Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/28/2018

The news feed is light tonight, for some reason. Not all our tipsters live in California or Scandinavia, so it can’t be the wildfires keeping the tips down. Maybe everyone’s just gone off for a well-deserved vacation — perhaps on the lip of the crater at Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii…

The most significant news story of the day is the reported expert opinion that George H.W. Bush’s former cardiologist, the late Dr. Mark Hausknecht, was probably targeted by a trained assassin. Three well-placed shots from a moving bicycle would seem to indicate that his killer had military or law enforcement training. There is no apparent motive for the murder of the doctor, who was a Buddhist and a former Boy Scout leader.

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

Thanks to AF, Dean, DV, Insubria, LP, Samuel, 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.

USA
» George H.W. Bush’s Former Doctor Possibly Murdered by Trained Killer, Expert Says
» Man Charged in Milwaukee Shooting Plot Released Until Trial
» Monster Wildfire in California Rages on After Killing Two Firefighters
» Obama Foundation Delays Presidential Center Groundbreaking Until Next Year
» The Dead End of Communism: The Nature of Chaos and Anarchy as Tools of Communist Subversion
 
Europe and the EU
» Italy: Lawyers Defending Detainees Cannot Go on Strike During Trial
» Italy: Salini Nominated RAI CEO, Foa to be President
» Italy: Avvenire Attacks Salvini Too
 
Middle East
» Iraqi Airways Suspends Pilots for Fighting in Cockpit at 37,000 Ft
 
South Asia
» Heinous Crimes Like Riots, Rapes, Murders, Torture on Women on Rise Due to Increase of Muslim Population and Decline of Hindu Population: BJP Lawmaker
 
Immigration
» Australia: A Model for Curbing Immigration
» Spain Overtakes Italy for Migrant Arrivals
 
General
» Specter of Communism: Chapter Ten: Using the Law for Evil
» Specter of Communism: Chapter Nine: The Communist Economic Trap (Part II)
 

George H.W. Bush’s Former Doctor Possibly Murdered by Trained Killer, Expert Says

HOUSTON (KPRC/CNN) — It’s been a week since the fatal bicycle-to-bicycle drive-by shooting of Dr. Mark Hausknecht, a renowned cardiologist who treated former President George H.W. Bush.

The Houston Police chief says his death was likely a targeted murder.

The shooting happened near a Houston construction site; a worker there said crews had been using nail guns on the day of the shooting, which someone with sinister plans may have used to their advantage.

“They used gunpowder in a shell to fire the nails into steel, so that sound itself would sound like a gun firing. Is it coincidental? I don’t know,” said Dennis Franks, a private investigator and retired FBI agent.

Then there’s the precision of the shooting. Hausknecht was shot in the torso, the upper left extremity and the head while riding his bicycle, according to the Harris County medical examiner.

The shooter was also reportedly riding a bicycle while committing the murder.

It suggests to Franks that the suspect had training.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Man Charged in Milwaukee Shooting Plot Released Until Trial

A federal judge ordered the release of a man charged in a mass shooting plot in downtown Milwaukee until his trial next month.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — WITI-TV reports that as a condition of this release granted Friday, Samy Hamzeh must have GPS monitoring and be confined to a home until his trial on Aug 21.

Hamzeh was arrested in 2016 on two counts of possessing a machine gun and one count of possessing a silencer, which he bought from undercover FBI agents. Federal prosecutors allege he was planning to kill at least 30 people at a Masonic center to “defend Islam.”

Federal public defenders say their client repeatedly protested the informants’ proposals and that he only wanted a legal handgun to protect himself.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Monster Wildfire in California Rages on After Killing Two Firefighters

REDDING, Calif., July 28 (Reuters) — Nine people were reportedly missing as a monster wildfire in northern California burned unchecked on Saturday after it killed two firefighters, destroyed hundreds of structures and sent thousands of frantic residents racing from their homes.

Some 3,400 firefighters on the ground and in helicopters and airplanes battled the 48,300-acre (19,500 hectares) Carr Fire early on Saturday as it ripped through Redding, a city of 90,000 people, in California’s scenic Shasta-Trinity area.

More than 38,000 residents in Redding and elsewhere in Shasta County fled their homes as the fire began to gain speed and intensity on Thursday, destroying 500 structures and leaving Keswick, a town of 450, in smoldering ruins, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) said.

