Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/7/2019

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini kept his campaign promise by reducing migrant crossings to Italy by 80%. Migrant deaths at sea have fallen by approximately the same percentage.

In other migration news, immigration officers and police in the UK have apprehended three out of six suspected illegal migrants after their empty boat was found abandoned on the shingle in Kent.

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

Thanks to AF, Dean, Dora, JD, Reader from Chicago, Thucydides, 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
» Bokhari: The Terrifying Rise of Financial Blacklisting
» Chicago Seized and Sold Nearly 50,000 Cars Over Tickets Since 2011, Sticking Owners With Debt
» Data: Foreign Workers Continue Making Significant Job Gains Over Americans
» Donald Trump: ‘Fake News’ Dishonest Media Full of ‘Crazed Lunatics’
» Fake News: Media Manufactures Controversy Over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Dancing Video
» Golden Globes Winner Decries the Wall While Surrounded by Wall of Barricades & Security
» Jihadist Beheader in Oklahoma Cleared for Execution
» Justice Ginsburg Missing Supreme Court Arguments
» Los Angeles County Agrees to Purge Voter Rolls in Judicial Watch Settlement
» NYT’s Frank Bruni: Our Coverage is Not ‘Anti-Trump’
» Ocasio-Cortez: People ‘More Concerned’ About Being Factually Correct Than ‘Morally Right’
» Private Companies Are Paying to Keep Yellowstone Clean During Shutdown
» Second Black Man Found Dead at Home of Ed Buck, Democrat Donor
» Texas City Man Confessed to Stabbing Kids With Screwdriver: Warrant
» Wikileaks’ Assange Issues Official Denial of Russian Collusion in Release of Podesta Emails; No Contacts With Don Jr., R. Stone, J. Corsi, Manafort, Etc
» Woman Allegedly Bagged $200,000 in Food Stamps While Running $1 Million Business
» Young Turks Delete Multiple Videos After Claiming Black Shooter Was ‘White Supremacist’ Motivated by Trump
 
Europe and the EU
» Approximately 15 Acid Attacks Per Week in Britain, With 73% of Them Taking Place in London
» Brit Conspiracy Theorist Max Spiers Died After ‘Vomiting Dark Brown Liquid’
» Broken Britain: 2018 Acid Attack Victims Aged 11 to 72 in Cambridgeshire
» Captured Islamic State Jihadist ‘Entitled to Consular Assistance’ From Ireland
» Delingpole: Another Kamikaze Plot by MPs to Destroy Brexit With ‘Trump-Style’ Shutdown
» Far-Right German Politician Frank Magnitz Severely Injured in ‘Assassination Attempt’
» France: MSM Cries ‘Sabotage’ As Consultation Shows Voters Reject Globalism
» France: Paris Marks 4th Anniversary of Deadly Charlie Hebdo, Supermarket Attacks
» Germany: Watch: Shocking Footage Shows How Police Officers Get Attacked by ‘Arabs’ In Berlin
» Islamist Terror Preacher Stripped of Danish Citizenship, Deported
» Jewish Families Will Leave UK if Faith Schools Forced to Promote LGBT Lifestyles
» Juncker’s Criticism Deepens Divide Between Eastern and Western Europe — Experts
» Macron Protest Crackdown: France Plots Tougher Response to Undeclared Protests
» Mosques in Switzerland Proven to Have Ties to ISIS
» New Anti-EU League? Italian Minister Salvini to Visit Polish Conservative Leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski
» Pope Warns Populism is ‘Weakening the Multilateral System’
» ‘President Against His People’: Salvini Openly Backs Yellow Vest Protesters, Lashing Out at Macron
» The Priority of the State and the Media Has Been to Protect Islam From Criticism
» UK Govt Stage ‘Fake Traffic Jam’ To Test No-Deal Brexit Event, Twitter Erupts
» UK Lawmakers Threaten Govt Shutdown Over Brexit
» UK: Govt Criticised for Stoking ‘Apocalyptic Fears’ Over Clean Break From EU
» UK: May Scrambles for More EU Concessions as PM’s Brexit Deal Poised to be Rejected in Commons
 
Middle East
» Saudi Woman Who Tried to Flee Family Says, ‘They Will Kill Me’
 
South Asia
» Malaysia King: Sultan Muhammad V Abdicates in Historic First
 
Far East
» China Shows Its Futuristic Stealth Drone in Flight for the First Time (Video)
» Dem Rep. Ryan: ‘China is Overtaking us in Every Way, ‘ ‘We Are Falling Behind’
» Hong Kong: IKEA Accidentally Played Porn Video on Big Screen as Horrified Children Watched
» The People China ‘Disappeared’ In 2018
 
Latin America
» Venezuela Supreme Court Judge Flees to US, Spills Secrets of Maduro’s Hold on Power
 
Immigration
» Fact Check: Did ‘Every Senate Democrat’ Vote in 2013 for $46 Billion in Border Security Funding?
» Illegal Migrants Apprehended After Empty Boat Found on English Beach
» Italy’s Salvini Keeps Campaign Promise and Reduces Number of Migrant Crossings by 80 Per Cent
» Pope Says International Community Called to Defend Migrants
» Professors Warn: German Welcome Culture is Over, People Focus on Resistance and National Identity
» Report: Migrant Sea Deaths Dropped in 2018, ‘The Salvini Method Works’
» UK: End of the ‘Asylum Shop’ — Sajid Javid Vows to Tighten Migrant Rules
 
Culture Wars
» “Outrage” After French Author Says Successful Men Are Attracted to Younger Women
» Christian Bale Thanks Satan for Inspiration
» Transgender Theory Enables Child Abuse
» WSJ: Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria is ‘Social Contagion’
 

Bokhari: The Terrifying Rise of Financial Blacklisting

[…]

Financial blacklisting doesn’t just rob you of a chance to spread your message: it robs you of your ability to do business, your livelihood, your very means of functioning in a capitalist society. Thanks to the encroachment of progressive ideology into the financial industry — including major credit card companies like Visa, Discover, and Mastercard — it has now become a reality.

