Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/17/2017

A catastrophic explosion in the suburban town of Rockville, Maryland completely destroyed a house and damaged ten others. One person, a resident of the flattened house, is missing. Fire department investigators said at first that the blast could not have been from gas or utilities. However, it was later revealed that although the gas to the destroyed house had been cut off two years ago, it appeared that the resident of the house had been accessing the gas supply illegally. The investigation is continuing.

In other news, the Swiss prosecution service has declined four separate Turkish demands that those who insult President Erdogan on Swiss social media be charged. The judicial authorities cited free speech as the reason for their refusal.

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

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Dean, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, Upananda Brahmachari, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» Has the Deep State Begun Its Revenge on Trump?
» The Debt Ceiling Deadline Has Passed, And Now the Biggest Test of Donald Trump’s Presidency Begins…
» Turkey Outlook Cut to Negative by Moody’s on Political Tension
 
USA
» ‘Catastrophic’: Explosion Levels Home in Rockville, One Person Unaccounted for
» Explosion Levels House in Rockville, Resident Unaccounted for (Videos)
» Key Democratic Officials Now Warning Base Not to Expect Evidence of Trump/Russia Collusion
» More Evidence That McMaster Shares Obama’s Views on Islam and Terror
» Obnoxious Liberal “Journalists” Caught on Tape
» Oklahoma State Senator Charged in Child Prostitution Case
» Trump Budget Would End Federal Funding for Arts Endowment, PBS
» Watch: Cops Mocked, Harassed While Grabbing Coffee
» Wordstar: A Writer’s Word Processor
 
Canada
» Quebec Imam Says Islamic Ruling on Slave-Girls Was Not Abrogated
 
Europe and the EU
» Austria Cancels ‘Political’ Turkish Music Concerts Amidst Referendum Campaign Scandal
» Dutch Paedophile Jailed for Blackmailing British Girls
» European Union Tightens Up Gun Restrictions
» Free Speech Permits ‘Insults’ About Turkish President, Says Switzerland
» Horror at French School as ‘Lonely Satanist Who Looked Up Mass Shooting Videos Online Opens Fire Injuring 3’
» Italy: Kurd-Supporting Mayor Says Expelled From Turkey
» Italy: Magistrate Reprimanded Over Pharmacist Who Committed Suicide
» Muslim Brotherhood Expands Presence in Germany, Seeks to Establish Sharia Law — Security Official
» Six Out of 10 People in France ‘Don’t Feel Safe Anywhere’
» Two Men Have Throats Slit in Paris, Attacker Yells “Allahu Akbar”
» UK: Man, 32, Dies After Charging His iPhone While in the Bath
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Know Thine Enemy
 
South Asia
» Karnataka: Another Hindu Killing Field and Near Destination of Bloody Jihad in South
 
Australia — Pacific
» Teacher Quits After Primary School Students Threaten to Behead Her
 
Latin America
» Venezuela Bakers Arrested for Making Brownies Instead of Bread
 
Immigration
» Asylum Requests Up 46% in Italy in 2016
» Hungary Will Finish Border Fence by May as PM Refuses to Rely on Turkey
» Italy Seeks to Bolster Libya Migrant Deal as Arrivals Surge
» Judge Considers Ordering President Donald Trump to Double 50,000 Refugee Inflow to the United States
» Migrant Party Wins Seats for First Time in Europe at Dutch Elections
» Schumer Voted for Wall in 2006 But Threatens Gov’t Shutdown Over Funding Trump’s Wall
» Smell From Lorry Lead to Arrest of Trio Who Tried to Sneak Immigrants Into UK
 
Culture Wars
» Google to Target Criticism of Islam in New Censorship Purge
» Number of Children Wanting to Become Opposite Sex Doubling Each Year in Sweden, Say Doctors
 

Has the Deep State Begun Its Revenge on Trump?

The Deep State is set to prick the largest bubble in human history today…

The Deep State is the permanently entrenched “national security” bureaucracy — – the top tier of the military, the CIA, FBI, NSA, etc. It also includes the Federal Reserve, the quintessential Establishment institution. They all hate President Trump. They did everything possible to stop him from taking office. None of it worked. They fired all of their bullets, but he still wouldn’t go down.

Of course, the Deep State could still try to assassinate Trump. It’s obvious the possibility has crossed his mind. He’s taken the unusual step of supplementing his Secret Service protection with loyal private security.