The fire, which was just three percent contained after igniting six days ago, has been fed by high temperatures and low humidity, which were expected to continue for at least the next week, said CalFire Director Ken Pimlott.

“This fire is a long way from done,” he said.

A bulldozer operator and a member of the Redding Fire Department were killed in the blaze. A Redding hospital said it had treated eight people, including three firefighters.

Nine people, including a woman and her two great-great grandchildren, were missing, a CBS news affiliate in Sacramento reported, citing local police. The woman’s husband Ed Bledsoe told the station that he left them home to run an errand on Thursday night…

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Foundation Delays Presidential Center Groundbreaking Until Next Year

The Obama Foundation has pushed back the groundbreaking date for the Obama Presidential Center after the federal review process was delayed for a second time this summer, officials confirmed Friday.

Instead of starting construction later this year, the foundation is now saying they plan to break ground for the half-billion-dollar project sometime in 2019. Officials avoided setting a specific date during the year. They also would not say if this will change their timeline for building the center, which was once slated to open in 2021.

“We have a sense of urgency about this project (and) when we started, we wanted the public to know we would break ground as soon as possible,” said Michael Strautmanis, the vice president for civic engagement for the foundation. “But we also knew there were some things that were not in our control. We insist on going through the process with integrity and without rushing.”…

           — Hat tip: DV [Return to headlines]
 

The Dead End of Communism: The Nature of Chaos and Anarchy as Tools of Communist Subversion

There are groups in the United States and other parts of the world that are actively trying to incite chaos, whether through the advocacy of anarchy or through subversive movements meant to destabilize societies.

We saw this clearly when Sen. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on June 23 called on her supporters to harass members of the Trump administration, stating, “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up, and if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

We also see this in groups such as Antifa, which ironically advocate for both communism and anarchy—a system of absolute government control and a system of no government, respectively. Yet, if we understand the deeper goals of communism, and the original nature of anarchy, the union between the two systems makes sense.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Lawyers Defending Detainees Cannot Go on Strike During Trial

Constitutional Court ruling

(ANSA) — Rome, July 27 — Criminal lawyers will no longer be able to go on strike during the trials of their defendants even if the latter agree to a postponement of their hearings.

The Constitutional Court ruled that a law that had allowed criminal lawyers to not attend trials due to strikes is unconstitutional.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Salini Nominated RAI CEO, Foa to be President

Now let’s get rid of parasites — Di Maio

(ANSA) — Rome, July 27 — The government said Friday that Economy Minister Giovanni Tria has nominated Fabrizio Salini to be the CEO of State broadcaster RAI and Marcello Foa to be a board member.

RAI’s parliamentary oversight body will vote on making Foa president of the broadcaster.

After a cabinet meeting on Friday, Labour and Industry Minister and Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio said the appointments were the start of a “cultural revolution” for RAI. “Now we’ll get rid of the people benefiting from nepotism and parasites” added Di Maio, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Avvenire Attacks Salvini Too

Bishops’ newspaper blasts minister over stance on Roma

(ANSA) — Rome, July 26 — After popular catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana took aim at Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, Avvenire, the daily newspaper of Italian bishops conference CEI has also opened fire on the leader of the rightwing League party.

Salvini has spearheaded the new government’s tough stance on the arrival of asylum seekers from North Africa and caused controversy by mooting the idea of holding a census of people of Roma ethnicity in Italy.

Avvenire picked up on Salvini’s comments on Rome people in a piece on its front page with the headline: “But no man is ever a parasite”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Iraqi Airways Suspends Pilots for Fighting in Cockpit at 37,000 Ft

More than 150 people were on board the flight from Mashhad to Baghdad

Iraqi Airways has suspended two of its pilots for physically fighting each other during an international flight with 157 passengers on board.

The aircraft, which left from Mashhad on Wednesday and was headed for Baghdad, was cruising at 37,000 ft when the two men started fighting one another in the pilots’ cockpit over a food tray.

In a letter addressed to Iraqi Airways management, the co-pilot said: “Conversation with the pilot became heated because he forbade an air hostess from bringing me a meal tray, under the pretext that I hadn’t asked him for authorisation.”

After the pilot had taken his own meal, he “hit and insulted [the co-pilot], prompting the arrival of a security agent”, according to the letter.

