dolezal. Both white and primarily of Czech, German and Swedish origin,[17][10][24][25] Dolezal’s parents have been married since 1974.[10] She has an older biological brother, Joshua.[26] When Dolezal was a teenager, her parents adopted three African-American children and one Haitian child.[27] Dolezal has said she was born and lived in a teepee, recounting how the family hunted for their food with bow and arrow.[28] Her mother stated she and Dolezal’s father briefly lived in a teepee in 1974 three years before their daughter was born and called Dolezal’s claims “totally false”.[10][29][30] From 2002 to 2006, her parents and adopted siblings lived in South Africa as Christian missionaries. Dolezal said she lived in South Africa as a child, but her family disputes the claim.[31][32]
A sad story of a do-gooder who got it from her parents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal
I think WW2 was the final nail in the coffin of Europe. Too many wars on that continent have worn away all self respect most of its citizens had for themselves and their fellow citizens. Oh well, they had a good run historically.
Why does Mexico imprison Americans living in Mexico illegally? Is that TERROR or the laws of man? Hypocrisy is the death of more religions than one can count.
** There is a kind of network in Sweden that tries to encourage young and new people to join the cause. It goes on all the time,” said Anders Thornberg, head of the Security Service. **
Mr. Thornberg would rather stab himself with an ice pick than state the obvious fact that the threat inside Sweden is only from Muslims and Africans and that white, native-born Swedes (i.e., actual Swedes) pose no danger of violence or arson whatsoever. “Young and new people” is the locution of choice for all official poseurs and snake oil merchants when they mean to refer to “Muslims.”
Spain really should have appointed a Minister of Marriage and Families instead. Quantity will not save you if the quality is poor. In fact, it will cause far more problems than it will solve. Theodore Dalrymple has written extensively about the many psychological and social ills that result from people mindlessly reproducing without the care or commitment needed for raising healthy children. He’s worked all over the world, as well as working in a hospital and prison (tellingly next door from each other!) in a British slum and he has some interesting and worrying things to say about the state of the UK.
If Spain is smart, it should be promoting child birth within a stable marriage to people who understand the importance of their roles as parents. That’s a big task. You have to start educating people about this when they’re young and you need to influence the general public opinion and culture to support it. It’s not as simple as just increasing the numbers of babies born.
Also, it’s rather convenient that German report about the attacks on migrants left out the identity of the attackers. Gee, who could it be? Who?
**there have even been instances of grenades being thrown at police [in Sweden] **
Next thing you know they’ll ban hand grenades.