The Italian authorities are investigating to determine if a knife attack at the Milan train station was related to terrorism. Two soldiers and a policeman were wounded in the attack, none of them critically. The alleged perpetrator, who has an Italian mother and a North African father, reportedly had a Facebook page that included a video supporting the Islamic State.
In other news, Sweden has revoked its arrest warrant for Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, Caroline Glick, Dean, Insubria, JD, KS, Reader from Chicago, SS, 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.
Greece Erupts in Violence With Police Officers Fighting and Trying to Storm Parliament
GREEK police officers on strike stormed the country’s parliament brawling with guards defending the government building as the row over austerity continued to rage.
Thousands took to the streets in protest — including mobs of militant youths alongside police officers — as riot police were forced to be deployed en masse to try and contain the bubbling cauldron of anarchy.
The Mediterranean country has been gripped by demonstrations, walkouts and fighting as the country grapples with chaotic civil unrest over austerity measures.
Police officers on strike over cuts to the pay took to the capital, Athens, and attempted to storm parliament.
Guards tasked with defending the heart of democracy were forced to battle with the officers amid the driving rain.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
California Governor Jerry Brown Slams Taxpayers as “Free Loaders” For Opposing Higher Taxes
Millions of Californians are outraged by a recent bill that would increase the state’s gas tax by 12 cents per gallon, and increase vehicle license fees by $50 per year. All told, the plan amounts to a $52 billion tax hike. The proposal has since been passed in the state’s legislature, despite the fact that a majority of Californians opposed the bill. The tax is so controversial that state senator Josh Newman, who helped it pass, may face a recall election in the near future.
Amid this outrage, California Governor Jerry Brown defended the senator and the gas tax in a recent speech, during which he revealed how much disdain he has for middle class voters who are tired of being taxed to death.
Republicans say budget cuts should be made to fund road maintenance. A failed GOP plan proposed last year would have tapped into cap-and-trade money used to lower greenhouse gas emissions, cut Caltrans positions and eliminated other positions that have been vacant. It identifies other funding sources, but doesn’t specify what programs would be cut if that money was diverted to roads.
Brown said the plan is unrealistic.
“The freeloaders — I’ve had enough of them,” Brown said, adding that the approved tax and fee hikes bring those charges to the level they were 30 years ago if adjusted for inflation. “They have a president that doesn’t tell the truth and they’re following suit.”
Of course, it isn’t just a few Republican senators who don’t want the tax hike. Polls have shown that more than half of Californians oppose it. I suppose they’re a bunch of freeloaders right?
And what he doesn’t say, is that California already has some of the highest taxes in the nation. Californians already give so much money to the government, and yet the state has some of the worst roads in the country. California doesn’t have a problem with people who aren’t willing to pay their fair share to keep the state’s infrastructure functional.
California has a problem with a state government that is fiscally irresponsible. It’s a known fact that the revenue generated from the current gas tax is often diverted to general funds, even though there is a law in California which states that gas taxes can only be spent on transportation.
Instead of recognizing that reality, Jerry Brown has the audacity to claim that hardworking people who don’t want their taxes increased, are a bunch of freeloaders (that is, the same people who pay his salary). He shifts the blame for California’s financial state away from himself and his political party, and onto the “freeloaders,” who he believes must be Trump supporters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Trump and Enemies of the System
The United States is sailing in uncharted waters today as the intelligence-security community wages an all-but-declared rebellion against President Donald Trump.
Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein’s decision on Wednesday to appoint former FBI director Robert Mueller to serve as a special counsel charged with investigating allegations of “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,” is the latest and so far most significant development in this grave saga.
Who are the people seeking to unseat Trump? This week we learned that the powers at play are deeply familiar. Trump’s nameless opponents are some of Israel’s greatest antagonists in the US security establishment.
This reality was exposed this week with intelligence leaks related to Trump’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. To understand what happened, let’s start with the facts that are undisputed about that meeting…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Protestors demand FCC regulate Internet
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of Alt-Left demonstrators has already begun protesting in front of the FCC headquarters in Washington, in advance of next Thursday’s vote scheduled to repeal the Obama-era “net neutrality rules.”
Holding signs that say, “Ban Drudge,” “Ban Infowars,” and “Ban Breitbart,” the protestors are supported by Soros-funded Astroturf “public interest” firms that seek to preserve the ability giant gateway portals like Google, Facebook, and Twitter to censor conservatives, while demanding only that the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that connect users to the Internet follow rules that all Internet content providers are treated equally.
