Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/10/2019

Over the space of three years, a government jobs program for migrants in Milan spent €15 million, but only 120 of the migrants in the program obtained employment. That’s €125,000 per job landed. That amount doesn’t include job salaries or any other expense but finding jobs for the migrants. Oh, and paying the bureaucrats who run the jobs program, of course.

In Virginia news, Governor Ralph “Coonman” Northam made a brand new gaffe when he mentioned the 400th anniversary of the introduction of slavery to Virginia, and referred to the slaves as “indentured servants”.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dora, Insubria, JD, Mark H, Reader from Chicago, 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
» Salvini Calls for Elimination of Italy’s Central Bank, “Prison Time for Fraudsters”
 
USA
» Abuse of Faith
» Church Video Captures Woman Toppling 15-Foot Crucifix on Altar
» Donald Trump Mocks Democrats’ Embrace of ‘Green New Deal’: ‘Brilliant!’
» Georgetown University Students May Face Student Fee to Pay Slavery Reparations
» Harrison Ford Issues Apocalyptic Climate Change Warning: ‘Greatest Moral Crisis of Our Time’
» Jeff Bezos Protests the Invasion of His Privacy, As Amazon Builds a Sprawling Surveillance State for Everyone Else
» Montesquieu: Biggest Influence (Besides God) On Constitution
» Ocasio-Cortez: I’m Not Clapping When ‘Authoritarian’ Trump Says He Wants to ‘Make America Great’
» Ocasio-Cortez Doubles Down on ‘Free-Money for Lazy People’ FAQ Debacle
» Report: Gun Confiscations Surge Under California Red Flag Law
» Schoolhouse Gang at Centennial High School Targets White Students, Parents Say
» Secret Panel Wants to Examine Presidents’mental Health
» These Are the Worst Cities to Live in America. Is Yours One of Them?
» Trump Pokes Fun at Klobuchar’s Climate-Change Stance as She Announces Candidacy in Snow
» Virginia Lawmakers Weigh Impeachment of Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax Over Sexual Assault Allegations
» Virginia Governor Reeling From Blackface Scandal Refers to Slaves as “Indentured Servants”
» Washington State Bill Proposes ‘Composting’ of Human Corpses
» Zookeeper Threatens to Push Conservative Woman Into Alligator Pit
 
Europe and the EU
» “Progressive” Attacks on Capitalism Were Key to Hitler’s Success
» Anti-Semitic Attack on Paris Bagel Shop
» BBC ‘Journalist’ Compares the British Working Class to ‘Cannibals’ or ‘Creatures From Outer Space’
» Conte, Not Salvini Should Meet Macron Says France
» Exclusive — Hungary Blames Brussels for Brexit, Will Do ‘Huge Harm’ To EU
» France Should Apologise for Libya Strikes — Toninelli
» French Media Claims 150 Yellow Vests Have Their Phones Tapped
» ‘God Emperor Trump’: Float With President’s Face on it Makes Appearance in Italy’s Carnival Parade
» Hard Brexit Risks 100,000 German Jobs: Report
» Italy: Hand Over Terrorists, Victim’s Nephew Asks French Envoy
» Italy: Foibe, Volpi (Lega): “No More Mistakes From the Past, The Country Does Not Forget, We Build the Future”
» Orban Announces Major Family Protection Package for Hungary
» Pope Francis Leading His Flock to the Slaughter?
» Spain: Conservatives, Populists Rally Against Pro-Open Borders Socialist Government
» Spain: Thousands Demand Pedro Sanchez Resign
» Study Claims European Slaughter of Indigenous Americans Caused ‘Little Ice Age’
» Sweden Environment Minister Hires Activist Behind Nuclear Site Break-Ins
» The Guardian View on the Rift Between Paris and Rome: A New Age of Schism?
» UK: Brexit: Theresa May Begging MPs for More Time to Amend Her ‘Deal’
» UK: Mohammed Amin: It is Time to Abandon the Word “Islamophobia”
» UK: Muslim Taxi Driver Loses License After Refusing to Pick Up Blind Man and His Guide Dog
» What’s Behind America’s Nord Stream Objections?
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israel’s Demographic Miracle
 
