Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/20/2017

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz told Italy today that it should stop transferring North African migrants from its islands to the mainland. Mr. Kurz said that migrants should remain on Lampedusa, etc., where they arrive. Landing on an Italian island should not be a “ticket to Central Europe”.

In other news, an SUV jumped the curb and collided with pedestrians before crashing into a store in the Upper East Side of New York City. Three injured pedestrians were transported to the hospital. What made the driver of the SUV lose control of his vehicle is not known.

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

Thanks to Charles Low, Dean, Insubria, JD, 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.

Financial Crisis
» Cashless Society Alert: Visa Will be Giving Up to $500,000 to Restaurants That Go ‘100% Cashless’
» Moody’s Illinois Avoids ‘Junk’ Credit Rating, But Risks Remain
 
USA
» 7-Year-Old Child, Man Injured in Shooting in Virginia
» Hordes of Anti-Trump Democrats Are Lining Up to Run for Congress in 2018
» Michigan Man Told to “Give Up Some of Your Constitutional Rights” In Exchange for Adopting Grandson
» Proof Republicans Lied About Repealing ObamaCare
» SUV Hits Pedestrians, Crashes Into Storefront on Upper East Side: FDNY
» The Nuclear Option: After Using Americans as Pawns, Democrats Blame Trump for ObamaCare Failure
» We Need to Pass ‘Stand Your Ground’ In Every State, Abolish the BATFE, And Repeal the Major Federal Gun Laws
 
Canada
» Ontario Has Fastest-Rising Hydro Prices in Country: Study
 
Europe and the EU
» British Muslims Fund Terror, Says UK Government Report
» Germany: ‘You Jew!’ Becoming Common Insult in Berlin Schools as Anti-Semitism Rises
» Germany Indicts 5 Suspects in is Recruitment Ring
» ‘Mayor of Acid Attack Capital of Europe’ — British Journalist Savages London’s Khan
» Sweden: Gothenburg Police Launch Murder Probe After Woman and Three Children Die in Fire
» Sweden’s Water Shortage: What You Need to Know
» Switzerland: Raccoon Births Take Zoo by Surprise
» Vatican Gendarme Accused of Wife Beating
 
Middle East
» Trump Ends CIA Program Arming ‘Syrian Rebels’
 
South Asia
» Afghan Soldiers Are Using Boys as Sex Slaves, And the U.S. Is Looking the Other Way
 
Far East
» Billions of Lives Are at Stake as China Threatens India With War
 
Australia — Pacific
» Human Arrival in Australia Pushed Back 18,000 Years
» Pictured: Grub Who Laughed as He Smashed Up 68 Christian Graves in a Sydney Cemetery Walks Free From Court With a Hijab-Wearing Friend — Then Celebrates With Selfies and a Cigarette
 
Latin America
» Venezuela Strike Erupts Into Violence Leaving 2 Dead
 
Immigration
» Australia: Lebanese Refugee, 21, Who Killed Two Mothers in 140km/H Horror Crash After Running a Red Light Faces Deportation as He is Sentenced to Eight Years in Jail
» How Did Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Get to Spain? Via Immigration, Of Course!
» Italy Should Stop Moving Migrants From Islands — Kurz
» Italy: Carminati Gets 20 Yrs for ‘Capital Mafia’, Buzzi 19
» Italy: Migrant Who Tried to Stab Policeman to be Deported
» Keep Migrants Off Mainland, Austria Tells Italy
» Report: Immigration Crisis Causing ‘Unprecedented’ Shift in Italy’s Demographics
 
Culture Wars
» Redefining ‘Transgenderism’ As Normal Behavior
 

Cashless Society Alert: Visa Will be Giving Up to $500,000 to Restaurants That Go ‘100% Cashless’

The push toward a cashless society is becoming more of a shove. Before today I had never heard of “The Visa Cashless Challenge” , but after reading about it I have to say that I am quite alarmed. Visa is trying to “encourage” businesses to go cashless, and one of the ways that they will be doing this is by “awarding up to $500,000 to 50 eligible US-based small business food service owners who commit to joining the 100% cashless quest” . The food industry is still one of the last bastions where cash is used very heavily, and so it makes sense that Visa would want to target that segment. Of course the more people that use cards to pay for meals, the more money that Visa will make.