On May 15, Elizabeth Harrington reported in the Washington Free Beacon that members of the alt-left connected to DisruptJ20, with a history of participating in violent protests, have targeted the neighborhood where FCC chair Ajit Pai lives, leaving leaflets on the doors of Pai’s neighborhood and planning a “vigil to save the Internet” in advance of Thursday’s scheduled FCC vote.
Under the Obama administration, the Democratic Party supported effort funded by Soros and Google, spending $72 million since 2006 to impose government control of the Internet under the guise of “net neutrality,” co-opted the language of an “open Internet” by seeking to regulate the ISPs as “common carrier” trucks or buses under Title II of the Communications Act.
At the same time, Soros and Google defined the Obama-era “net neutrality” rules to allow the Internet gateway portals, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, to design “Fake News” rules, to bar conservative content deemed by the Google, Facebook, and Twitter censors to be somehow or other “unacceptable” for Internet broadcast.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FEC Boss Who Tried to Muzzle Drudge Now on Soros Payroll
The former chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, who famously eyed regulating the politics of conservative outlets like the Drudge Report, has joined an advocacy group funded by George Soros and run by his son.
Ann Ravel is the first fellow listed with the California advocacy group New America.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Kill Google AMP Before it Kills the Web
Open source insider There’s been a good deal of ongoing discussion about Google AMP — Accelerated Mobile Pages.
Quite a few high-profile web developers have this year weighted in with criticism and some, following a Google conference dedicated to AMP, have cautioned users about diving in with both feet.
These, in my view, don’t go far enough in stating the problem and I feel this needs to be said very clearly: Google’s AMP is bad — bad in a potentially web-destroying way. Google AMP is bad news for how the web is built, it’s bad news for publishers of credible online content, and it’s bad news for consumers of that content. Google AMP is only good for one party: Google. Google, and possibly, purveyors of fake news.
It’s time for developers to wake up and, as Jason Scott once said of Facebook, stop: “Shoveling down the sh*t sherbet” Google is now serving with AMP.
Announced in 2015, duly open sourced and integrated into Google’s mobile search, Google has pitched AMP as a way to speed the mobile web. It employs something the ads slinger calls AMP HTML that the firm describes as a “new open framework built entirely out of existing web technologies.”
What it is, is a way for Google to obfuscate your website, usurp your content and remove any lingering notions of personal credibility from the web.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prosecutors: Times Square Driver Wanted to ‘Kill Them All’
NEW YORK — A man charged with slamming his speeding car into pedestrians in Times Square, killing a teenager and injuring nearly two dozen people, said that he wanted to “kill them all” and that police should have shot him to stop him, a prosecutor revealed Friday.
Richard Rojas, 26, also said he had smoked marijuana laced with PCP sometime before making a U-turn onto the sidewalks of the bustling “Crossroads of the World” and plowing straight ahead into frightened tourists Thursday, according to a criminal complaint.
Officials are awaiting toxicology results, though Rojas “had glassy eyes, slurred speech, and was unsteady,” during his arrest, the complaint said.
“He murdered in cold blood,” Assistant District Attorney Harrison Schweiloch said. Eighteen-year-old Alyssa Elsman, of Portage, Mich., was killed in the crash. Her 13-year-old sister was among the 22 injured.
Three people are in critical condition with serious head injuries, and a fourth is being treated for a collapsed lung and a broken pelvis, according to the complaint…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Now that Robert Mueller has been appointed special counsel to investigate if Russia influenced the 2016 presidential election it’s worth reiterating his misguided handiwork and collaboration with radical Islamic organizations as FBI director. Judicial Watch exclusively obtained droves of records back in 2013 documenting how, under Mueller’s leadership, the FBI purged all anti-terrorism training material deemed “offensive” to Muslims after secret meetings between Islamic organizations and the FBI chief. Judicial Watch had to sue to get the records and published an in-depth report on the scandal in 2013 and a lengthier, updated follow-up in 2015.
As FBI director, Mueller bent over backwards to please radical Islamic groups and caved into their demands. The agency eliminated the valuable anti-terrorism training material and curricula after Mueller met with various Islamic organizations, including those with documented ties too terrorism. Among them were two organizations— Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)—named by the U.S. government as unindicted co-conspirators in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorist financing case. CAIR is a terrorist front group with extensive links to foreign and domestic Islamists. It was founded in 1994 by three Middle Eastern extremists (Omar Ahmad, Nihad Awad and Rafeeq Jaber) who ran the American propaganda wing of Hamas, known then as the Islamic Association for Palestine.
| — Hat tip: KS | [Return to headlines] |
Soros Black vs Blue War: Flooding Local Elections With Cash
A discussion about Soros’ “Color Revolutions”
Lee Stranahan joins David Knight with his investigation into Soros’ strategy of flooding local elections with cash, electing officials who will inflame tensions between “black lives” and “blue lives”.