But for now, anyway, the Deep State’s next move is to pin the coming stock market collapse on Trump. He’s the perfect fall guy.

When people think “Greater Depression,” they’ll think “Donald Trump.”

Right now, the Federal Reserve is the Deep State’s weapon of choice.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Debt Ceiling Deadline Has Passed, And Now the Biggest Test of Donald Trump’s Presidency Begins…

On Wednesday, the temporary suspension of the debt ceiling ended, and so now the federal government is not going to be able to go into any more debt until the debt ceiling is raised. For the moment, the Trump administration can implement “ emergency measures” to stay under the debt limit, but it won’ t be too long before we get to a major crisis point because the federal government is quickly running out of cash. Already, the U.S. Treasury has less cash on hand than Apple or Google, and that cash balance is going to keep on dropping until the debt ceiling is finally lifted.

You may remember that the debt ceiling became a major issue a couple of times during the Obama years. Last time around, Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress agreed to a horrendous deal which suspended the debt ceiling until several months after the 2016 election…

[comment: How much of it is just interest payments to the private central bank?]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey Outlook Cut to Negative by Moody’s on Political Tension

Turkey’s credit outlook was lowered by Moody’s Investors Service as the restless political climate since last July’s failed coup has persisted longer than expected. The lira erased its gain.

Moody’s reduced the outlook to negative from stable, keeping its issuer rating one notch below investment grade at Ba1, on par with Russia, according to a statement Friday. Fitch Ratings ranks the nation at the same level.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Catastrophic’: Explosion Levels Home in Rockville, One Person Unaccounted for

A house in Rockville, Md., exploded early Friday morning and firefighters are trying to account for at least one person who is believed to live in the home.

It is not immediately clear exactly what caused the explosion but Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said on NBC 4 that an initial investigation shows that it did not appear to be related to a gas or utility problem.

The incident happened around 1 a.m. in the 11400 block of Ashley Drive in the Randolph Hills neighborhood. More than 75 firefighters responded. Officials called the damage “catastrophic” and said the home had been “completely leveled.”

Goldstein said many people throughout the upper Bethesda and Kensington areas, which are both several miles away, called 911 to report hearing and feeling the explosion.

Pictures on Twitter from the department showed little more than piles of bricks and rubble. Other nearby homes were also damaged, but no neighbors were injured.

In a Twitter message, the county’s fire department said the “status of [the] occupant [is] unknown.” They did not say how many people lived there…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Explosion Levels House in Rockville, Resident Unaccounted for (Videos)

UPDATED 5 p.m. Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein held a news conference on March 17 to recap the investigation into the explosion that occurred overnight on Ashley Drive in Rockville. That explosion leveled one house and damaged ten other houses and nine vehicles. Goldstein said the occupant of the house where the explosion occurred remains unaccounted for.

According to Goldstein, investigators will be back at the scene on Saturday morning.

Goldstein reported that the gas to the house was turned off by Washington Gas in June of 2015. Since Dec. of 2016, Goldstein said there has been unauthorized gas use in the structure.

Find out more in this MyMCMedia Extra video, below:…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Key Democratic Officials Now Warning Base Not to Expect Evidence of Trump/Russia Collusion

Absolutely no evidence has thus far been presented…

FROM MSNBC POLITICS shows to town hall meetings across the country, the overarching issue for the Democratic Party’s base since Trump’s victory has been Russia, often suffocating attention for other issues. This fixation has persisted even though it has no chance to sink the Trump presidency unless it is proven that high levels of the Trump campaign actively colluded with the Kremlin to manipulate the outcome of the U.S. election — a claim for which absolutely no evidence has thus far been presented.

The principal problem for Democrats is that so many media figures and online charlatans are personally benefiting from feeding the base increasingly unhinged, fact-free conspiracies — just as right-wing media polemicists did after both Bill Clinton and Obama were elected — that there are now millions of partisan soldiers absolutely convinced of a Trump/Russia conspiracy for which, at least as of now, there is no evidence. And they are all waiting for the day, which they regard as inevitable and imminent, when this theory will be proven and Trump will be removed.