When I go to restaurants, I almost always use cash, and I know a lot of other people that very much prefer to use cash in those situations as well. But if Visa has their way, soon all of us will be forced to use some form of digital payment instead. The following is an excerpt from the press release that Visa issued about this new “challenge” …

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Moody’s Illinois Avoids ‘Junk’ Credit Rating, But Risks Remain

CHICAGO — A major credit rating agency says Illinois’ rating won’t be lowered to “junk” but warns the state still faces serious financial challenges and long-term risks.

Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday affirmed Illinois’ current rating with a negative outlook, saying a downgrade remains possible in the next two years.

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

7-Year-Old Child, Man Injured in Shooting in Virginia

NORFOLK, Va. — Authorities in Virginia say a man and 7-year-old child have been shot.

News outlets report dispatchers received a call about the 7-year-old being shot in the leg at shortly after 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Dispatchers say the man was shot nearby at around the same time. Authorities say both injuries are not life-threatening.

Norfolk police said in a news release that officers found the child and a 38-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound. The child was taken to Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, and the man was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

Further information was not released. Police are investigating.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Hordes of Anti-Trump Democrats Are Lining Up to Run for Congress in 2018

If Republicans don’ t wake up, there is a very real possibility that we could lose control of the House of Representatives in 2018. And if that happens, Donald Trump’ s agenda will be dead in the water because the Democrats will use their majority to block everything. Trump’ s surprise election victory last November was perhaps the single most galvanizing moment for grassroots Democrats in this generation. Just as the election of Barack Obama gave rise to the Tea Party movement, we are now seeing a tremendous amount of energy among liberals all over the nation. If Republicans cannot match this energy, we are going to be in for quite a shock in November 2018.

There have been times in the past when it has been difficult for the Democrats to find viable candidates to challenge Republican incumbents in the House, but that is definitely not the case this time around. For example, just check out what has already been happening in California…

Eight challengers have lined up to take on Central Valley Republican Jeff Denham. An equal number have jumped into the fray against embattled San Diego-area Rep. Duncan Hunter, the focus of a Justice Department criminal investigation regarding his alleged use of campaign funds to pay for family expenses.

Controversial Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach, recently in the headlines for his own dealings with Russia, has seven Democrats contesting his reelection. Rep. Steve Knight of Palmdale has six.

And that same Politico article goes on to describe how similar things are happening all over the nation.

[Comment: …and funded by…? Possibly Soros?]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Michigan Man Told to “Give Up Some of Your Constitutional Rights” In Exchange for Adopting Grandson

Anyone with half a brain can read the Second Amendment, and clearly articulate its intent. It’s not a complicated law. It’s not buried in high-brow legalese that is indecipherable to the average person. Once you understand the original meaning of the words when they were written, and the wider context of the Bill of Rights, its meaning is obvious. The Second Amendment protects an individuals right to own and use firearms, which is a meaning that has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

So it’s always somewhat surprising to learn that there are so many states with laws that disregard the Second Amendment. It’s baffling that it’s taken so long to strike down these unconstitutional rules.

In Michigan for instance, there is a law that effectively prevents adults from exercising their Second Amendment rights if they want to foster a child. A resident of the state recently filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, because they wouldn’t allow him to foster his own grandchild, unless he submitted to their anti-gun demands.

Caseworkers from MDHHS and a county judge told William Johnson of Ontonagon, Mich., that he had to choose between his Second Amendment rights and fostering his grandson, according to a complaint filed with the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan. The 54-year-old Johnson is a retired, disabled Marine with a Michigan Concealed Pistol License. He and his wife were asked by the state of Michigan to foster their grandson. According to Johnson’s suit, however, the issues began as soon as he arrived at MDHHS to pick up the child.

Johnson said he was searched for a firearm and, although he was not carrying a gun, officials demanded to see his concealed carry license. He was then told he would need to give MDHHS the serial numbers of all of his firearms, including rifles and shotguns, and register them with the agency. After questioning why he would have to register his firearms in order to foster his grandson, Johnson said he was told by one caseworker, “if you want to care for your grandson you will have to give up some of your constitutional rights.” When he objected, he was told there would not be a “power struggle” and MDHHS “would just take his grandson and place him in a foster home” if he didn’t comply with their requests.

Two weeks later, during a hearing on placement of the child, Johnson said a Gogebic County Court judge similarly told him, “if you want to care for your grandson you will have to give up some of your constitutional rights.”

Can you believe that? How is it possible that in a supposedly free country, a judge can tell someone who hasn’t committed a crime to give up their constitutional rights, just so they can take care of their own grandchildren? How does a government official actually say that with a straight face?