Soros has funded “Color Revolutions” throughout Eastern Europe based on class warfare.
In America, class warfare has not worked but race war.
The Globalist motto has always been “think globally, act locally.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘They Didn’t Have to Kill Him’: Miss. Carjackers Fatally Shoot 6-Year-Old, Police Say
While Ebony Archie shopped inside a Jackson, Miss., grocery store, her 6-year-old son Kingston slept in the car.
It was just after 1 a.m. on Thursday and Archie, a mother of two from Jackson, had left the Toyota Camry running and the doors apparently unlocked. She was buying medicine, her family said, and Kingston had asked to stay in the car.
In just a few hours, Kingston was scheduled to graduate from kindergarten.
Instead, he was driven away by carjackers. After nine hours, police found his mother’s stolen vehicle abandoned on a dead-end road. Kingston was in the back seat, fatally shot in the head.
Authorities later arrested three teenagers. Capital murder charges are pending, authorities said.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Top Republican: Coup Attempt Against Trump Being Led by GOP Insiders
Goal is to force Trump to resign
An attempt to force Donald Trump to resign from office is being led by GOP establishment insiders in concert with the Democratic-aligned media, according to a top Republican.
Author, journalist and Middle East Forum fellow David P. Goldman reveals that the unnamed ranking Republican told an off the record gathering this week that, “A “coup” attempt was in progress against President Donald Trump, with collusion between the largely Democratic media and Trump’s numerous enemies in the Republican Party.”
“The object of the coup, the Republican leader added, was not impeachment, but the recruitment of a critical mass of Republican senators and congressmen to the claim that Trump was “unfit” for office and to force his resignation,” writes Goldman.
Although it is unlikely that Trump will be impeached and virtually impossible that he will ever resign from office, the goal is to keep his administration mired in scandal so that Trump cannot advance his policy agenda.
This fits with our previous reporting, which exposed how individuals within Trump’s inner circle are already preparing to become the face of the effort to remove him from office.
The “coup” attempt is being organized by the usual suspects — John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Paul Ryan.
[Comment: What is the penalty for sedition?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier and Mount Hood are all major volcanoes that lie along the infamous “Ring of Fire” that runs down the west coast of the United States, and all of the seismic activity that has been taking place in the region has many concerned about what may happen next. Earlier this month, I wrote about how 45 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater hit Alaska in just one 24 hour period. This week, it is volcanic activity that is raising concerns. The earthquake swarms at Mount St. Helens are making headlines all over the globe, and on Tuesday two major volcanoes in Alaska suddenly erupted on the exact same day…
An eruption at Bogoslof volcano — one of two to erupt in the Aleutian Islands Tuesday — is its first after more than two months of inactivity, causing ash to fall in a nearby community before drifting south over the Pacific Ocean.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory said Tuesday night’s eruption at the volcano about 60 miles west of Unalaska, which began just after 10:30 p.m. and lasted for 73 minutes, sent a plume to an altitude of 34,000 feet.
Overall, 39 volcanoes around the world are either erupting right now or have recently erupted according to Volcano Discovery.
Most of those active volcanoes are along the Ring of Fire.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Who Will Stand Up for Civil Liberties?
At a moment in history when the ACLU is quickly becoming a partisan left wing advocacy group that cares more about getting President Trump than protecting due process (see my recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal,) who is standing up for civil liberties?
The short answer is no one. Not the Democrats, who see an opportunity to reap partisan benefit from the appointment of a special counsel to investigate any ties between the Trump campaign/ administration and Russia. Not Republican elected officials who view the appointment as giving them cover. Certainly not the media who are revelling in 24/7 “bombshells.” Not even the White House, which is too busy denying everything to focus on “legal technicalities” that may sound like “guilty man arguments.” Legal technicalities are of course the difference between the rule of law and the iron fist of tyranny. Civil liberties protect us all. As H.L. Mencken used to say: “The trouble about fighting for human freedom is that you have to spend much of your life defending sons of bitches: for oppressive laws are always aimed at them originally, and oppression must be stopped in the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.” History demonstrates that the first casualty of hyper-partisan politics is often civil liberties.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Don’t be Duped by Trudeau’s Carbon Pricing Plan
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon pricing plan released Thursday by Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna is a political fraud.