Key Democratic officials are clearly worried about the expectations that have been purposely stoked and are now trying to tamp them down. Many of them have tried to signal that the beliefs the base has been led to adopt have no basis in reason or evidence.The latest official to throw cold water on the MSNBC-led circus is President Obama’s former acting CIA chief Michael Morell.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

More Evidence That McMaster Shares Obama’s Views on Islam and Terror

Donald Trump’s new national security advisor, Lt. General H.R. McMaster, has made troubling remarks — such as “the Islamic State is not Islamic” — that one expects from the D.C. establishment. However, a hearty endorsement that he gave to a 2010 book points to the totality of McMaster’s views on security issues as being worse than simply his parroting politically correct memes on Islam.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obnoxious Liberal “Journalists” Caught on Tape

It’s no secret that the Trump administration has established a “new paradigm” in dealing with the press. It’s something we have advocated from the start of the new administration. One major aspect of the new approach is accepting the conservative media as legitimate members of the press. After this produced changes in how the press covers the State Department, the gnashing of teeth really began.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Oklahoma State Senator Charged in Child Prostitution Case

Child prostitution charges were filed Thursday against an Oklahoma state senator who police say was found with a teenage boy in a motel room in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, according to a local prosecutor.

Republican Sen. Ralph Shortey of Oklahoma City was charged with engaging in child prostitution, transporting a minor for prostitution and engaging in prostitution within 1,000 feet of a church.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Trump Budget Would End Federal Funding for Arts Endowment, PBS

President Trump’s first budget blueprint is calling for the elimination of federal funding to a host of arts and humanities programs, as the new administration seeks to redirect taxpayer dollars to defense.

The blueprint released by the White House “proposes to eliminate funding” for: the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which sends some money to PBS and National Public Radio.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: Cops Mocked, Harassed While Grabbing Coffee

Two men filmed themselves berating a group of NYPD officers as the cops attempted to get coffee at a local bodega.

The video was found on the OccupyDummycrats Facebook page, which claims to document the “mental illness” of Democrats.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Wordstar: A Writer’s Word Processor

Even today, some authors still use DOS word processing software from the 1990s.

This essay was written in 1990 and updated in 1996 by Robert J. Sawyer, the sci-fi author writer behind such novels as Flashforward and more recently Quantum Night. 27 years later, he’s still using WordStar.

As recently as 2014, George R. R. Martin, of A Song of Ice and Fire fame, used a DOS-based version of WordStar, and probably still does today.

I’m not sure why they don’t just use Emacs or something. Enjoy this walk down memory lane…

Many science fiction writers-including myself, Roger MacBride Allen, Gerald Brandt, Jeffrey A. Carver, Arthur C. Clarke, David Gerrold, Terence M. Green, James Gunn, Matthew Hughes, Donald Kingsbury, Eric Kotani, Paul Levinson, George R. R. Martin, Vonda McIntyre, Kit Reed, Jennifer Roberson, and Edo van Belkom-continue to use WordStar for DOS as our writing tool of choice.

Still, most of us have endured years of mindless criticism of our decision, usually from WordPerfect users, and especially from WordPerfect users who have never tried anything but that program. I’ve used WordStar, WordPerfect, Word, MultiMate, Sprint, XyWrite, and just about every other MS-DOS and Windows word-processing package, and WordStar is by far my favorite choice for creative composition at the keyboard.

That’s the key point: aiding creative composition. To understand how WordStar does that better than other programs, let me start with a little history.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Quebec Imam Says Islamic Ruling on Slave-Girls Was Not Abrogated

Motion 103 “Systemic racism and religious discrimination”, which also known as the anti-Islamophobia motion, demands that “the government should recognize the need to quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear… condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination and take note of House of Commons’ petition e-411 and the issues raised by it” and “develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia, in Canada.”

Petition e-411, which was unanimously endorsed by the Parliament, suggests that attributing terrorism to Islam is Islamophobia.

Initiated by Samer Majzoub, President of the Canadian Muslim Forum and sponsored by Liberal MP Frank Bay Dollard, Quebec), Petition e-411 reads among other things the following: …

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Austria Cancels ‘Political’ Turkish Music Concerts Amidst Referendum Campaign Scandal

Austria has canceled contracts for Turkish concert events in Salzburg and Tyrol on the weekend, over concerns they may be political in nature. This comes amid an escalating row between Turkey and the EU over pro-Erdogan rallies, banned by several EU states.