But more to the point, how exactly does Michigan prevent foster parents from exercising their right to bear arms? It turns out that by law, they have to register their firearms with the state, and store them unloaded in locked safe, separated from ammunition. They can keep firearms, but they sure can’t bear them. Hopefully this lawsuit will put an an end to this blatant disregard for the civil rights of law abiding citizens in Michigan.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Proof Republicans Lied About Repealing ObamaCare

GOP establishment keeps Obamacare alive as Trump ends CIA program arming jihadists

Infowars’ Owen Shroyer breaks down the day’s biggest news stories including the evidence showing establishment Republicans’ lies about repealing Obamacare and the report that President Trump has ended the Obama-era CIA program of arming jihadist rebels in Syria.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

SUV Hits Pedestrians, Crashes Into Storefront on Upper East Side: FDNY

An out-of-control SUV jumped a curb, hit three pedestrians and crashed into a storefront on the Upper East Side on Thursday evening, FDNY officials said.

It’s unclear what caused the driver of the SUV to lose control and veer onto a curb before hitting the pedestrians shortly after 5 p.m.

After striking the pedestrians, the SUV plowed into a storefront at Madison Avenue and East 64th Street, where it came to a stop. Vacheron Constantin, a Madison Avenue boutique selling luxury watches, appeared damaged in the crash.

The three pedestrians were listed in serious but stable condition at Cornell Medical Center.

The condition of the SUV driver wasn’t immediately known.

The SUV was crippled in the crash. One of its doors was missing and its hood was crunched in. An overturned mailbox, shatter glass and other debris was on the street nearby.

There was a heavy police and emergency response in the area around 5:15 p.m. Madison Avenue was shut down at East 64th Street, and East 64th Street was closed between Park and Madison avenues.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

The Nuclear Option: After Using Americans as Pawns, Democrats Blame Trump for ObamaCare Failure

Did you really think Washington was the place best suited in all of America to make all the decisions about the most intimate and personal health care decisions?

Here we find ourselves in the very sewer of political depravity where only the most depraved politicians would dare to be seen.

“The president would not be ‘letting Obamacare collapse,’“ Mr. Schumer said Tuesday, after President Trump signaled the failure by Republicans to fix Obamacare. “He is actively trying to undermine the health care system in the country, using millions of Americans as political pawns in a cynical game.”

Like I said, only the most depraved and dishonest.

Again, Obamacare is circling the throat of the toilet and taking the economy, the American people and even insurance industry with it. And Mr. Schumer’s argument here is that Mr. Trump and Republicans are to blame for not FIXING the Obamacare that Mr. Schumer foisted on the American people?

Like I said, only the most dishonest weasels are capable of preening at times like this.

[Comment: Democrats own Obamacare. Nancy Sign-it-first Pelosi and her gang of fellow travellers will never shake this albatross from their necks.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

We Need to Pass ‘Stand Your Ground’ In Every State, Abolish the BATFE, And Repeal the Major Federal Gun Laws

Throughout history, dictators and tyrants have always wanted to take guns away from the people. Hitler confiscated guns once he took power in Germany, Stalin confiscated guns in Soviet Russia, and Mao confiscated guns when the communists took power in China. An armed population is one of the cornerstones of a free society, and our founders understood this very well. Unfortunately, most Americans don’ t seem to understand the Second Amendment in our day and time. The following is what the Second Amendment actually says…

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The phrase “ shall not be infringed” was intended to leave no room for confusion.

Unfortunately, all sorts of restrictions have been put on our absolute right to keep and bear arms over time, and we need to fight to fully restore our rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

A lot of politicians say that they are “ pro-gun” , but most of them will only go so far. To me, being “ pro-gun” means that you should be fighting to fully restore our Second Amendment rights. In particular, the following are three areas where many “ pro-gun” politicians are often quite weak…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ontario Has Fastest-Rising Hydro Prices in Country: Study

Ontario has had the fastest-rising electricity prices and its city dwellers paid some of the highest hydro bills in Canada over the past decade, a new Fraser Institute report found.

This year, the Kathleen Wynne government launched its “Fair Hydro Plan” which promises to reduce residential hydro bills by an average of 25%.

Kenneth Green, co-author of Evaluating Electricity Price Growth in Ontario, said the provincial government has just covered up serious problems in the system by shifting the cost onto taxpayers and future hydro bills.