It will not achieve the government’s promised industrial greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2020 or 2030.
It will increase the cost of living for Canadians, adding hundreds of dollars to their annual household bills, year after year.
The plan says that by 2022, we will be paying an estimated 11.6 cents more per litre of gas alone, solely due to carbon pricing.
It omits that after that, we’ll be paying even more, as Canada’s carbon price continues to rise.
The plan is politically dishonest because of what it omits — that the cost of almost all goods and services will rise, because almost all consume fossil fuel energy.
If the price of gasoline goes up, the cost of food goes up, because it costs more to transport food to market.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
@Sweden Twitter Account Blocking 14k Users is a Threat to Free Speech, Activists Tell RT
The Swedish public and activists are outraged over the blocking of some 14,000 Twitter users by the country’s official account over alleged hate speech. Those blacklisted included top Israeli politicians and Noam Chomsky.
An initiative of the Swedish Institute, the @Sweden Twitter account is run by a different person each week — either someone located in Sweden (who may or may not be a Swedish national) or a Swedish citizen abroad. It is used to promote the country around the world.
Its official rules and guidelines say the account is a “platform that supports the idea of free speech and democracy” and “invites opinions and debates.” However, some 14,000 users were shocked to find they were on the account’s block list, entirely unable to participate in the very benefits its boasts.
The blocking happened between May 8 and May 14, when the account was curated by Vian Tahir, an online security expert who helps protect people against online bullying and trolls. She claims those she blocked were either involved in “threats against migrants, women, and LGBTQ people,” or were suspected of right-wing extremism or neo-Nazi links, The Local reported.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The house of Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the anti-mass migration Sweden Democrats, was attacked earlier this week and one Swedish journalist claims that Åkesson only has himself to blame for it.
TV4 sports journalist Christoffer Eriksson said that Mr Akesson has no one else to blame for the attack, but himself. Åkesson’s home, where his partner and their three-year-old son were at the time, was attacked on Tuesday evening by unknown persons who threw eggs at the house and firecrackers and even tried to break in, Swedish paper Nyheter Idag reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU Threat: Austria’s Eurosceptic Party Freedom Party Close to Power as Government Collapses
THE existence of the European Union has been put under threat once again as Austria’s populist Freedom Party looks set to win power.
Brussels were finally breathing easy after both the Dutch and French elections this year passed without deeply eurosceptic Geert Wilders or Marine Le Pen securing victory.
EU officials warned a win for populism could put the entire union at threat, and the bloc be torn apart if countries follow in Britain’s footsteps with Brexit.
But now a new threat is looming following the dramatic collapse of Austria’s government.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Farage Warns EU: ‘Britain Could Walk Away From Negotiations if Bullying Continues’
Brexit captain guts ‘bloody rude’ Juncker on EU parliament floor
Nigel Farage roasted Jean-Claude Juncker on the floor of European Parliament for being a ‘bloody rude bully’ while delivering an unflinching ultimatum to the EU, warning their outrageous demands could force Britain to leave the negotiating table before year’s end.
Farage genially shook hands with Juncker, president of the European Commission, before proceeding to viciously embarrass him in front of Parliament in a response to Juncker’s attacks on British PM Theresa May — whom he called “totally deluded” after a private dinner in London, and his disparaging of the English language — Juncker delivered his recent State of the Union address in French, explaining, “English is losing its importance in Europe.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France to ‘Think Less of Itself, More of the EU’s Interests’
European affairs will now prevail in France’s foreign policy
France’s new Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has set a new tone for the country’s foreign policy: this week the country’s Foreign Ministry has been renamed the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. French geopolitical analyst Emmanuel Dupuy told Sputnik that it is signaling that European affairs will now prevail in France’s foreign policy.
On Wednesday, France’s new Prime Minister Edouard Philippe named a total of 22 ministers in his new government.
Philippe also announced that his government would rename the country’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.French media were quick to suggest that this insistence on the importance of Europe is “no doubt a response to the anti-European campaign run by Macron’s presidential rival Marine Le Pen, among others.”
Sputnik France discussed the issue with Emmanuel Dupuy, professor of geopolitics and president of the Institute for European Perspective and Security (IPSE), who said that it clearly demonstrates the reorientation of French foreign policy towards the European affairs.