I first wrote about the rise of financial blacklisting in July, in a column for Breitbart News in which I highlighted the growing tendency of online financial platforms — as well as Visa and MasterCard — to deny service to customers for political reasons. I was surprised to receive a strongly worded comment from the liberal Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who bluntly warned that banks and credit card companies had become “de facto internet censors.” That even liberal groups had raised the alarm signaled the seriousness of the problem.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Chicago Seized and Sold Nearly 50,000 Cars Over Tickets Since 2011, Sticking Owners With Debt

Sandra Botello moved to Chicago five years ago for what she called “the opportunities.”

Now 41, she and her children had been evicted from her home in Idaho when her landlord’s property was foreclosed.

The move to Chicago indeed delivered opportunities. She earned an associates degree and then enrolled at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and now works as an executive administrative assistant downtown. And, two of her four kids snagged scholarships to private schools.

But her time in Chicago has also been mired with a major hurdle. It started with citations for the city road tax collected through “city stickers.” After failing to keep up with ticket payments, the city seized her car and sold it to a private towing company, only to have none of the sale price applied to her debt.

Botello is not alone.

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

Data: Foreign Workers Continue Making Significant Job Gains Over Americans

Foreign workers are continuing to make significant employment and job gains over native-born Americans, newly released Bureau of Labor Statistics data reveals.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Donald Trump: ‘Fake News’ Dishonest Media Full of ‘Crazed Lunatics’

President Donald Trump berated the “fake news” establishment media on Monday, accusing them of no longer caring about the truth.

“[T]he Fake News & totally dishonest Media concerning me and my presidency has never been worse,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Many have become crazed lunatics who have given up on the TRUTH!”

The president pointed to the good news for the American economy and the surprising jump in jobs created in December.

“The Fake News will knowingly lie and demean in order make the tremendous success of the Trump Administration, and me, look as bad as possible,” he added. “They use non-existent sources & write stories that are total fiction.”

It is unclear what prompted Trump’s tweets, but the media continues to blame the president for the government shutdown, despite Democrats failing to negotiate a compromise to fund barriers to secure the Southern border.

“The Fake News Media in our Country is the real Opposition Party,” Trump wrote. “It is truly the Enemy of the People! We must bring honesty back to journalism and reporting!”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Fake News: Media Manufactures Controversy Over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Dancing Video

When a video clip of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as a college student dancing on a rooftop went viral on Thursday, journalists and leftists immediately accused conservatives of being “outraged” and leapt to her defense.

Yet there appeared to be little actual outrage coming from any conservatives over the video, as some noted on social media.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Golden Globes Winner Decries the Wall While Surrounded by Wall of Barricades & Security

Golden Globes winner Brad Simpson decried walls as hateful last night… while surrounded by a wall of barricades, security and armed police officers.

Simpson, executive producer of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, urged Americans to “resist at the ballot box” in his acceptance speech for Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

Simpson also took a shot at President Trump’s border policy.

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

Jihadist Beheader in Oklahoma Cleared for Execution

This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially cemented the execution of America’s least known Islamic terrorist. Jihadist convert Alton Nolen is now set to be put to death in Oklahoma, likely by nitrogen gas inhalation.

The Supreme Court’s October 1, 2018 rejection of Nolen’s final death penalty appeal went unremarked upon by news media so, partly as a result, I missed it. But the Nolen case is very much worth remembering, along with all terror attacks that occur on U.S. soil, if not just for the victims and their survivors but for lessons that can and must be learned.

The September 24, 2014 attack in Oklahoma is somewhat notable in the annals of many officially uncalled terrorist strikes in that Nolen emulated a favorite ISIS death tactic no doubt learned online: he fully beheaded a co-worker—the beloved wife, mother, and grandmother Colleen Hufford —inside the Moore, Oklahoma food processing plant where they both worked. Shouting “Alluah Akbar” throughout the attack, Nolen used the same oversized butcher knife on the neck of a second co-worker, Tracy Johnson, when the company’s chief operations officer, a reserve law enforcement officer named Mark Vaughn, burst in with an AR-15 rifle. He shot and wounded Nolen as Nolen disengaged from his second victim and charged at him with the bloody knife.

Such an attack must generate a particular horror in its witnesses and, when Nolen is finally put to death, one should keep in mind what Hufford must have experienced in her last moments…

           — Hat tip: Thucydides [Return to headlines]
 

Justice Ginsburg Missing Supreme Court Arguments

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court says Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is missing arguments for the first time in more than 25 years as she recuperates from cancer surgery last month.

Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Monday the 85-year-old Ginsburg is continuing to recuperate and work from home after doctors removed two cancerous growths from her left lung on Dec. 21.