[Comment: Ontario’s lesbian premier’s carbon trading scheme and “green” policies contribute to the high price.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

British Muslims Fund Terror, Says UK Government Report

By Paul Austin Murphy

The British Home Office have just clarified something which many British people have known for well over a decade: that Islamists and terrorists are being funded by ordinary British Muslims to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

That means that this isn’t about the usual extremist British Islamic organizations which have already been well-documented. This is about people who may well pass for “ordinary” or even “moderate” Muslims.

Many people have also known — for a long time — that Islamic charities are often fundraisers for Islamic terror. Indeed the report includes the information that Islamic organizations pose as charities because charity — though only for fellow Muslims and Islamic causes — is very big in Muslim communities. Thus, it’s all very late in the day for the British Government to decide to work with the Charity Commission on these issues. However, better late than never.

As the Home Office put it, pro-terror money is coming from small, anonymous public donations. According to the British Home Secretary, Amber Rudd:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: ‘You Jew!’ Becoming Common Insult in Berlin Schools as Anti-Semitism Rises

Schoolteachers and other school officials in Berlin have noticed a rising trend of anti-Semitism among pupils and say the expression “You Jew!” has become a common insult.

[Comment: “We can do it”. She sure did. Merkel did that.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Indicts 5 Suspects in is Recruitment Ring

German prosecutors filed terrorism charges Thursday against a suspected representative of the Islamic State group in Germany and four fellow suspects who are accused of running a recruitment network.

The suspected ringleader — a 33-year-old Iraqi citizen identified as Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A., who goes by the alias Abu Walaa — was indicted on charges of membership in a terrorist organization, terror financing and public incitement to commit crimes, federal prosecutors said.

The five, who were arrested in November, are suspected of recruiting young Muslims in Germany and raising funds to send them to Syria and Iraq to join IS.

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

‘Mayor of Acid Attack Capital of Europe’ — British Journalist Savages London’s Khan

Islamist Khan presiding over explosion in jihad-like attacks

Prominent British journalist, Katie Hopkins, unloaded on London Mayor Sadiq Khan in a series of tweets condeming the Muslim leftist for presiding over an explosive rise in jihad-like violence and terrorism in one of the world’s most important cities.

“Sadiq Khan. Mayor of the Acid Attack Capital of Europe and Knife Crime Capital of Britain. Get a selfie with that fact, tw*t,” she wrote, likely in reference to Khan’s penchant for selfies and similar photos used to promote his radical globalist-Islamist agenda, “You utter Khan’t. Acid attacks surged on your watch. Plus knife crime. Plus terror. We call on you to sort it.”

Acid attacks in the UK have become commonplace within a very short period of time, and it is now considered the acid attack capital of the world, according to Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI) director, Jaf Shah.

“Per capita the UK has one of the highest rates of recorded acid attacks in the world,” reports ASTI. “In 2016, in London alone, corrosive substances were used in 454 crimes, compared to 261 in 2015, according to London Police figures. “Most acid attack crimes happened in London, where over 1,200 cases were recorded over the past 5 years. From 2011-1016 there were 1,464 crimes involving acid or corrosive substance.”

Paul Joseph Watston explained on yesterday’s broadcast of the Alex Jones radio show that the “clear majority of these attacks are taking place in Newham and Tower Hamlets, two boroughs of London that — surprise, surprise — are Muslim ghettos.”

Last week, a teenager on a moped carried out five acid attacks in under 90 minutes before being apprehended by police. Some of his victims were left with “life-changing” injuries, and one man is likely to lose sight in one of his eyes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Gothenburg Police Launch Murder Probe After Woman and Three Children Die in Fire

A woman in her mid-30s and three children aged two to eight have died in a fire in Gothenburg.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden’s Water Shortage: What You Need to Know

It may not be something commonly associated with a northern European nation, but Sweden is currently fretting over water shortages in several parts of the country, and there are already visible consequences. Here’s everything you need to know about the situation.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

Switzerland: Raccoon Births Take Zoo by Surprise

Servion zoo near Lausanne is celebrating the unexpected birth of two baby raccoons — the first at the zoo for 15 years.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Gendarme Accused of Wife Beating

Wife is bishops’ TV journalist

(ANSA) — Vatican City, July 20 — A Vatican gendarme or policeman has been accused of wife beating by his spouse, sources said Wednesday.

The wife is a journalist for the Italian bishops’ TV station, TV 2000.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Trump Ends CIA Program Arming ‘Syrian Rebels’

Obama-era program saw US weapons repeatedly reach jihadists.