To head this new ministry, Philippe has appointed Jean-Yves Le Drian, the former Defense Minister during Hollande’s entire five-year term (2012-2017).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: The Ideology of Islamic Victimization
French sociological research seems to have no new books, articles or ideas about French Muslim radicalization. It is not hard to see why: the few scholars tempted to wander off the beaten path (“terrorists are victims of society, and suffering from racism” and so on) are afraid to be called unpleasant names. In addition, many sociologists share the same Marxist ideology that attributes violent behavior to discrimination and poverty. If some heretics try to explain that terrorists are not automatically victims (of society, of white French males, of whatever) a pack of hounds of Muslim and non-Muslim scholars start baying to lynch them as racists, Islamophobes and bigots.
After the November 2015, terrorist attacks in Paris, Alain Fuchs, president of France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), launched a call for a new project to understand some of the “factors of radicalization” in France.
The project that emerged, “Youth and Radicalism: Religious and Political Factors”, by Olivier Galland and Anne Muxel, was thorough. Their survey is based mainly on a poll conducted by Opinion Way of 7,000 high school students, and was followed by a second “poll” of 1,800 young people (14 to 16 years old). The next phase will apparently include individual and group interviews with young secondary-school students.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Globalist French President Gets to Work Empowering EU
The ruling establishment in Europe, along with its globalist agent, Rothschild banker and new French President Emmanuel Macron, appear to be absolutely tone deaf to the growing outrage across the continent. Even as the United Kingdom works on seceding from the controversial European Union superstate, and most French people want a vote on whether to even remain under the Brussels-based regime’s thumb, Macron is pushing hard to accelerate the EU war on self-government, borders, and nationhood. Other globalist leaders of formerly sovereign EU member states — especially Macron ally and German Chancellor Angela Merkel — are doing the same. But across Europe, the public is getting fed up.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cabinet OKs Compulsory Vaccination for School Entry
Up to the age of six says Gentiloni
(ANSA) — Rome, May 19 — The cabinet on Friday approved a decree reintroducing compulsory vaccinations for school admissions. The decree had been held up by a row between Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin and Education Minister Valeria Fedeli over the age limit for the obligation, with Lorenzin wanting it raised to 10 and Fedeli insisting it should be left at six.
In the end, Fedeli won out.
Premier Paolo Gentiloni said “without vaccinations there can be no entry into schools from ages 0-6”.
He said the aim of the reform was to “avert a real emergency”.
Sanctions up to “30 times the current ones” will be envisaged for children who are not vaccinated, the premier said. Among the compulsory vaccinations, he said, would be those for measles and meningitis, whose cases have risen in Italy recently.
Lorenzin said there would be “12 compulsory vaccinations that will be required for school admission”.
These were a further eight in addition to the four already decreed compulsory: anti-polio, anti-diphteria, anti-hepatitis B and anti-whooping cough.
The new entries are anti-meningococcus B and C, anti-measles, anti-scarlet fever, anti-parotitis, anti-chicken pox and the vaccine against aemophilus influenzae, which causes a severe form of influenza. Gentiloni said the new system would come into force “gradually”, saying that the government appreciated the need to “progressively” involve parents.
He also said the new standards would serve as benchmarks for Italy’s regions, which govern health management and spending in Italy.
The government has vowed to end a climate of vaccine skepticism in Italy.
Some of the skepticism has been raised by past statements from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which the M5S and its leader, comedian Beppe Grillo, have since gone on to disown.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Checks on Whether Milan Attacker Had Pro-ISIS Facebook Page
Soldier, police officer in hospital
(ANSA) — Milan, May 19 — Milan anti-terrorism investigators are working to establish whether a Facebook profile in the name of Ismail Hosni containing at least one pro-ISIS video belongs to the young man arrested over Thursday’s stabbing attack on a police officer and two soldiers at the city’s central station, sources said.
A railway police officer and a soldier were still in hospital on Friday and another serviceman was also attacked and was released from hospital with a seven-day prognosis. The attacker, an Italian national whose mother is also Italian and whose father is North African, has been arrested and is accused of attempted homicide.
The Facebook page has been blocked.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said Friday that Saturday’s Milan Without Walls march will go ahead, amid calls for it to be cancelled following the attack. “The officer is OK,” Sala said after visiting the injured railway police officer at Milan’s Fatebenefratelli hospital. “I call for peaceful participation from everyone to help reflection on such an important issue,” Sala added on Facebook.
Sala also blasted those who blamed the migrant-reception policies for the attack and called for the march to be scrapped.