Middle East
» The 40th Anniversary of the Islamic Republic of Iran
 
Far East
» Another Big Reason Not to Buy a Chinese Smartphone
 
Australia — Pacific
» Judge Calls on Muslims to Disavow Violent Qur’an Verses
 
Latin America
» Brazil President Says Stabbing Probe to Conclude in a Few Weeks
 
Immigration
» Eight Out of Ten Prisoners in Switzerland Have Foreign Background
» Gallup: Five Million Latin Americans Coming to U.S. In Next 12 Months
» German City: Only 8 Percent of Migrant School Kids Speak Fluent German
» Milan: Migrant Jobs Project Spends 15 Million to Employ Only 120
» Pope Francis Condemns ‘Plague’ of Human Trafficking
» Rep. Jayapal: Reparations Should be Paid to Families Separated at the Border
» Strasbourg Worried by Closure of Cara Refugee Center
 
Culture Wars
» Expert: New York Abortion Law ‘More Barbaric Than China’
» ‘Green New Deal’ Excludes LGBTQ Americans
» None Dare Call it a Hoax: The Jussie Smollett Saga Continues
» Number of Witches Rises Dramatically Across U.S. As Millennials Reject Christianity
» UK: Mother Arrested in Front of Children for Calling Trans Activist a Man on Twitter
 

Salvini Calls for Elimination of Italy’s Central Bank, “Prison Time for Fraudsters”

On Friday, in a moment of predictive insight, Bank of America correctly warned that the greatest threat to EPS — i.e., markets — in the next 3 years “is an acceleration of global populism via taxation, regulation & government intervention.” Just one day later, this warning to the financial establishment was starkly manifest in that ground zero for Europe’s populist revolt, Italy, where the country’s coalition government hinted at where the global populist wave is headed next when he slammed the country’s central bank leadership and stock market regulator, escalating its attacks on establishment figures ahead of the European parliamentary vote in May.

Matteo Salvini, the outspoken head of the anti-immigrant League party, said the Bank of Italy and Consob, the country’s stock market regulator, should be “reduced to zero, more than changing one or two people, reduced to zero”, or in other words eliminated, and that “fraudsters” who inflicted losses on Italian savers should “end up in prison for a long time.”

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

Abuse of Faith

20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms

First of three parts

Thirty-five years later, Debbie Vasquez’s voice trembled as she described her trauma to a group of Southern Baptist leaders.

She was 14, she said, when she was first molested by her pastor in Sanger, a tiny prairie town an hour north of Dallas. It was the first of many assaults that Vasquez said destroyed her teenage years and, at 18, left her pregnant by the Southern Baptist pastor, a married man more than a dozen years older.

In June 2008, she paid her way to Indianapolis, where she and others asked leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and its 47,000 churches to track sexual predators and take action against congregations that harbored or concealed abusers. Vasquez, by then in her 40s, implored them to consider prevention policies like those adopted by faiths that include the Catholic Church.

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

Church Video Captures Woman Toppling 15-Foot Crucifix on Altar

A woman has been arrested by Northern California cops, who say she knocked over a 15-foot crucifix in an act of vandalism caught on video.

Watsonville Police said surveillance footage shows 23-year-old Jackeline Chavira walking into St. Patrick’s Church Wednesday, heading to the altar and pushing over the crucifix after checking to see that no was watching.

Chavira, 23, then went next door and damaged a statue and artwork in a prayer room where two parishioners were praying, police said.

[Comment: Strange. No mention of her rotating her head 360 degrees.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Donald Trump Mocks Democrats’ Embrace of ‘Green New Deal’: ‘Brilliant!’

President Donald Trump has mocked Democrats’ new radical policy, the “Green New Deal,” which calls for the elimination of fossil fuels in a decade, plus guaranteed income for all Americans “unwilling” to work.

The plan, introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday, quickly gained the endorsement and co-sponsorship of several major presidential candidates, as well as eleven Senators and 67 House representatives.

Republicans are thrilled at the prospect of their rivals embracing a policy that promises to wipe out massive portions of the American economy, and the president is no exception.

Trump tweeted on Saturday evening: “I think it is very important for the Democrats to press forward with their Green New Deal. It would be great for the so-called “Carbon Footprint” to permanently eliminate all Planes, Cars, Cows, Oil, Gas & the Military — even if no other country would do the same. Brilliant!”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Georgetown University Students May Face Student Fee to Pay Slavery Reparations

Georgetown University students may soon be paying slavery reparations as part of a new student fee.