The Olympic Hall of Innsbruck in Tyrol state, western Austria, on Thursday decided to cancel a performance by Turkish artists Osman Oztunc and Gokhan Tekin scheduled for Saturday, citing newly-obtained information about the organization of the event and the artists, Tiroler Tageszeitung reported. According to Olympic Hall authorities, they made an inquiry into the musicians’ performances at previous venues and came to a conclusion the event in Innsbruck was to have political content.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch Paedophile Jailed for Blackmailing British Girls

Dutch pervert Aydin Coban, 38, targeted thousands of girls during his sick six-year online campaign, with one girl taking her own life after he stalked her relentlessly online for two years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

European Union Tightens Up Gun Restrictions

The European Union parliament voted to toughen Europe’s gun laws this week, closing loopholes said to have been exploited by terrorists in France.

The new revisions to the EU Firearms Directive were passed on a 491-178 vote Tuesday and will require EU countries to implement tighter restrictions on firearms that fire blanks so those weapons cannot be easily manipulated into firing live rounds, New Europe reports.

The regulations will also add a permit requirement to the purchasing of any such blank-firing firearms.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Free Speech Permits ‘Insults’ About Turkish President, Says Switzerland

The Swiss justice office has refused four requests by Turkey for judicial cooperation over comments posted on social media platforms about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he deemed offensive.

Writing in January, the Tages Anzeiger said Turkey had lodged half a dozen requests for legal aid, demanding that Switzerland pursue critics who had ‘insulted’ Erdogan.

On Thursday a spokesman from the Swiss justice office, Folco Galli, told broadcaster SRF that four requests lodged by Turkey in mid January had been rejected, citing free speech.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Horror at French School as ‘Lonely Satanist Who Looked Up Mass Shooting Videos Online Opens Fire Injuring 3’

Panicked students rushed to hide under tables and sprinted for the exit as Kylian Barbey, 17, allegedly opened fire

A ‘lonely Satanist’ student has allegedly opened fire at a French high school, injuring three people — including the headteacher.

The 17-year-old was arrested after he reportedly launched the horror attack at the Alexis de Tocqueville school in Grasse today.

He is believed to have stormed the building armed with a rifle, two handguns and two grenades, before firing a series of shots.

He carried out the terrifying attack after watching American-style mass shooting videos, the interior ministry said this afternoon.

He has since been named as Kylian Barbey — the teenage son of the right-wing municipal councillor, Franck Barbey.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Kurd-Supporting Mayor Says Expelled From Turkey

Voza says explanation of ejection for security is ‘surreal’

(ANSA) — Naples, March 13 — The Kurd-supporting mayor of the southern Italian town of Santomenna said Friday that he had been expelled from Turkey and had his council telephone taken from him.

“I was arrested last night at Istanbul airport and then expelled for surreal security reasons,” Massimiliano Voza, one of a group of Italian mayors who have supported initiatives for the Kurdish people and given honorary citizenship to jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. “I was interrogated and held all night without reason along with 15 other people from a variety of backgrounds.

“I was even denied the right to call the Italian consulate, which moved into action on its own thanks to a foreign ministry initiative.

“They searched me and confiscated my mayor sash and my council telephone”. Voza is a heart surgeon by profession and he had worked as a volunteer in the Syrian city of Kobane after it was liberated from ISIS. The Comitato Napoli per Kobane association said that Voza had been arrested simply because he had a ticket for the Kurdish-majority southwestern Turkish city of Diyarbakir.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Magistrate Reprimanded Over Pharmacist Who Committed Suicide

Woman sid prosecutor treated her like criminal

(ANSA) — Rome, March 16 — The Italian judiciary’s self-governing body, the CSM, on Thursday reprimanded Bologna prosecutor Valter Giovannini over the case of Vera Guidetti, a pharmacist who killed her mother and then committed suicide.

The murder-suicide took place days after the prosecutor had questioned the woman as a witness in a case about the theft of some jewelry.

In the note found by her body, the woman said the prosecutor had treated her like a criminal and had not believed in her good faith. A CSM disciplinary panel ruled against Giovannini for continuing to question Guidetti as a witness, even though evidence had emerged of wrongdoing and she asked to have a defence lawyer with her. Giovannini said he would appeal.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Muslim Brotherhood Expands Presence in Germany, Seeks to Establish Sharia Law — Security Official

Islamic radicals from the Muslim Brotherhood are actively trying to gain a “monopoly” over mosques in the eastern German state of Saxony to attract more followers and increase their influence, the local security service chief has warned.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Six Out of 10 People in France ‘Don’t Feel Safe Anywhere’

Fearing terror attacks, the majority of people in France are pessimistic about the nation’s security situation, with six in 10 saying they no longer feel safe anywhere according to an IFOP-FIDUCIAL poll.