“The criminal who attacked the security forces is a the son of an Italian mother and a North African father and he is a full-blown Italian,” Sala said. “Despite this, some find it convenient to blame this criminal act on migrants”. The march will feature the participation of voluntary associations and NGOs working for migrant integration, as well as the city. Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni, on the other hand, said the march should not go ahead. “I have expressed my solidarity and support for the officers who are injured and I renew it,” Maroni, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League, said in a statement. “I repeat that I consider it opportune to cancel the pro-immigration march planned for tomorrow in Milan as a sign of respect for the security forces who are unfortunately exposed to risks to their lives”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Investigates Milan Train Station Attacker for Terrorism
Milan prosecutors have opened a terrorism probe into the man who stabbed two soldiers and a police officer on Thursday evening, according to Italian media reports.
The attack took place during a routine check at the city’s main train station at around 8pm on Thursday. The three victims were hospitalized but not in critical condition and one of the army officers had already been discharged by Friday morning.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Seizes Weapons, Remand Islamist for Four Weeks
Norwegian Islamist Arfan Bhatti has been remanded in custody for four weeks, suspected of involvement with a cache of weapons found in Oslo last week.
Bhatti has appealed the decision of the authorities to hold him in custody, reports broadcaster NRK.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Revokes Arrest Warrant for Wikileaks’ Julian Assange
Little is likely to change for Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who just learned on Friday that his arrest warrant issued by Swedish authorities back in 2010 has been revoked. Until the British government decides to revoke its own warrant for Assange jumping bail in November of that year, he’ll stay put inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Sweden’s top prosecutor, Marianne Ny, said she gave up trying to serve him but added that “if he were to return to Sweden before the statute of limitations on this case expires in August 2020, the preliminary investigation could be resumed.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Theresa May is planning to introduce huge regulations on the way the internet works, allowing the government to decide what is said online.
Particular focus has been drawn to the end of the manifesto, which makes clear that the Tories want to introduce huge changes to the way the internet works.
“Some people say that it is not for government to regulate when it comes to technology and the internet,” it states. “We disagree.” Senior Tories confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the phrasing indicates that the government intends to introduce huge restrictions on what people can post, share and publish online.
[Comment: Tightly controlled internet 2 was planned long ago. Those that love freedom will be relegated to using old and slow internet 1.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wave of ‘More Dangerous, Skilled’ ISIS Jihadists Bound to Hit Europe — UN Counterterrorism Chief
UN tells Europeans ‘more terrorism’ is inevitable
Europe will have to come to grips with an exodus of “dangerous and disillusioned” Islamic State jihadists, defeated in Syria and Iraq earlier this year and possibly seeking revenge, the head of the UN Security Council’s counterterrorism agency has warned.
Scores of foreign Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters, determined to come back to Europe, are “more dangerous” than previous waves of returnees, Jean-Paul Laborde told reporters on Thursday. Some may be eager to seek revenge after defeats on the battlefield, including in recent confrontations in Mosul.
The first wave of the returnees was mainly made up of young people who went to Syria and Iraq “for T-shirts and photos,” Laborde said, RTBF reported. They came back “disillusioned and dismayed.” The second wave may contain much more extreme individuals, who had more time to build contacts with criminal organizations that can assist them in committing attacks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pauline Hanson slammed Malcolm Turnbull on Friday for praising Indonesia as a moderate Islamic nation and ‘a great example to the world’.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
After the last election, the far-left in our society became a laughing stock. The social justice warriors, the progressives, the regressive left; whatever you want to call them, they became a joke after Trump was elected. And it wasn’t because they lost the election. It was because of how they reacted to losing. We all witnessed what amounted to a nationwide temper tantrum on November 9th. And in the weeks that followed, it became apparent that these people aren’t just childish. They are freaking insane.
However, it may surprise you to learn that these people aren’t just a joke in America. They are the laughing stock of the world. They are looked down upon, even in countries where they don’t have a significant presence.
In China for instance, they have a word for these people. They are called “baizuo” or the “white left” on social media. Which is interesting, because even though China has its fair share of socialists and communists, they don’t have a direct equivalent to our liberal snowflakes. Most of the Chinese are still fiercely nationalistic and anti-immigrant, regardless of political affiliation. That country just doesn’t have a large population of politically correct, affluent liberals (presumably, they were all killed off during the Great Leap Forward). So what does this term mean to the average Chinese citizen?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police Reveal 70 Terrorism Investigations Under Way Across Australia
Police have about 70 terrorism investigations going on across the country, as ASIO signals concern that some children of foreign fighters may pose a jihadism risk if they return home.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Raban Alou, 19, has pleaded guilty to his part in an ISIS-inspired plot that resulted in the slaying of police accountant Curtis Cheng outside Sydney’s Parramatta police headquarters in 2015.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Striking Video: Venezuelan Police Unleash Devastating Water Cannon on Protesters
If the protests that have rocked Venezuela over the past few months can teach us anything, it’s that the Maduro regime is desperately clinging to power. As SHTFplan.com’s Mac Slavo writes, protests are normal in any country, but when they occur every day for weeks on end, and result in dozens of deaths, it’s obvious that the government is in an unstable position. And as the government grows more desperate, their methods of controlling the population will always become more extreme.