“Officials said the phasing out of the secret program reflects Trump’s interest in finding ways to work with Russia, which saw the anti-Assad program as an assault on its interests,” the Post states. “The shuttering of the program is also an acknowledgment of Washington’s limited leverage and desire to remove Assad from power.”

The move by Trump, officials said, will not end a similar Pentagon program backing rebel fighters against the Islamic State. Some of the CIA-backed rebels may also be redirected to the Pentagon effort as well.

[Comment: Good start, but should end the Pentagon program too.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Afghan Soldiers Are Using Boys as Sex Slaves, And the U.S. Is Looking the Other Way

Hundreds of such outposts of the Afghan Local Police (ALP), a front-line force armed and funded with U.S. taxpayer dollars, and other pro-government militias are believed to have enslaved young boys for dancing and sexual companionship, many of them kidnapped.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Billions of Lives Are at Stake as China Threatens India With War

There several powerful nations that could spark a global conflagration without America’s input.

There’s no doubt that Americans are fraught with fear over the thought that a new war is on the horizon, especially if that war could lead to another global conflict. But most Americans forget that the world doesn’t revolve around them. They worry a lot about the their nation engaging in another world war, but they forget that there several powerful nations that could spark a global conflagration without America’s input.

Among them are China and India, who have been engaged in a border dispute for decades. That dispute has flared up once again, as China hurls threats of war with India.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Human Arrival in Australia Pushed Back 18,000 Years

We’ve long known that modern humans, or Homo sapiens, existed in Africa as far back as 200,000 years ago. Early humans in Australia were once thought to have arrived 47,000 years ago, signaling one of the later stops in the journey of human migration and one that would have required massive sea voyages.

A new discovery, recently published in the journal Nature, is challenging that, dating human arrival in Australia to 65,000 years ago, making Aboriginal Australian societies 18,000 years older than previously thought (although pending research on a rock shelter site could shift that downward closer to 10,000 years, if that pans out).

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

Pictured: Grub Who Laughed as He Smashed Up 68 Christian Graves in a Sydney Cemetery Walks Free From Court With a Hijab-Wearing Friend — Then Celebrates With Selfies and a Cigarette

A thug who escaped jail time despite showing ‘no remorse’ for smashing 68 graves spent the first day of the rest of his life dancing, snapping selfies and feasting on a burger with a female friend.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela Strike Erupts Into Violence Leaving 2 Dead

CARACAS, Venezuela — A nationwide strike against plans to rewrite the constitution shut down much of Venezuelan’s capital Thursday before erupting into sporadic violence that left at least two young men dead.

President Nicolas Maduro pledged to forge ahead with reshaping Venezuela’s government despite the protests and a U.S. threat to levy economic sanctions if he continued. A coalition of opposition groups called what it described as a “great march” for Saturday, returning to a strategy of direct confrontation with the government after a week of alternative tactics like organizing a nationwide protest vote against the constitutional rewrite.

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

Australia: Lebanese Refugee, 21, Who Killed Two Mothers in 140km/H Horror Crash After Running a Red Light Faces Deportation as He is Sentenced to Eight Years in Jail

The Lebanese refugee was on Thursday jailed for eight years and eight months after pleading guilty to two counts of culpable driving causing death in Melbourne.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

How Did Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Get to Spain? Via Immigration, Of Course!

An exotic fever is popping up in Spain, and no, it’s not a new dance craze-it’s Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. See How Did Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Pop Up In Spain?, July 13, by Maanvi Singh, NPR, 2017

What’s funny about these MSM stories is they are oblivious to the immigration dimension. Either that or they ARE aware but consciously avoid talking about it to avoid being accused of stirring up anti-immigration sentiments.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Should Stop Moving Migrants From Islands — Kurz

During meeting with Alfano in Vienna

(ANSA) — Bolzano, July 20 — Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz on Thursday said Italy should stop transferring illegal migrants from its islands to the mainland during a meeting with his Italian counterpart in Vienna.

“We demand that the transfer of illegal migrants from Italian islands like Lampedusa to the mainland stop”, Kurz was quoted as saying by Austrian news agency APA after the meeting with Alfano.

Kurz also said Austria indents to close its border at the Brenner Pass to secure its border if Italy lets migrants through.

Kurz said the meeting with Alfano was “correct” although they did not share “the same position”.

“If Italy were to continue its timely transfers on the mainland, from which migrants proceed northwards, not only will Central Europe be overwhelmed, but drownings will continue”, Kurz said, noting that rescue operations in the Mediterranean “should not be a ticket for Central Europe”.