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

Los Angeles County Agrees to Purge Voter Rolls in Judicial Watch Settlement

Los Angeles County has agreed to conduct a purge of its voting rolls, in a move that could strip perhaps 1.5 million inactive voters from the lists of those eligible to cast ballots.

The county made the deal in a settlement last week with Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest firm, saying that under a recent Supreme Court ruling, it has a duty to remove names of people who appear to have either died, moved from the county or lost interest in voting.

The county committed to mailing hundreds of thousands of voters already deemed inactive to see whether they are still eligible voters, and to removing names of people who don’t respond to notices and who miss two subsequent federal elections. The county also agreed to try to weed out dead people still on the rolls.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who was also part of the settlement, committed to send notices to all registrars informing them that they, too, must take steps to cancel voters who miss voting in repeated elections and fail to respond to follow-up notices.

Judicial Watch called the settlement, involving both the nation’s biggest state and the biggest county, a significant win for conservatives who have been trying to harness the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, better known as “Motor-Voter,” to try to clean up voter rolls even as Democrats use the law to expand voter access.[…]

[Note: watchdogs like Judicial Watch deserve your support]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

NYT’s Frank Bruni: Our Coverage is Not ‘Anti-Trump’

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni told CNN Sunday that his paper’s coverage of President Donald Trump has not been overly negative or “anti-Trump” but simply honest and objective.

In response to recent claims that the New York Times has been biased in its coverage of the president, Mr. Bruni insisted that his paper was not anti-Trump.

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

Ocasio-Cortez: People ‘More Concerned’ About Being Factually Correct Than ‘Morally Right’

During an interview with Anderson Cooper for CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) addressed concerns with her lack of knowledge on the facts by brushing it off as not a big deal.

The newly-sworn in congresswoman explained people are “more concerned” with being factually correct than they are about “being morally right,” arguing “they are missing the forest for the trees.”

“One of the criticisms of you is that your math is fuzzy. The Washington Post recently awarded with you four Pinocchios for misstating some statistics about Pentagon spending.” Cooper posed to Ocasio-Cortez.

She replied, “If people really want to blow up one figure here or one word there, I would argue they are missing the forest for the trees. I think there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually and semantically correct than about being morally right.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Private Companies Are Paying to Keep Yellowstone Clean During Shutdown

Nearly three weeks into the government shutdown, some of America’s national parks are starting to get a bit rank. Access is free, since there are no employees to collect the typical $35-per-vehicle entrance fees, but that comes with the trade-off of there being no employees to empty trash bins or clean toilets either.

But at Yellowstone National Park, National Public Radio reports, local businesses are chipping in to make sure the bathrooms get cleaned, the roads get plowed, and the tourists keep coming. Even in the middle of winter, the park gets an estimated 20,000 visitors per month—and those hardy folks want to rent snowmobiles, hire tour guides, and take sightseeing trips. The private-sector businesses that thrive on those tourist dollars have a pretty strong incentive to make sure Yellowstone remains accessible.

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

Second Black Man Found Dead at Home of Ed Buck, Democrat Donor

A black man was reportedly found dead Monday morning at the Los Angeles residence of Democrat donor Ed Buck — the second such mysterious death at his home in the past few years.

Wehoville reports law enforcement has yet to release the identity of the deceased male who died in Buck’s West Hollywood apartment. Buck was investigated — and later cleared — following the death of Gemmel Moore, a young man who died of a drug overdose at the 65-year-old’s home in July 2017. Following Moore’s death, Buck has been accused of having a “fetish” for inserting drugs into black men he meets through dating websites. Before his death, Moore wrote of Buck injecting him with drugs during their encounters.

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

Texas City Man Confessed to Stabbing Kids With Screwdriver: Warrant

All three children suffered multiple stab wounds as well as blunt force trauma, according to police.

TEXAS CITY, Texas — A man who police say confessed to killing three small children admitted to stabbing one of the victims in the heart with a screwdriver.

Documents were released Monday after the arrest of Junaid Hashim Mehmood, who is charged in the Texas City triple murder.

Police say the 27-year-old confessed to 911 dispatchers about killing Angela Pilot, 5; Prince Larry Brown, 2; and 2-month-old Ashanti Mehmood. He also admitted to shooting his girlfriend and the mother of the children, 24-year-old Kimaria Nelson, in the head.

In graphic detail, an arrest warrant stated Mehmood confessed to stabbing Prince Larry Brown multiple times in the chest with a screwdriver. He also told detectives he struck Angela Pilot on the head with a hammer before stabbing her also with the screwdriver.

Police said Mehmood could not remember how Ashanti Mehmood was killed.

In addition, the suspect admitted to shooting Nelson with an aerosol pistol. She is listed as stable at UTMB in Galveston…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Wikileaks’ Assange Issues Official Denial of Russian Collusion in Release of Podesta Emails; No Contacts With Don Jr., R. Stone, J. Corsi, Manafort, Etc

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released an official denial of any contacts with Trump election officials on Monday.

Assange said he never provided election information to people in the Trump campaign and specifically named Don Jr., Manafort, Mike Flynn and Mike Flynn Jr and others.

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

Woman Allegedly Bagged $200,000 in Food Stamps While Running $1 Million Business

A Pittsburgh-area woman is facing criminal charges for allegedly bagging $200,000 in food stamps while she operated a business that received $1.24 million from Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services.