The survey found that 93 per cent of French believe the threat of more terror attacks is high, and 71 per cent feel the security situation in France has got worse over the last five years.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Two Men Have Throats Slit in Paris, Attacker Yells “Allahu Akbar”

Police in Paris have launched an investigation after two men, a father and his son, were found with their throats slit in a trendy part of the French capital. Another son has been arrested in connection with the murders.

A man was arrested in Paris on Friday suspected of slitting the throats of his father and brother outside a building in the capital’s trendy 11th district, police sources told AFP.

The sources, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly, said the reason for the attack was being investigated.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Man, 32, Dies After Charging His iPhone While in the Bath

Richard Bull, 32, from Ealing in west London was found by his wife who ‘thought he had been attacked’ after he suffered severe burns to his chest, arm and hand.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: Know Thine Enemy

There are iron rules of warfare. One of the most basic rules is that you have to know your enemy. If you do not know your enemy, or worse, if you refuse to act on your knowledge of him, you will lose your war against him.

This basic truth appears to have eluded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This week we have been beset by the bizarre and sudden appearance of Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s negotiations chief.

Greenblatt’s mission is apparently to reinstate the mordant peace process between Israel and the PLO.

The peace process that Greenblatt is here to reincarnate died 17 years ago.

In 2000, PLO chief and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat killed the peace process when he initiated a massive terrorist war against Israel, right after he rejected peace and Palestinian statehood at the Camp David peace conference.

In rejecting peace, the architect of modern terrorism made clear that his claim seven years earlier that he was willing to reach a compromise with Israel, based on partition of the Land of Israel between a Jewish and an Arab state, was a lie. As the nationalist camp had warned at the time and since, the PLO was not remotely interested either in statehood or in peace. Arafat’s willingness to engage Israel in negotiations that led to its transfer of security and civil control over Gaza and the Palestinian population centers in Judea and Samaria to the PLO was simply another means to the only end the PLO ever contemplated. It was a means of weakening Israel as a step toward achieving the PLO’s ultimate goal of destroying the Jewish state…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

Karnataka: Another Hindu Killing Field and Near Destination of Bloody Jihad in South

12 RSS-BJP-VHP activists have been murdered in Jihadi network of Karnataka in last 2 years.

Upananda Brahmachari | HENB | Bengaluru | March 16, 2017:: With the brutal murder of RSS Swayamsevak, BJP councillor and Dalit leader Srinivas Prasad, the numbers of such Hindu activists killing have reached in Karnataka to 10 in last two years as per record.

Srinivas Prasad, popularly known as Kithaganahalli Vasu was hacked to death by unidentified miscreants in Anekal, Bengaluru on Tuesday morning.

Most of these killings are made by various anti-Hindu Jihadi outfits and local fanatic Muslim outfits as suspected.

5 persons including a Congress Councillor arrested in connection with Srinivas Prasad murder case, said Bangalore rural SP Amit Singh….

           — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari [Return to headlines]
 

Teacher Quits After Primary School Students Threaten to Behead Her

Frightened teachers at a Sydney primary school have revealed students are showing signs of extreme radicalisation at a young age, saying they have been traumatised by threats of beheading and other violent behaviour.

VIDEO A disturbing culture of radicalism has been revealed at a Primary School in Sydney’s south-west involving children in year 5. Source: 7 News Teachers fearful of radicalism in Sydney primary school

Students as young as in Year 5 are making the threats and pressuring peers into reading the Koran at Punchbowl Public School in Sydney’s southwest, the Daily Telegraph has reported.

Documents given to the newspaper reportedly reveal that at least three staff members have taken stress leave, received counselling and been paid compensation after bullying from Islamic students.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela Bakers Arrested for Making Brownies Instead of Bread

Four bakers have been arrested in Venezuela for illegally making brownies and other pastries.

It’s part of a crackdown by the government, which now requires 90% of the country’s wheat to be used in loaves rather than cakes.

President Nicolas Maduro has threatened to take over bakeries in the capital Caracas as part of a new “bread war”.