Earlier this month, the Italian foreign ministry summoned the Austrian ambassador to Rome after Vienna said it was ready to deploy up to 750 troops at the Brenner Pass “very soon” unless the flow of migrants from Italy diminishes.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Carminati Gets 20 Yrs for ‘Capital Mafia’, Buzzi 19

Former right-wing terrorist and gangster, coop chief guilty

(ANSA) — Rome, July 20 — Massimo Carminati, a former gangster and ex-member of the NAR right-wing terrorist group, was found guilty by a Rome court on Thursday over allegations he was part of an organisation that muscled in on city contracts worth millions. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Another ringleader of the so-called Capital Mafia, leftwing cooperatives chief Salvatore Buzzi, got 19 years.

The accusation of mafia association was scrubbed for 19 of the 46 defendants in the so-called Capital Mafia case, including ringleaders Carminati and Buzzi, by Thursday’s ruling.

Carminati said he was “satisfied” with the 20-year sentence. Carminati did not get a longer term, 28 years, because the charge of mafia association was scrubbed. His lawyer was convinced of this so the former rightist militant and ex-gangster turned to him and said “you were right, I’m satisfied”. Carminati also said “now they must immediately remove me from 41 bis”, referring to the tough prison regime for mafiosi.

Buzzi turned to his lawyer and asked “now when do I get out of jail?”. He said “I hope that in the light of this decision my stay in jail is set to end”.

Carminati’s lawyer Giosuè Naso said the judges said “the mafia doesn’t exist in Rome, as we’ve been saying for 30 months”. He said that, despite this, the verdicts were “absurdly and unusually severe”. He said Rome Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone was “certainly the beaten one”, adding “I don’t know if there are any winners”.

Capital Mafia prosecutor Paolo Ielo said after securing a total of 250 years in jail for the defendants that “sentences must be respected” even though judges scrubbed the charge of mafia association and left only simple conspiracy in their sentences. “The judges turned us down on some points but sentences must be respected,” he said, adding “we will wait for the explanation of the verdict”.

Former Rome migrants panel chief Luca Odevaine got six and a half years while former Rome council assembly chair Mirko Coratti of ex-pre,ier Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party got six years.

The former Rome city council whip for three-time former premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi’s now-defunct People of Freedom party, Luca Gramazio, got 11 years.

Buzzi’s wife and secretary were also found guilty in the trial. The wife, Alessandra Garrone, got 13 and a half years for helping her husband commit his crimes.

The secretary, Nadia Cerrito, who kept Buzzi’s books, received a five-year sentence.

Three of the 46 defendants were acquitted. They are Rocco Rotolo and Salvatore Ruggiero, for whom prosecutors asked 16 years in jail, and the former general manager of waste and rubbish company AMA, Giovanni Fiscon, for whom a five-year term was asked.

Prosecutors said Rotolo and Ruggiero had acted as go-betweens between Capital Mafia ringleaders and the Calabria-based ‘Ndrangheta mafia.

Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi was in court for the reading out of the sentences. The city is a civil plaintiff.

“Today is a victory for Rome’s citizens,” she said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Migrant Who Tried to Stab Policeman to be Deported

31-year-old Guinean’s release had caused row

(ANSA) — Milan, July 20 — A migrant from Guinea who tried to stab a policeman near Milan’s central rail station Monday will be deported later Thursday, official sources said.

Saidou Mamoud Diallo, 31, will be expelled by the Milan police immigration office.

Diallo’s temporary release caused a row Wednesday.

Diallo’s intended victim, who was protected by his bullet-proof vest, sustained a slight wound.

Diallo, who had a record for violence, threats and resisting arrest, had previously been reported for trying to get on a tourist coach armed with a knife.

He had been served an order of expulsion from Italy, issued in Sondrio on July 4.

The incident spurred anti-immigrant Northern League MP Paolo Grimoldi to call for “mass expulsions” of migrants.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Keep Migrants Off Mainland, Austria Tells Italy

Austria’s foreign minister Sebastian Kurz called on Italy Thursday to stop migrants from reaching the mainland by halting the ferry services from the islands where they first land.

Kurz said he had told his Italian counterpart Angelino Alfano that “rescue missions in the Mediterranean cannot be seen as a ticket to central Europe”, on the sidelines of an OSCE meeting in Vienna.