Authorities charged Kimberly Coleman, 35, of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, with three counts of welfare fraud, the Associated Press reported.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Young Turks Delete Multiple Videos After Claiming Black Shooter Was ‘White Supremacist’ Motivated by Trump

The Young Turks were forced to delete numerous videos from their YouTube channel after helping to whip up the fake narrative that the murder of a 7-year-old black girl in Houston was a racist hate crime when in fact the gunman was black.

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

Approximately 15 Acid Attacks Per Week in Britain, With 73% of Them Taking Place in London

The United Kingdom’s surge of the previously unheard of phenomenon of acid attacks has seen an average of 15 a week over the past three years, with the vast majority taking place in the crime-struck capital.

There were 2,602 acid attacks in Britain between January 2015 and May 2018, according to government figures accessed by The Mirror.

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

Brit Conspiracy Theorist Max Spiers Died After ‘Vomiting Dark Brown Liquid’

A British conspiracy theorist vomited a ‘dark brown liquid’ before he died in Poland, an inquest heard.

Maxwell Bates-Spiers, widely known as Max Spiers, died in Warsaw, where he had travelled to speak at a conference in April 2016.

An inquest heard how the 39-year-old took the Turkish form of the drug Xanax while suffering from pneumonia.

He died on July 16 at the house of Monika Duval, 50, who let him stay there after they met at the conference.

An inquest into the death of Mr Bates-Spiers, held on Monday in Sandwich, Kent, heard a cause of death given by a pathologist was complications caused by “pneumonia and intoxication by drugs”.

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

Broken Britain: 2018 Acid Attack Victims Aged 11 to 72 in Cambridgeshire

Acid attackers targetted victims including an 11-year-old child and a 72-year-old pensioner in the first few months of 2018 in Cambridgeshire, hitherto more famous for its university colleges and cathedrals than violent crime.

The handsome English county suffered a number of gruesome attacks between January and May 2018, according to Cambridgeshire Live, citing statistics uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act.

“We take acid attacks very seriously because they can often have a devastating effect on victims, particularly if they are young or otherwise vulnerable,” said a spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police — although they also claimed it was “important to note” that such attacks are “still very rare”.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Captured Islamic State Jihadist ‘Entitled to Consular Assistance’ From Ireland

A suspected Islamic State fighter who was captured by Kurdish forces is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland who was known to Irish police.

According to reports, the 45-year-old male is originally from Belarus but gained Irish citizenship after having lived and worked in Dublin for a number of years.

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

Delingpole: Another Kamikaze Plot by MPs to Destroy Brexit With ‘Trump-Style’ Shutdown

‘An all-party group of senior MPs’ are plotting to sabotage Brexit by ‘starving the [British] government of cash and creating a Donald Trump-style shutdown’.

Do any of these gimps appreciate what a terrible look this is for representative democracy?…

In order to advance its narrow, short-term aim of keeping Britain more or less within the European Union, parliament has decided to sever once and for all its relationship of trust with the electorate. If these loser MPs weren’t so blinkered by their Remainer obsessions, they’d realise that the consequences for this will be far more serious and damaging than anything that might by caused by a “No Deal” — aka ‘hard’, aka ‘real’, aka ‘full English’ — Brexit.

Has there ever been a time in British history when parliament was so out of tune with the will of the people? Has there ever been a greater democratic deficit than when 17.4 million people voted for Brexit only to watch their parliamentary representatives so flagrantly, unapologetically and contemptuously seek to overrule them?

This isn’t just poor judgement. It’s insanity.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Far-Right German Politician Frank Magnitz Severely Injured in ‘Assassination Attempt’

A far-right German politician has been left for dead in brutal attack, his party has said.

Frank Magnitz, chairman of Germany’s AfD party, was badly beaten by three alleged assailants on Monday.

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

France: MSM Cries ‘Sabotage’ As Consultation Shows Voters Reject Globalism

A national consultation in France, launched in response to protesters’ calls for more direct democracy, was denounced as having been “sabotaged” after citizens backed conservative policies.

Mainstream media networks over the weekend claimed the consultation had been “hijacked” by “militant conservative networks” after the initial results revealed a distinct lack of enthusiasm in France for progressive, globalist politics.

Journalist Vincent Glad, from the liberal-left newspaper Libération, highlighted that a proposal to repeal same-sex marriage had garnered the most approval, blasting the consultation as “a joke”.

“The ‘success’ of conservative motions is problematic,” complained state-owned France 24, noting that the other popular proposals included calls to scrap wind power subsidies and restore family allowances to middle-income couples with multiple children.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

France: Paris Marks 4th Anniversary of Deadly Charlie Hebdo, Supermarket Attacks

PARIS — Cartoonists, religious leaders and top French officials are paying respects to 17 people killed by Islamic extremists targeting satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.

The attacks that started exactly four years ago Monday were the first of several to hit France, which remains on high alert for terrorist violence.

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

Germany: Watch: Shocking Footage Shows How Police Officers Get Attacked by ‘Arabs’ In Berlin

“Shoot them (the police), shoot! Go, boys (comrades)! shoot him there (at one policeman)!” Shocking footage made by the German police during New Year’s Eve shows how officers were attacked.

According to the source of the footage it was recorded in Berlin and Arab men with with Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese dialects can be heard.