That’s what’s happening in Venezuela, where the police have unleashed a devastating water cannon on protesters, which has been referred to as “La Ballena,” or “The Whale.”
You may be wondering how the police in Venezuela could live with themselves after inflicting this kind of carnage on their fellow citizens, week after week. How could they physically defend such an atrocious regime? It turns out that the riot cops in Venezuela are just as desperate and fed-up with the government as everyone else in that country.
The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed eight police officers in Venezuela, and discovered that the police are completely demoralized. Many of them hate the government, but they can’t find work anywhere else. They’re willing to fight the protesters for a mere $40 a month…
And that, as SHTFplan.com’s Mac Slavo concludes, is how a socialist government keeps its boot on the neck of the population. They keep everyone so poor, that the only way the average person can survive, is by brutalizing their fellow citizens.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela General Orders Snipers to Prepare for Clash With Protestors
A secret recording has surfaced of a Venezuelan regional command meeting in which a high-level military commander is heard issuing orders to prepare to use snipers against anti-government protesters.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Town Refuses to Accept More Refugees After Migrants Gang Rape 15-Year-Old Girl
Afghan and Somali men brutally assault teen
The young girl was making her way home on the evening of April 25th when she was grabbed and “brutally raped,” according to reports. The suspects are two men from Somali and one Afghan.
The town’s mayor responded to the incident by informing the government that Tulln would not be accepting any more refugees until further notice.
“For me, there is zero tolerance against asylum seekers who abuse their guest countries law. In view of what these criminals have done to the girl, the full severity of the law is required,” said Peter Eisenschenk.
Freedom Party Councillor Christian Hafenecker questioned why authorities did not inform the public about the incident “for almost a month,” putting people’s safety at risk…
This is by no means the first time that Austria has been subjected to the “cultural enrichment” that newly arrived migrants bring.
An Iraqi refugee who raped a 10-year-old boy at a swimming pool in Vienna later had his conviction overturned because judges found that he believed the child had consented.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Calais Hotel Manager Sentenced for Renting Rooms to Illegal Immigrants
A HOTEL manager in the northern French port town of Calais has been handed a one-year suspended prison sentence for renting out rooms to illegal immigrants en route to Britain.
The Boulogne-sur-Mer court found the man, whose name has not been revealed to the press, guilty of “facilitating unlawful immigration to France,” the local prosecutor, Pascal Marconville, said.
The hotel manager has also been banned from working in the hotel industry for five years.
Three other Calais hotel managers with close links to the hotelier who were also facing migrant smuggling charges were discharged by the court.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publishes ‘Conceptual Penis’ Hoax
A peer-reviewed academic journal published on Friday a hoax gender studies paper titled, “The Conceptual Penis As A Social Construct.”
Two academics, Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay, used pen names to successfully submit the hoax paper — which argued that “the penis vis-à-vis maleness is an incoherent construct” — to the peer-reviewed journal Cogent Social Sciences. Boghossian and Lindsay cited 20 sources, none of they say they read, and five of which are fake papers that were “published” in journals that don’t actually exist.
The paper — which the authors said was “actively written to avoid having any merits whatsoever” — opened by stating, “The androcentric scientific and meta-scientific evidence that the penis is the male reproductive organ is considered overwhelming and largely uncontroversial.” It went downhill from there.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
University of Michigan Students ‘Intimidated’ By ‘Masculine’ Wood Paneling in Academic Buildings
“Minority students felt marginalized by quiet, imposing masculine paneling.”
Students at the prestigious University of Michigan are claiming to be “intimidated” by the “masculine” wood paneling on the walls of academic buildings on campus.
Anna Wibbelman, former president of Building a Better Michigan, stated at a student government meeting that “minority students felt marginalized by quiet, imposing masculine paneling” of several academic buildings around campus.
The primary building in question, the Michigan Union building, is a historical building on campus and serves as one of the most recognizable landmarks of the university.