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

Report: Immigration Crisis Causing ‘Unprecedented’ Shift in Italy’s Demographics

A deadly combination of a plummeting birthrate and massive immigration portend that native Italians will make up an increasingly small percentage of Italy’s overall population, a new study reports.

Italy’s fertility rate is less than half of what it was in 1964, the Centro Machiavelli reported in its study titled “How immigration is changing Italian demographics.” It has dropped from 2.7 children per woman to just 1.5 children per woman currently, a figure well below the replacement level for zero population growth of roughly 2.1 children per woman.

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

Redefining ‘Transgenderism’ As Normal Behavior

The APA’ s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual was changed more to correct a perceived “social injustice” than to understand and treat a longstanding mental disorder.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

18 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/20/2017

  1. “Germany: ‘You Jew!’ Becoming Common Insult in Berlin Schools as Anti-Semitism Rises”

    Anyone else noticing that the current German chancellor seems to have more and more in common with a certain previous German chancellor? Both childless, both made Germany more anti-Semitic, both had thugs dressed in black rampaging through German cities, both clamped down on free speech, and both were willing to destroy Germany in pursuit of an insane agenda

    • You Christian you. There is lots of opportunity here for the really ice cold stone sober. Whispers of, “our day will come – soon” gathering momentum?

    • Germans seems to like it this way. They about to re-elect the one responsible for this… I guess after 70 years, they getting into the second try of the “Final Solution”.

  2. The US, and our puppet government in Afghanistan, lack the will to defeat terror there.

    It’s just a slow bleed with our elites ordering unemployed kids in the Midwest to go die for nothing.

    The only dumber move is buying Illinois or Chicago bonds, suckers.

    • That situation is about to change with Trump telling the NSC to get back to the drawing board on Afghanistan.

      After 15 years of increasing the poppy crop yield, non-interference into local matters that go against all Human decency and the deliberate policy of rules of engagement that has contributed to many of the fatalities, wounding and maiming of the soldiers stationed there, it finally looks like the whole side show for the enrichment of the Globalist Deep State is coming to an end.

  3. Pictured: Grub Who Laughed as He Smashed Up 68 Christian Graves in a Sydney Cemetery Walks Free From Court With a Hijab-Wearing Friend — Then Celebrates With Selfies and a Cigarette

    Who is to blame for this but the Church? Over the last hundred years it has diluted its message. It has brought dishonor upon itself because of the sexual abuse scandal. The Vatican is awash in corruption and as we are finding out these days – homosexual scandals. We have a Pope who is a nincompoop South American who has no idea how to restore the church except by pandering to globalists One of the Vatican’s highest officers, an Aussie, is mired in charges of sexual abuse of minors. I think he has recently been ‘let go’.

    Until the church understands that its proper function is to ‘militant here on earth’ the world will continue to sink into chaos and ruin.

    The church needs to launch a major theological war on the abomination of Islam and the abomination of PC, neo-Marxist Left-wing globalist ideology and start telling people that they’d better fear God or come to grief.

    Where were the Christian protesters demanding justice for the desecration of their graves?

    • The Roman Church is finished. Christ wanted people to follow his teachings individually, not have them locked away in a house designed by men who had designs on the materialistic part of this world.

      It is the message from Christ that matters, not what a bunch of people that hold sway with over another bunch of people who are only too willing to follow what the first bunch of people say they should do.

  4. Germany: ‘You Jew!’ Becoming Common Insult in Berlin Schools as Anti-Semitism Rises

    Although most of the new anti-semitism is Islamic, not all of it is. Recently I have begun to revise my old idea that we might all sink to the barbarity of Nazi genocide towards the Jews, as Germans are no different from non-Germans in our capacity for evil.

    However, notwithstanding the fascism of Mussolini’s Italy, can one honestly imagine death camps in Tuscany? First of all, the Italians are not known for their organizational skills. Secondly, they are Catholic. Despite the period of the Spanish Inquisition, Catholics, especially Italian Catholics, traditionally have an easy-going tolerance absent from the far greater doctrinal dogmatism of the Protestants. Look at Luther as a prime example! Of course, Italian Communists are far from easy-going, but they are not the majority party in the chaos of the Italian polity. Perhaps its very chaotic nature saves it from long term, industrial scale extremism.

    It is no accident, I fear, that the greatest deterioration of Western civilization in the 20th and 21st centuries is occurring in Protestant nations where the church had been extremely doctrinaire, but then lost its spirit, from its very narrow-mindedness and became weak as it deferred to the State. (Bohnhoeffer being an outstanding exception.)