The plane touched down safely in Baghdad, despite the fight, but it’s reported the pair continued to quarrel after landing…

           — Hat tip: Samuel [Return to headlines]
 

Heinous Crimes Like Riots, Rapes, Murders, Torture on Women on Rise Due to Increase of Muslim Population and Decline of Hindu Population: BJP Lawmaker

Ratan Awadhesh Shukla | HENB | Faizabad | July 27. 2018:: A senior BJP lawmaker from Uttar Pradesh raked up a major controversy by asserting that heinous crimes such as riots, rapes, torture on women and murders are on the rise because of the rapid increase in Muslim population in India.

Pointing on a sharp decline of Hindu population in North West Uttar Pradesh, the BJP Member of Parliament narrated the plight of Hindus in those Muslim populated areas and expressed his observation comprising the increase of major crimes and law and order problems as a result of bouncing Muslim population there.

“Terrorism, rapes, cases of sexual harassment are prevailing in India only because of the rising Muslim population. If one looks closely, there is a rapid increase in the percentage of Muslims since the time of Independence,” said Hari Om Pandey, according to news agency ANI.

The Ambedkar Nagar lawmaker, Hari Om Pandey, went on to say that soon a new nation like Pakistan will be carved out of India if the government failed to curb the Muslim population.

He added that a Bill must be introduced in Parliament on population control in a bid to save India from another partition.

“I believe that a Bill on population control must be introduced in the Parliament in order to save India from another dreadful partition,” he added…

           — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari [Return to headlines]
 

Australia: A Model for Curbing Immigration

by Giulio Meotti

“Europeans think it’s easy in Australia to control our borders, but they’re just making up excuses for doing nothing themselves,” said retired major general Jim Molan, co-author of Australia’s asylum policy.

In 2013, Tony Abbott was elected Prime Minister under the slogan “Stop the boats”. “Stop the boats” is now also the slogan of the new Italy’s new Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, who, since the formation of a new government last month, has been totally focused on curbing immigration from “the world’s most lethal” route: across the Mediterranean. …

François Crepeau, the U.N. special rapporteur on migrant human rights, urged Europe not to view Australia as a model; he labelled the idea “cruel, inhuman and degrading”. Stopping migrants from dying at sea, however, is the opposite of cruelty; it is humanity. “We have got hundreds, maybe thousands of people drowning in the attempts to get from Africa to Europe”, Abbott said. The “only way you can stop the deaths is in fact to stop the boats”.

Australia’s Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, explained that “we are not going to accept people who have sought to come to our country illegally by boat”. Humanitarians, as Abbott put it, were helping them in the name of a “misguided altruism”.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Spain Overtakes Italy for Migrant Arrivals

Volume arriving via W. Med route triples over last year — IOM

(ANSA) — Geneva, July 27 — Migrant arrivals to Spain overtook those to Italy in July, the International Organisation for Migration said on Friday. As of 25 July arrivals to Italy stood at 18,130 and arrivals to Spain at 20,992. To date just over 38% of all Mediterranean irregular migrants have come via the Western Mediterranean route to Spain, whose irregular migration volume has more than tripled with respect to the same period last year.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Specter of Communism: Chapter Ten: Using the Law for Evil

[…]

By contrast, communism is rooted in hatred. It not only hates God, but also hates the culture, lifestyle, and all traditions that gods established for humanity. Marx did not mince words in expressing his desire to doom himself to ruin and bring the world down with him. He said, “With contempt shall I fling my glove in the world’s face, then shall I stride through the wreckage a creator!”

Sergey Genadievich Nechayev, the crazed revolutionary of Cazrist Russia, wrote in his pamphlet, The Revolutionary Catechism that the revolutionary “has broken all the bonds which tie him to the social order and the civilized world with all its laws, moralities, and customs, and with all its accepted conventions.” “He is their implacable enemy, and if he continues to live with them it is only in order to destroy them more speedily.” …

According to Marx, the law is a product of class contradiction and a tool that embodies the will of the ruling class. The laws of a communist party come neither from God, nor from a genuine love of the people or for the sake of maintaining a fair and just society. The interests of the ruling group, that is, the communist party, are all that matter. As the goals and interests of the party change, its laws change as well.