Although the building is set to undergo a pricey $85.2 million renovation, the wood paneling is here to stay, to the dismay of minority students who finds it presence to be “intimidating.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Interview With Howard Bloom, Part 2
Islam is the only superorganism with a meme team — a worldview and a “total system of life” — built for global rule by its founder. Islam’s second advantage is the eagerness of its militants to solve political disputes with violence. Violence is a potent force multiplier, especially in a world peppered with democratic societies. The chant among young Muslim jihadists is, “We love death more than you love life.” Why? Because those who die killing unbelievers have an express ticket to fame, sex and paradise. The result: suicide bombers.
What’s more, a hungry Muslim superorganism may well use nuclear tools to expand and achieve “victory” over what Osama bin Laden called “the worst civilization witnessed by the history of mankind” — our civilization. Nor would jihadis be deterred by the fact that any nuclear attack on America could bring a retaliatory attack that could erase cities like Tehran or Karachi from the map. Death-by-nuke would do the citizens of Tehran and Karachi a favor. It would give every believing Muslim in those places an express trip to paradise.
[Interview with Howard Bloom — Part I www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9408/howard-bloom]
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Bloom makes good points. Islam is certainly pernicious but no worse than Marxism through the 20th century.
The death tolls by our commies dwarf those of Islam. Then, add the abortions Marxists love.
“The death tolls by our commies dwarf those of Islam. Then, add the abortions Marxists love.”
You could not be more wrong. Communism (abortions included) might hit 200 million dead by the most insanely generous estimates imaginable.
“Here’s How Islam’s Historical 270 MILLION Death Toll Breaks Down”
“The Greatest Murder Machine in History”
Islam is without peer for the mass destruction of human life. It’s only serious competition would be global nuclear war or an asteroid impact.
“The death tolls by our commies dwarf those of Islam. Then, add the abortions Marxists love.”
You could not be more wrong. Communism (abortions included) could not total 200 million by even the most insanely generous estimates imaginable.
Here’s How Islam’s Historical 270 MILLION Death Toll Breaks Down
The Greatest Murder Machine in History
Islamic ideology is without peer when it comes to the calculated destruction of human life. Short of the black plague, only global nuclear war or an asteroid impact could hope to match such slaughter.
“In other news, Sweden has revoked its arrest warrant for Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks.”
He’ll find to his surprise that it’ll be suddenly re-issued the second he steps outside.
Not that I like the guy to be honest.
Either that, or there will be a convenient car “accident” involving Assange mere blocks from the Ecuadoran embassy.
Five thousand ISIS members “are going to return to Europe”. Oh, OK, they want to come back. It didn’t quite work out.BUT DON’T LET THEM COME BACK. This is why we (used to) have this thing called borders.
And no security services anymore? Find an island somewhere. Drop in food and water supplies from a helicopter and let them fight it out for who gets what. Europe is stupid, stupid, stupid. I mean it.
Is anyone else horrified by the $40B the Saudis are offering for infrastructure construction in the US?
Yes, $40B to blanket the US in mosques and spew their filthy ideology everywhere, how wonderful, just what we needed.
The only bright spot is that it shows how desperate they are to get max valuation for the upcoming Aramco IPO…
Is anyone else terrified by how adept Soros is at identifying people to buy off and local elections to influence? I can only imagine he has a team of people working on this 24/7?
And where does all the bribe money come from? A lot of his wealth is tied up in equities and assets, you can’t just go down to the bank and withdraw $100k to fund your preferred candidate for assistant DA in Little Rock, AR.
As for the Michigan students, what a joke. Outside of the engineering college it was a liberal sewer when I was there 20 years ago, but I see we are plumbing new depths of the swamp…
He does far more than merely attempting to rig elections. Soros’ goal is fundamental cultural change. He has thousands of people in his employ, though not directly. See David Horowitz’ collection, “Discover the Networks”.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=977
Especially see the piece on the Soros<-->Obama connection linked to on that page.
Despite his reversion to old Leftist tricks in his concerted attack on Diana West’s well-sourced exposure of Marxist Communism in American government, David Horowitz has done valuable work.
Soros sees himself as invisible and benevolent…I love the sick irony!
Perhaps he hates the US so much because the English language is essentially what Esperanto wishes it were – the de facto global lingua franca, and for good reason, it is the language of business and technology.
English has its issues, but overall it is a terrifically efficient, economical, and even elegant language. Esperanto is far too rooted in the Eastern European tongues to ever find a global audience.
Soros is also a gigantic hypocrite if he believes Popper’s greatest teaching is that, “…the ultimate truth is unknowable.” Soros’ actions seem to indicate he believes he has some kind of monopoly on the ultimate truth.