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

Islamist Terror Preacher Stripped of Danish Citizenship, Deported

Twice convicted of inciting terror, 58-year-old Said Mansour was stripped of his Danish citizenship and deported to Morocco on Friday.

The expulsion was confirmed by the office of Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who said, “Said Mansour has just been handed over to the Moroccan authorities.

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

Jewish Families Will Leave UK if Faith Schools Forced to Promote LGBT Lifestyles

Thousands of Jewish families will leave Britain if the government goes ahead with plans to force schools to promote LGBT lifestyles to children, an Orthodox campaigner has warned.

Lawyers acting for the Charedi activist and father, Shraga Stern, have written to British education minister Nick Gibb warning draft guidelines requiring schools to “actively promote” same-sex relationships and alternative lifestyles as “equally valid” would breach religious freedom provisions under European human rights law.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Juncker’s Criticism Deepens Divide Between Eastern and Western Europe — Experts

Experts say Juncker’s criticism of Romania will not help, on the contrary, it risks deepening differences between Eastern and Western Europe.

Whilst the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said Romania is technically prepared he said.

“I think the government in Bucharest has not yet fully understood what it means to take over the presidency of the EU. Prudent negotiations require a willingness to listen to others, and the firm will keep their own interests aside”.

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

Macron Protest Crackdown: France Plots Tougher Response to Undeclared Protests

France wants to clamp down on violent demonstrations after last weekend saw protesters descend on Paris for the eight time in less than two months. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced the decision on Monday, saying: “We need to preserve the right to demonstrate in France and we must sanction those who break the law. That’s why the Government favours updating the law in order to sanction those who do not respect this obligation to declare protests, those who take part in undeclared protests, those who arrive at protests with balaclavas.”

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

Mosques in Switzerland Proven to Have Ties to ISIS

A Swiss resident Turkish man has been sentenced to death in Iraq for membership to ISIS. The man turned out to have joined ISIS after being radicalized in mosques in Switzerland under control of the Turkish state.

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

New Anti-EU League? Italian Minister Salvini to Visit Polish Conservative Leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski

A new anti-EU league is in the works. In a meeting in Warsaw on 9 January, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski will meet to discuss “special relations”, which could be a major force in the next European Parliament.

[Comment: I’d like to see the Visegrad 4 expand, eventually to include all of Europe.]

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

Pope Warns Populism is ‘Weakening the Multilateral System’

Pope Francis compared today’s emergence of populist and nationalist movements to the days of Nazi Germany in an address to a group of diplomats accredited to the Holy See Monday.

The upcoming year will mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the League of Nations, the pope said in his annual address, which represented “the beginning of modern multilateral diplomacy, by which states try to remove mutual relations from the logic of oppression that leads to war.”

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

‘President Against His People’: Salvini Openly Backs Yellow Vest Protesters, Lashing Out at Macron

In an extraordinary public EU feud, Italy’s Matteo Salvini and his coalition partner have thrown their support behind France’s Yellow Vest movement, while Salvini also accused President Emmanuel Macron of being against his people.

“I support honest citizens who protest against a governing president [who is] against his people,” said the Italian deputy prime minister.

However, the leader of the Northern League added that he “firmly” condemns the recent violence that has marred the protests.

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

The Priority of the State and the Media Has Been to Protect Islam From Criticism

By Anne Marie Waters

When 22 people were murdered by an Islamic terrorist in Manchester in 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May responded, in Parliament, by telling us (very matter-of-factly) that the murderers were following a “perversion of Islam”. She offered no evidence for this, because she didn’t need to, the comforting lie was enough.

The Mayor of Manchester was equally matter-of-fact when he declared that the killers weren’t Muslim at all. Labour’s Andy Burnham said on LBC: “The worst thing that can happen is that people use this to blame an entire community, the Muslim community.”

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

UK Govt Stage ‘Fake Traffic Jam’ To Test No-Deal Brexit Event, Twitter Erupts

The UK government staged a “fake traffic jam” in Kent on Monday morning, with lorries queuing all the way to Dover, to establish the implications of Britain leaving the EU without a deal, leading to ridicule on social media.

In the first significant test for border disruption, the UK Department for Transport’s (DfT) experiment, named ‘Operation Brock’, saw nearly 100 lorries from the disused Manston Airport, in Kent, on a 20-mile journey to Dover — Europe’s busiest roll-on roll-off ferry port — at around 8am, the Evening Standard reports.

The rehearsal has led to journalists and pundits pouring scorn on the exercise. The Independent’s sketch writer, Tom Peck, updated his Twitter followers with a rather comical running commentary on the “fake traffic jam” operation.

Peck claimed that he’d been sent to cover a variety of unusual stories for the paper, but he’d “never been on an assignment anywhere near as stupid as this.” He described the experiment as a “demented pantomime.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK Lawmakers Threaten Govt Shutdown Over Brexit

Establishment will do whatever it takes to stop Brexit despite democratic vote.

A group of Remainer MPs will attempt to stop a no deal Brexit by starving the Treasury of funds which could lead to “total paralysis” of the Government.

The MPs are set to vote on two amendments to the Finance Bill, which grants funds to the Treasury to spend on implementing no deal arrangements, on Tuesday.