He’s sent inspectors and soldiers into more than 700 bakeries this week to enforce the rules.

Venezuela’s Superintendency of Fair Prices said two men were arrested because their bakery was using too much wheat in sweet bread, ham croissants and other products

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Asylum Requests Up 46% in Italy in 2016

Up 63% in Germany

(ANSA) — Brussels, March 16 — Requests for asylum in Italy rose 46% in 2016, Eurostat said Thursday, compared to a 63% rise in the top country, Germany. Overall, asylum requests in Europe fell slightly to 1,204,300, from 1,257,000 in 2015, but were still more than double 2014’s 562,700. Most requests were made in Germany (722,300, or 60% of the total), followed by Italy (121,200, 10%), France (76,000, 6%), Greece (49,900, 4%), Austria (39,900, 3%) and the United Kingdom (38,300, 3%).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary Will Finish Border Fence by May as PM Refuses to Rely on Turkey

THE prime minister of Hungary has said a second line of fences along the border will be finished by May as he warns it is “not smart policy” to rely solely on Turkey to keep migrants out of the EU

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that plans were well under way to finish the construction on the border with Serbia but warned that recent conflict with Turkey could mean more migrants entering the EU.

He added: “It is definitely not smart policy that we place our safety in the hands of the Turks, and at the same time we keep pestering them, attacking them, criticising them that they are not democratic enough and generating conflicts with them.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Seeks to Bolster Libya Migrant Deal as Arrivals Surge

ROME (Reuters) — Italy will host a meeting between European and North African countries next week in a bid to strengthen support for an agreement it struck with Libya to fight people smuggling as migrant arrivals surge.

The prime minister of the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, Fayez al-Seraj, will meet with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and interior ministers from eight European countries including Germany and France on Monday.

Last month Italy pledged money, training and equipment to help Libya fight people smugglers, a deal that was endorsed by European Union member states.

But Libya is still far from stable. Two governments are vying for power — in Tobruk to the east and Tripoli to the west — and the country remains mired in factional fighting and lawlessness.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Judge Considers Ordering President Donald Trump to Double 50,000 Refugee Inflow to the United States

If actually implemented, the judge’s plan also would be extremely expensive for Americans.

[Comment: This is getting ridiculous. Judges have zero authority outside the scope of ensuring laws follows the consitution. Only Congress can enact law.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Party Wins Seats for First Time in Europe at Dutch Elections

A political party founded to serve the interests of immigrants in the Netherlands which has been accused of acting as apologists for the Turkish government has won seats for the first time, a major breakthrough that may set precedents for other such movements across Europe.

While news coverage of the Dutch elections has largely focussed in the wake of the vote on the relative successes of Party for Freedom leader and anti-Islamification campaigner Geert Wilders and conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a number of other smaller parties enjoyed record gains on Thursday morning.

Among them are ‘Denk’, the notably pro-Turkish interest movement that became a legally recognised party last year and has now won three seats in the Dutch parliament.

Founded by two Turkish-origin Labour party members who broke away to found their own movement and to campaign for migrant rights and interests in the Netherlands, Denk — Dutch word for ‘Think’ and Turkish for ‘Equality’ — is now Europe’s first electorally successful migrant party.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Schumer Voted for Wall in 2006 But Threatens Gov’t Shutdown Over Funding Trump’s Wall

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and several other Democrats sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Monday threatening a government shutdown in April if Congress approves funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Smell From Lorry Lead to Arrest of Trio Who Tried to Sneak Immigrants Into UK

A GANG of people smugglers failed in their bid to sneak 20 illegal immigrants into the UK in the back of a lorry when Border staff noticed a foul smell coming from the cargo.

Officials discovered the odour was emanating from 19 Albanian men and one Syrian who had been hidden inside a sealed HGV vehicle which had disembarked from a Dutch ferry.

The vehicle was supposed to be importing electrical equipment but when it was opened for inspection at North Shields Tyne port one officer “noticed feet” poking out from beneath the cargo.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Google to Target Criticism of Islam in New Censorship Purge

Website that describes Islam as “intolerant” listed as example of “upsetting/offensive” content.

One of the examples cited by Google for what it now considers “upsetting-offensive” content that will be subject to flagging, de-listing and possible censorship is a website that describes the religion of Islam as “intolerant”.

Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that Google will begin directing teams of employees to flag content that is deemed “upsetting” or “offensive” and bury such websites in order to “improve the quality of its search results”.