Naturally, once the CCP seized power, it adopted class struggle as the guideline and proceeded to rob the entire citizenry. It promulgated laws against the crime of “counter-revolutionary activity,” which applied to everyone who opposed the Party’s policies of theft. The CCP punished counter-revolutionaries with prison or shooting.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Specter of Communism: Chapter Nine: The Communist Economic Trap (Part II)

6. Hatred and Jealousy: The Origin of Absolute Egalitarianism

Communism advocates absolute egalitarianism. Superficially this may sound like a high-sounding term, leading many to blindly believe in its rectitude. However, it also evokes hatred and jealousy. One consequence of egalitarianism is that people can’t tolerate the success of others, with others being wealthier, having better lives, easier work, and more luxurious living conditions. Everyone must be equal, in this reading: I should have what you have, and I can get what you get. In such a universe, everyone is equal and the world is alike. …

7 . Communist ‘Ideals’: Tempting Man Toward His Own Destruction

Despite communist theory being full of loopholes and contradictions, many are still deceived by it. This is because Marx described a communist paradise that people all over the world would enjoy. This is the central fantasy and delusion. His depiction includes “overwhelming material abundance,” much higher moral standards, and “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” There would be no private ownership, no gap between the rich and the poor, no ruling class, no exploitation, freedom and equality for all, and each person would be able to develop his or her particular talents. Life would be wonderful.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

12 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/28/2018

  1. I have family in Redding. When we visited them we had the opportunity to hike the area. In between the housing developments are open spaces. However, those “Open Spaces” are neither maintained nor kept free of debris. There are also a few stands of manzanita (aka ‘greasewood’) mixed in with the brush and pine trees. Nice and seemingly picturesque until you realize that manzanita and chaparral burn at 1100f to 1400F. I lost a former workout buddy to the Mount Baldy (Gran Prix, which is how fast the fire went) in 2004. All that was left of his cherished VW was the floor pan and a shiny puddle that once had been the engine.
    Once the dry manzanita and chaparral catch, there is nothing you can do to stop the spread of the blaze, especially when there is ample deadwood laying about on the forest floor. I tried calling CDF’s attention to the dangers of leaving combustible materials around the forests and I was told to mind my own business. Well, now we have a great grandmother and her two great grandchildren as casualties with more certain to come. My brother and sister-in-law and their two children are homeless. The town of Redding is all but wiped off the map. All this because 40 years ago Governor Moonbeam decided that the forests were better off in their ‘natural’ state. The Chumash, Gabrielano, Tongvan, and Morongo indian tribes that arrived here around 1100AD knew better, and so did the Spanish who arrived here around 1650 and set up shop around 100 years later.
    I am laying the loss of life and property from this and the Napa/Santa Rosa Fires, along with the Old, Gran Prix, and Scripps fires, squarely at the feet of Moonbeam and his ilk. The forests that took hundreds if not thousands of years to nurture and develop are gone and unless we have wet and snowy winters are unlikely to return anytime soon. Sniff!!

    • Acuara….so terribly sorry for the loss of your great grandmother and family members! I live about 100 miles from Redding in the Sierra foothills. During the Santa Rosa fires last year, a local resident blogged on American Thinker website that four fires simultaneously started at 10:00 p.m. on a Thursday evening when most people are sleeping. The Office of Emergency Services (OES) in Sacramento had one person on night shift who failed to sound the alarm. Many people & animals lost their lives that evening. Mainstream media will report accurately if there’s a lightning strike or a faulty wheel bearing causing a spark like the Carr fire in Redding supposedly started and grew out of control. Arson is typically reported if the perpetrators are caught. Terrorism is another issue. Silence in alarming the public! How could four fires start simultaneously without a planned, organized effort? Of course the liberal media will never admit it could be Islamic or Antifa terrorists! After all, these are the protected, disenfranchised groups they support with news coverage and human sob stories! It makes me sick to know arson is now a preferred weapon of terrorists in Western nations! Sweden has experienced horrific fires in recent months. A refugee was arrested last week for attempting to set a fire in Greece. Wake up sleeping people to this insane, horrific threat!!!!