Labour’s Yvette Cooper MP, who leads the group that includes former Tory ministers Nicky Morgan, Oliver Letwin, and Nick Boles, said, “Our amendment would block some of the Treasury’s no-deal powers unless parliament has explicitly voted for no deal or unless the government has requested an extension of article 50.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Govt Criticised for Stoking ‘Apocalyptic Fears’ Over Clean Break From EU

Leading Brexit campaigners have said that the Government is sparking “apocalyptic fears” over the prospect of MPs voting against the prime minister’s Withdrawal Agreement and the UK making a clean break from the EU.

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

UK: May Scrambles for More EU Concessions as PM’s Brexit Deal Poised to be Rejected in Commons

Whitehall officials expect an “exchange of letters” between Westminster and Brussels in the coming days that will set the deadline for the next round of negotiations in the hope of allaying MPs fears about the Prime Minister’s Withdrawal Agreement. They hope that an explicit signal that a full trade deal can be concluded by the end of the UK’s transition out of EU will demonstrate that the controversial “backstop” mechanism never be used. Details of the pledge are expected to be unveiled ahead of the Commons Brexit debate starting tomorrow and running up to next week’s crunch “meaningful vote” on her deal.

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

Saudi Woman Who Tried to Flee Family Says, ‘They Will Kill Me’

Update: The woman has been allowed to enter Thailand while her request for refugee status is processed. Read the latest here.

BANGKOK — A young Saudi woman who wanted to assert her independence slipped away from her family during a holiday in Kuwait last week and boarded a plane for Thailand.

Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, 18, said that her family was abusive and that she hoped to seek asylum in Australia.

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

Malaysia King: Sultan Muhammad V Abdicates in Historic First

Malaysia’s king, Sultan Muhammad V, has unexpectedly abdicated in an historic first.

No Malaysian monarch has stepped away from the throne since the country gained independence from the UK more than 60 years ago.

The National Palace did not give a reason for his resignation but said it would take effect immediately.

It comes amid intense speculation about Muhammad V’s private life following reports that he has married a Russian.

He went on medical leave in November and, later that month, photographs emerged that appeared to show him marrying a former Miss Moscow in the Russian capital.

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

China Shows Its Futuristic Stealth Drone in Flight for the First Time (Video)

Beijing has released a video showing its cutting-edge ‘Sky Hawk’ UAV in flight for the very first time. The experimental ‘invisible’ military drone is designed to up China’s game in combat and recon missions.

In a video released by the state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday, the drone can be seen lifting off from an airstrip and landing in an undisclosed location. The broadcast also contained animated footage of the aircraft maneuvering in the air and undergoing maintenance on the ground.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Dem Rep. Ryan: ‘China is Overtaking us in Every Way, ‘ ‘We Are Falling Behind’

Wednesday on syndicated radio’s “Hugh Hewitt Show,” Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) warned that the United States of America is “falling behind China.”

According to Ryan, China is “locking down long-term deals in Africa for raw materials,” trying to take over manufacturing in the world and investing billions in artificial intelligence.

“[W]e aren’t even acting like we’re in a competition with [China],” Ryan lamented. “And the Defense budget with the technologies that are in there, and look, we’ve got to audit the Defense Department. We’ve got to make sure we’re not wasting money. But we are falling behind in major technologies in weapons systems that we can’t afford to fall back on.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Hong Kong: IKEA Accidentally Played Porn Video on Big Screen as Horrified Children Watched

IKEA shoppers received a great shock recently as a screen outside a store began showing an explicit film. The incident took place in Causeway Bay in the South-Eastern Chinese territory of Hong Kong.

The video is said to have shocked customers at the furniture store as it suddenly started broadcasting.

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

The People China ‘Disappeared’ In 2018

It’s not uncommon for individuals who speak out against the government to disappear in China, but the scope of the “disappeared” has expanded since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2013.

Not only dissidents and activists, but also high-level officials, Marxists, foreigners, and even a movie star — people who never publicly opposed the ruling Communist Party — have been whisked away by police to unknown destinations.

The widening dragnet throws into stark relief the lengths to which Xi’s administration is willing to go to maintain its control and authority.

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

Venezuela Supreme Court Judge Flees to US, Spills Secrets of Maduro’s Hold on Power

The Venezuelan government “has only brought hunger, misery and destruction to the country” as a “failed state” — admitted a Venezuelan Supreme Court justice and longtime government loyalist who is now making headlines by his shocking and unprecedented defection to the United States. “I’ve decided to leave Venezuela to disavow the government of Nicolas Maduro,” the former powerful judge, Christian Zerpa, told reporters. “I believe Maduro does not deserve a second chance because the election he supposedly won was not free and competitive.”

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

Fact Check: Did ‘Every Senate Democrat’ Vote in 2013 for $46 Billion in Border Security Funding?

A meme posted on the “Rowdy Republican” Facebook page, which has around three-quarters of a million followers, claimed Dec. 30 that “every Senate Democrat voted to suppport [sic] $46 billion for border security” back in 2013.

Verdict: True

A 2013 immigration bill that included $46.3 billion for border security was supported by all 52 Democrats in the Senate and only 14 Republicans. The bill was part of a bipartisan push for comprehensive immigration reform that included a path to citizenship for illegal aliens.

Fact Check:

The Rowdy Republican Facebook page shared the meme in response to the ongoing government shutdown, which centers on President Donald Trump’s insistence on, and Democratic opposition to, $5 billion in funding for a border wall.