“The new “upsetting-offensive” flag instructs quality raters to “flag to all web results that contain upsetting or offensive content from the perspective of users in your locale, even if the result satisfies the user intent,” according to the report.

SearchEngineLand.com, which originally broke the story, features an example of what would be buried if a user searched for the term “Islam” — an article entitled Proof that Islam is Evil, Violent, and Intolerant- Straight From the Koran by Jan Morgan, a public speaker and award-winning journalist who regularly appears on Fox News and has appeared on CNN.

The website in question contains numerous violent passages from the Quran and the Hadith that explicitly prove Islam is not a “religion of peace”.

Under Google’s new guidelines, such information would be flagged as “upsetting-offensive” and buried in Google search results because the page exists to “promote intolerance or hate”.

In reality, the page exists to expose the fact that the religion of Islam is intolerant and hateful towards non-Muslims, members of the LGBT community and others — a manifestly provable fact.

Put simply; Google is planning on filtering out politically incorrect information even if it is factually correct.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Number of Children Wanting to Become Opposite Sex Doubling Each Year in Sweden, Say Doctors

The number of children feeling the anxiety of being trapped in the wrong body is doubling each year in Sweden, with children as young as six wanting to become the opposite sex, doctors have said, according to local media.

Last year, a Swedish gender investigation team saw some 197 children and young people keen to undergo analysis to determine their gender identity and become the opposite sex, Louise Frisen, child psychiatrist at the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital in Stockholm, told Swedish daily Aftonbladet…

The American College of Pediatricians has meanwhile urged healthcare professionals and legislators to scrap all policies that condition children to “accept as normal” a life of “chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex.”

“Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse,” the group said in an open letter.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

8 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/17/2017

  1. Smell From Lorry Lead to Arrest of Trio Who Tried to Sneak Immigrants Into UK…

    …I imagine it is a very good way to radicalise the smelly illegal invaders. Make them dirty and hungry and hurt their pride, make them suffer as hell on the way to the promised land, and there show them they are not welcome by the wealthy locals who all have two ferrarris and a supermodel wife. These smelly immigrants really are lost souls, and I am afraid they are gonna be helped in the mosques, and so the psychologic schizofrenic rollercoaster gains its momentum. It all fits well with the young Assyrian bullies in western schools. Assyrians, the Bible tells us, are God’s chosen people for displacing wicked Israel from the Promised Land.

    And in the other news: Google and the censorship of political incorectness is like an Ostrich pretending that if I can’t see you then you can’t see me! It doesn’t work that way, dear Google. Censorship makes the censored information only the more interesting.

    • No one is “making” invaders dirty and hungry. They just haven’t achieved freeloader status yet.

      It’s the wealthy who welcome the invaders. People of lesser means are the ones who have to bear the brunt of the invaders and so do not want them.

      • Yes well I was talking about the psychological impact on these travellers. Marx charged against the burgeoisie, “mosques” also charge against clear and present “them wealthy people”. Such state of affairs has a great potential for mob violence.

  2. “In other news, the Swiss prosecution service has declined four separate Turkish demands that those who insult President Erdogan on Swiss social media be charged. The judicial authorities cited free speech as the reason for their refusal.”

    They really seem to think they’re owning a colony, puny bastards.

  3. On Vlad, there is a piece where Orban is saying the Brussels must be stopped. I wonder what Hungarians are thinking about that? It seems that Orban is pivoting from full-out support of EU apart from some disagreements, to support conditional on drastic reforms in Brussels. Which, of course, will not happen. EU is totalitarian, and totalitarians don’t just go and say oops in response to feedback! They dig in and try to “kill the messenger.”

    • There is two camps in Hungary: the majority of people (who also voted on the referendum, not let migrants into the country) and the loud Soros paid liberal/marxist/socialist minority who demands that Hungary give up national identity, open its border and get enriched.
      I would say most people hates the EU, but recognize that cooperation between European nations is a good thing.
      I heard many people saying just exit the EU. Which might come anyway. I understand Orban’s effort to try to save it from the inside, no matter how hopeless it looks. Well if some of the key country leaders would change like Le Pen come to power or some change on the German side…?

  4. ** Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress agreed to a horrendous deal which suspended the debt ceiling **

    It’s ridiculous to think the Republicans would have a spine and not meekly go along with what Obama wanted.

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