      • I apologize for the seeming confusion that had you think that I lost any relatives. The great grandmother wasn’t mine. However, my brother and sister-in-law and their family were evacuated and are now sharing an apartment.
        As for the Santa Rosa fire, I did have family from my previous wife that lived there. The streets were designed like a maze and we never failed to become lost while trying to visit them.
        There was a Syrian Imam who declared a Fatwa in 2004 against the Christian infidels in America and urged the ‘faithful’ to burn their forests and their towns. We then had the Old Fire and Gran Prix Fires. The arsonist who started the Old Fire was shot and wounded by one of the property owners in Waterman Canyon which is downslope from the High School that nearly burned as the arsonist shot off a bottle rocket made from a propane tank that is used by plumbers to braze (weld) copper pipe. I also have it on rather good authority that the Santa Rosa/Napa fires were acts of arson by the Mexican Cartels in response to the legalization of marijuana cultivation in California. Again, the lack of forest maintenance and the piled up dry brush helped to ignite a 1500F firestorm. Arson is one thing, but government policy that allows the arson to be terribly destructive is tantamount to aiding and abetting a felony with complicity before (the lack of due care of the forests)and after (the cover-up of the investigations) the fact. Indictments anyone?

        • Amen. Lots of government-owned forests that would be easy to set ablaze due to the ignorant standards state and local forestry management insist on maintaining. That won’t happen on land owned privately, though if it’s adjacent to govt property, it too will burn.

          California normally has very dry, hot windy seasons. The Santa Ana Winds, iirc.

          Found the wiki. Sounds as though it was written to address current problems.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ana_winds

          California is a worst-case scenario when it comes to its unsustainable population, socialist regimes foisting off ruinous water programs, etc. No wonder it has a poverty level worse than Mississippi while it maintains the highest number of billionaires anywhere. Rome Redux.

  2. “One consequence of egalitarianism is that people can’t tolerate the success of others, with others being wealthier, having better lives, easier work, and more luxurious living conditions.”

    This is true. It is getting better nowadays, nevertheless envy and covetousness are truly universal in societies that have suffered Communism. Funny how it works – how collectivist egalitarian societies breed envy and covetousness, while individualistic societies based on “personal greed” breed happy societies full of voluntary charity…

    Maybe it is the freedom to mind my own business that is the good foundation.

    Moreover, by going after other peoples property, communists and socialists alike break the tenth commandment:

    “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.”

    • Politicised communist/egalitarian societies accentuate the attention to difference, encouraging covetousness in the name of rendering the circumstance of difference observed to political means and therefore power.

      So coveting that of another is rewarded at the least by positive attention. In society without that imposed philosophy, coveting that of another is seperated by a barrier of privacy – if you want what someone else has you had better think about how to obtain SIMILAR for yourself, and if that is truly worthwhile or possible. If you actually show greed or desire towards that which you covet, it will usually be recognised by the proprietor and you will be shunned and disliked.That way society builds up a COMMON understanding of mutual respect and self discipline.

  3. This map shows where the 630 occupants of the Aquarius boat ended up

    https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/07/27/media/1532699508_898129.html

    No comment really, it just shows how government distribution works. Spain is so far not hot on granting asylum, though I am not up to date on how many even try to, or manage to, claim. What is done is to issue minimal stateless ID papers , that I think hold no legal obligation. The members of the above arrival are in a slightly different legal circumstance however… probably because of the publicity, Italy rejecting them and EU accepting them also being an added mitigation somehow somewhere also.

  4. “Heinous Crimes Like Riots, Rapes, Murders, Torture on Women on Rise Due to Increase of Muslim Population and Decline of Hindu Population: BJP Lawmaker” :

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/2001_Census_India_religion_distribution_map%2C_percent_Muslim_in_states_and_union_territories.svg/1280px-2001_Census_India_religion_distribution_map%2C_percent_Muslim_in_states_and_union_territories.svg.png

    Gives 2001 census, and

    https://scroll.in/article/705283/five-charts-that-puncture-the-bogey-of-muslim-population-growth

    is a counterview. However the absolute population chart for muslim overtaking hindu in 200 years raises a more important question due to the impossibility of the numbers involved, that being that somewhere between now and then population levels would become untenable, meaning there is likely to be serious strife, inter ethnic at policy level probably, at some point.

  5. A car has struck a group of cyclists in Tajikistan, killing four tourists from the United States and the Netherlands before fleeing the scene, local officials say. It was not immediately clear whether the act was intentional.
    https://bnonews.com/site/index.php/2018/07/car-strikes-cyclists-in-tajikistan-4-dead/

    Other sources say that the car attack was followed by an attack with a knife

    Akhbor’s ‘source’ now says the attack on tourists in Tajikistan was a car attack followed by knife attack. Sounds familiar… (if this report is accurate).
    https://twitter.com/ChristianBleuer/status/1023613154646007809

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