“Do you think Democrats are hypocrites?” asked the post.

All 52 Senate Democrats, joined by 14 Republicans and 2 independent senators, did vote in favor of a 2013 immigration bill that included substantial funding for border security. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, was never voted on by the House of Representatives, which was controlled by the GOP at the time.

The bill, which sought to “provide for comprehensive immigration reform,” would have funded $46.3 billion in border security to be transferred from the Treasury to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Trust.

That spending included $30 billion to train at least 19,200 additional border patrol agents on the southern border and $4.5 billion to carry out a border security strategy developed by the Department of Homeland Security. The bill would have also given $8 billion for fencing, infrastructure and technology, as well as $750 million for E-Verify, a system to help employers ensure their employees are legally allowed to work in the U.S.[…]

[read the rest, including links]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Illegal Migrants Apprehended After Empty Boat Found on English Beach

Police and immigration officials have caught three illegal migrants after launching a search for an estimated six intruders following the discovery of an empty dinghy on the English coast.

The search was launched after the empty vessel was found at around 8 a.m. on a pebble beach in the coastal hamlet of Dungeness in the Kent town of Romney Marsh, the BBC reports.

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

Italy’s Salvini Keeps Campaign Promise and Reduces Number of Migrant Crossings by 80 Per Cent

Spain now leads in number of migrant crossings than any other European country. Whilst at the same time, crossings into Italy have fallen 80 per cent, Reuters reports.

The European border agency, Frontex, reported that 150,000 migrants entered EU countries illegally in 2018. Spain’s portion of those was double previous years’ having 57,000 using the now most active wroute through Morocco. Iraq and Syrian illegal migrants to Cyprus and Greece were up to 56,000.

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

Pope Says International Community Called to Defend Migrants

Pope Francis called on the leaders of nations Monday to lend assistance to migrants and refugees who have left their homelands for any reason and to help them integrate into their new homes.

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

Professors Warn: German Welcome Culture is Over, People Focus on Resistance and National Identity

Two professors have warned for the future as more Germans are ‘radicalising’ and the welcome culture is over.

The professors made their statement after the vehicular attacks on migrants in Bottrop and Essen on New Year’s Day by a radicalised German citizen.

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

Report: Migrant Sea Deaths Dropped in 2018, ‘The Salvini Method Works’

Italy’s tightened border controls helped reduce migrant sea deaths in the Mediterranean during 2018, Italian media reported this weekend.

According to the Italian daily La Verità, “the Salvini method works,” referring to border controls by interior minister Matteo Salvini, who has insisted that open ports fuel human trafficking and encourage migrants to undertake dangerous sea crossings.

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

UK: End of the ‘Asylum Shop’ — Sajid Javid Vows to Tighten Migrant Rules

The Home Secretary has instructed officials to look at ways of tightened existing rules and turn away migrants who failed to claim asylum in the first safe country they entered after leaving their homeland. Under the current rules, which Mr Javid wants to make sure are working, an asylum seekers application can be denied if it is shown the individuals have travelled through another safe country and failed to claim asylum. The rules are intended to stop “asylum shopping”, where migrants travel through other countries to the UK in order to get the most attractive option.

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

“Outrage” After French Author Says Successful Men Are Attracted to Younger Women

Feminists are “outraged” after an award winning French author told the truth by admitting that successful men are attracted to women younger than themselves.

Yann Moix, who is also a popular television presenter in France, told Marie-Claire magazine’s French edition that he was “incapable” of loving a woman aged over 50.

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

Christian Bale Thanks Satan for Inspiration

For portrayal of ex-Vice President Dick Cheney

Actor Christian Bale thanked Satan for inspiring his portrayal of former Vice President Dick Cheney in the movie “Vice.”

He made the comment Sunday night while accepting the award for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards.

“Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role,” he said in ending his speech.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Transgender Theory Enables Child Abuse

Pope Francis said that teaching children about being transgender is a moral problem which he calls “ideological colonisation”. He said explaining gender theory to youngsters is wrong because it can change their “mentality”. The pontiff shared, “A father asked his ten-year-old-son: ‘What do you want to do when you grow older?’ The child replied: ‘A girl’. The father realized that in the school books the gender theory was taught. This is against the natural things.” Pope Francis declared transgender theory is part of a “global war against the family”.

Unexpected voices like renowned feminist professor Camille Paglia are saying that well-meaning adults transgendering minors is child abuse. Professor Paglia actually called it “evil” to help troubled kids make permanent decisions for which there is no turning back. As commonsense normal thinking adults, our response to Prof. Paglia’s comment is, “Well dah”.

Public radio show host Jesse Thorn identified his two-year-old son as a girl; dressing his son as a girl and calling him a girl name. Ponder that folks — a two-year-old. We all know this is insane child abuse. When comedian Owen Benjamin compassionately said Thorn was abusing his child, LGBTQ enforcers crushed Benjamin’s career. His tours were canceled, and he was blacklisted in Hollywood…

American College of Pediatricians president Dr. Michelle Cretella, wrote, “Transgender Ideology Has Infiltrated My Field and Produced Large-Scale Child Abuse.” Dr. Cretella said transgender ideology is not rooted in reality. She said sex is hardwired before birth and it cannot change. Cretella continued, “By feeding children and families these lies, children are having their normal psychological development interrupted. They’re being put on puberty blockers which essentially castrates them chemically — followed by surgical mutilation later on. This is child abuse. It’s not health care.”