    For a while it held out in the USA, but under Obama there was a mounted attack on the church and that attack only shows signs of intensifying.

    We need a resurrection of Judeo-Christianity before all is lost.

  5. Italy should either stop taking in these so called (!) refugees.
    Or cope with it itself…
    Because it`s a problem that was mainly also created by themselves (ie. Premier Renzi).

    • Italy’s got the huge Brussels’ boot on its neck. The PIIGS [Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain] have sinking economies and owe their lives to the company store now. So when Brussels (the cut-out for Germany’s mighty economy) says “jump”…they do. The prospect of a failed state should they refuse concentrates the mind…

      That’s why the central European states, who were under Russia’s boot for so long, missed the boat when it came to debt accumulation. And they perhaps noticed what was happening to that forced “union”.

      Also, note the many Polish workers who went to the UK and thereabouts seeking employment…

      There are no easy answers as we watch things fall apart. It’s not that the “center cannot hold”, the center has disappeared despite the mirage in Brussels.

      • As I replied in an earlier article Dymphna, the only effective means at this point in the game to change the course of what is happening are through violence.

        Nothing can be changed through the courts, they are captured by the elites. Nothing can change through the legislature or the government in almost every european country save Eastern Europe, and the boot is being put on the neck of those governments to compel them to comply. The cops and the law are no longer friends of the average European, since they have jobs and families to worry about if they should step out of line.

        No, the answer at this point is a campaign of intimidation and targeted violence against the mid-level officials and accomplices who are the interface between those with power who are creating the policies, and those who are on the ground implementing them.

        I don’t necessarily think these individuals should suffer serious bodily harm either. Intimidation in the form of threats of destruction of property should suffice to dissuade most of these individuals; the incorrigible ones might be subjected to beatings or worst case amputation of the right hand. The fear and terror it would spread amongst those who have until now faced no personal cost for their actions would be more effective than more permanent means of reprisal which would risk turning public opinion against the patriot movement.

        The bottom line is that until now, there has been no personal cost to being a traitor against one’s countrymen, and much personal and professional risk to openly opposing the colonization of Europe by barbarian muslim hordes. That must change. Once these people start facing personal costs from nameless and leaderless patriots hiding in the shadows, who are everywhere and nowhere, the European who is too afraid now to resist will become emboldened by the fear of the targeted quislings. It is at this point that real political change might become possible, and a government-backed solution to the colonization problem reached without excess violence and bloodshed.

  6. “British Muslims Fund Terror, Says UK Government Report”

    Hmm! Whilst the British Establishment, Politicians and the Civil Service alike, has never been known to be quick on the uptake where Muslim treachery and deviancy are concerned (in the Civil Service a lot of that is to do with certain Public School sexual predilections shared with the camel jockeys) this delay in publicly announcing what just about everybody else on planet Earth has been aware of for at least a couple of decades is no accident; it is a demonstration of deliberate, top level approved obfuscation.

    Simply put, past and present UK Governments have been deliberately burying this reality for the same length of time as they have the retribution-free paedophile rape of white girl children by these same Muslims. The purpose of this, what is effectively High Treason, is to appease their paymasters in the Gulf and advance the Bilderberg objective.

    These Governments, in all their malignant manifestations, particular those of the utterly corrupt, vote whoring Labour Party, have sold us all down the river in their lust for power and place in the New World Order they hope to bring about.

    The Tumbrils must roll…and very soon.

    • Indeed, there is a criminal cunning behind the repealing of the Act of Treachery, by Blair and Co.

      And I note, he still has the nerve to put his head up to denounce Brexit!

        • Thanks Mark. Then it may as well be repealed for all the deterrent value a soft jail cell and judiciary will have on the guilty.

          • My pleasure, Nemesis. At the same time (1989?) the death penalty was revoked for piracy, and “setting fire to a naval dockyard”. I suspect it was to bring the UK into line with EU laws (which may put paid to Erdohan’s applicaton to join, as he’s talking about reintroducing the death penalty in Turkey; I don’t understand why his country hasn’t been expelled from NATO yet).

            I’m against capital punishment on principle, not least because judicial mistakes can and do happen, but I don’t understand why the treason laws are not applied to jihadists returning from Syria. Notwithstanding GW Bush’s empty rhetoric about a “War on Terror”, the Islamic State and allied organisations are openly at war with us, so such people should be treated the same as hypothetical British Nazis fighting for Hitler in the 1940s and returning to Britain.

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