Dr. Cretella said we need to nurture children through natural puberty. “Our job as parents and physicians is to help children embrace their healthy bodies. And when this is done, once they get past puberty to late adolescence, as many as 95% will come to embrace their bodies — and identify with their biological sex.”

“See, according to most mainstream medical organizations, if you want to cut off a healthy arm or a healthy leg, you’re mentally ill. But if you want to cut off healthy breasts or a penis, you’re transgender. Dr. Cretella enraged LGBTQ enforcers by saying, “No one is born transgender.” Dr. Cretella is under severe attack.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

WSJ: Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria is ‘Social Contagion’

The medical community is far too unconditionally affirmative in its treatment of rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD), a Wall Street Journal op-ed argued Sunday, making ROGD an anomaly among social contagions.

Unlike traditional gender dysphoria, a “psychological affliction that begins in early childhood and is characterized by a severe and persistent feeling that one was born the wrong sex,” writes Abigail Shrier, ROGD is “a social contagion that comes on suddenly in adolescence, afflicting teens who’d never exhibited any confusion about their sex.”

Unlike other social contagions, such as cutting and bulimia, ROGD gets “full support from the medical community” instead of the treatment such contagions deserve, she contends.

“The standard for dealing with teens who assert they are transgender is ‘affirmative care’—immediately granting the patient’s stated identity,” Ms. Shrier writes, when the role of therapists should be to assist their patients in overcoming their unhealthy urges rather than pandering to them.

Gender dysphoria has now become “a fashionable cause,” and clinics routinely give girls testosterone with few questions asked, and with little thought to the sometimes permanent damage that such treatment brings about.

“Planned Parenthood furnishes testosterone to young women on an ‘informed consent’ basis, without requiring any psychological evaluation,” Shrier notes. “Student health plans at 86 colleges—including those of nearly every Ivy League school—cover not only cross-sex hormones but surgery as well.”

Parents who question the wisdom of yielding to their children’s desire to change genders often run up against a wall of contrary public opinion with very little scientific evidence to back it up.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

13 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/7/2019

  1. AfD Chairman left for dead:

    This is quite serious.

    Exactly what is Germany’s breaking point?

  2. IKEA porn shown in China:

    Deliberate ‘ accident’.

    Sweden wants to remind people that in spite of the recent ‘minor moslem problems’ , the country has not lost its family friendly image of a country of peace, love and pornography.

    Needless to say, the IKEA Complaint department was flooded with angry customers wondering where they can buy a copy of said video.

  3. Very refreshing to hear the Pope speak out against transgender theory and its affect on children and how it breaks down the sanctity of the family.

    It’s about time he says something resembling the words of Christ.

    • I wasn’t aware Christ expressed an opinion on the subject.

      More relevantly, in the light of several posts above, while many (most?) children go through a homosexual phase around puberty (myself included), and some people who turn out to be genuinely transgender (yes, they do exist) show signs well before puberty, it is grossly irresponsible and abusive to do anything about it before they reach the age of consent (at least sixteen).

      • I used the term ‘resembling’ the words of Christ to make the point that Christ had not made such actual remarks but that the Pope defended children and the idea of family in a manner which is consistent with both Old and New Testament.

        No need to split hairs and I had chosen my words carefully to prevent the need for such a response .

      • The sexual development theory you postulate, which appears to have much to commend it, is not quite the same as is being forced upon our children and that is what I believe the Pope was speaking out against.

      • I don’t want to get into a pissing match with you but… Johns Hopkins University, one of the first to administer aid to “transgenders” including surgery, withdrew their support for transgender medical assistance on the basis that the suicide rate of transgenders remained the same whether intervention was performed or not.
        They then concluded that the transgender issue was best approached by mental intervention rather than surgical or hormonal intervention.

        As to your second point about thinking about sex with the same sex. I’m pretty sure that most men and women contemplate that. It is part of understanding your identity within the social context. The difference is that today’s society has glorified these thoughts and made people “special” for continuing to think that way. In fact, today’s Western society promotes these thoughts and places special privileges on espousing these ideas above those just trying to get along in an environment that has gone on for thousands of years.

        So, you place the age at 16. How about we place it at 21? At least the medical community would be able to use several years to understand the patient and, at least they would be out of high school.

        • I said “at least” 16; age of consent/majority varies between countries, 18 being common.

  4. ” I think there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually and semantically correct than about being morally right.” AOC

    Here it is, the core values of the Leftist. Because they know they are “morally right” it doesn’t matter if what they say is factually incorrect. In other words, all they talk is propaganda to support a world view they believe is morally superior to those who would disagree. So where does truth fit into this equation? Dangerous and dishonest people.

    • Reminds me of the debacle of several years ago when Green Peace, I believe it was, was found to have altered data for Arctic sea ice. They claimed emotionalism created by data was a more important and powerful tool to bring positive change than the actual data.

  5. “It comes amid intense speculation about Muhammad V’s private life following reports that he has married a Russian.

    He went on medical leave in November and, later that month, photographs emerged that appeared to show him marrying a former Miss Moscow in the Russian capital.”

    The unashamed social climber ex-Miss Moscow even converted to Islam to hook her king. Sadly she will now never be a real Queen, just a former beauty queen.

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