According to a report from The College Fix, students at Georgetown University will soon be voting on a referendum that would create a fund to pay slavery reparations. The fund would grow each year based on a $27.20 fee for each student at the university.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Harrison Ford Issues Apocalyptic Climate Change Warning: ‘Greatest Moral Crisis of Our Time’

Veteran actor Harrison Ford issued a stark warning to the world about the effects of climate change this weekend, describing it as the “greatest moral crisis of our time.”

In a pre-recorded video ahead of his appearance at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Sunday, the Star Wars actor urged leaders around the world to take urgent action to reverse the supposed effects of man-made global warming.

“Fresh water shortages, higher greenhouse gas emissions, unprecedented fires, worldwide destruction. Is this the world we want?” Harrison Ford said in the video. “Our planet, the only home we’ve got, is suffering. This is the bare truth. This is our reality. It’s up to you and me to act, now, to face the greatest moral crisis of our time. To take action. It is time to make a difference. It affects you.”

[Comment: Is he really so stupid? Or is he getting pressure to push a pro-globalist agenda?]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Jeff Bezos Protests the Invasion of His Privacy, As Amazon Builds a Sprawling Surveillance State for Everyone Else

by Glenn Greenwald

[…]All of this is taking place as Amazon vies for, and is the favorite to win, one of the largest Pentagon contracts yet: a $10 billion agreement to provide exclusive cloud services to the world’s largest military. CNN reported just last week that the company is now enmeshed in scandal over that effort, specifically a formal investigation into “whether Amazon improperly hired a former Defense Department worker who was involved with a $10 billion government contract for which the tech company is competing.”

Bezos’ relationship with the military and spying agencies of the U.S. Government, and law enforcement agencies around the world, predates his purchase of the Washington Post and has become a central prong of Amazon’s business growth. Back in 2014, Amazon secured a massive contract with the CIA when the spy agency agreed to pay it $600 million for computing cloud software. As the Atlantic noted at the time, Amazon’s software “will begin servicing all 17 agencies that make up the intelligence community.”

Given how vital the military and spy agencies now are to Amazon’s business, it’s unsurprising that the amount Amazon pays to lobbyists to serve its interests in Washington has exploded: quadrupling since 2013 from $3 million to almost $15 million last year, according to Open Secrets.[…]

[NOTE: A long essay/takedown, with many links. Worth your time.]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Montesquieu: Biggest Influence (Besides God) On Constitution

Bill Federer recounts impact of French political philosopher on Founding Fathers

Montesquieu was a French political philosopher whose books were read by Catherine the Great of Russia, praised in England, and banned by Louis XV of France. He greatly influenced America’s founders, with Thomas Jefferson even translating Destutt de Tracy’s Commentary on Montesquieu, Aug. 12, 1810.

In 1984, the American Political Review published “The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late 18th-Century American Political Thought,” written by Donald S. Lutz of the University of Houston, and Charles S. Hyneman. After reviewing nearly 15,000 items written between 1760 and 1805, Lutz and Hyneman discovered that the writers of the Constitution quoted Montesquieu more than any other source except the Bible.

Montesquieu divided governments into three categories, describing what motivating force, or “spring,” as in a wind-up clock, each relied upon:

1. Republics, most prevalent in northern European Protestant countries, relied on Virtue

2. Monarchs, most prevalent in southern and western European Catholic countries, relied on Honor

3. Despots, most prevalent in Islamic countries, relied on Fear

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ocasio-Cortez: I’m Not Clapping When ‘Authoritarian’ Trump Says He Wants to ‘Make America Great’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Friday said that there is no way she will clap when “authoritarian” President Donald Trump says he wants to “make America great.”

Appearing on New York’s “Ebro in the Morning” on Hot 97, Ocasio-Cortez discussed the “stern” look on her face during Trump’s State of the Union address, which prompted Peggy Noonan to say that the Democratic-Socialist looked “sullen, teenaged and at a loss.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ocasio-Cortez Doubles Down on ‘Free-Money for Lazy People’ FAQ Debacle

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has inserted her foot squarely in her mouth as her “Green New Deal” PR nightmare continues.

After removing an embarrassing FAQ from her website which failed to match the environmental legislation package she introduced on Thursday, one of her advisers went on Fox News’tucker Carlson Tonight and lied about it.

The now-deleted version of the FAQ originally uploaded by AOC’s office contained an absurd provision for “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work,” a phrase which AOC adviser Robert Hockett — a Cornell law professor, claimed came from a “doctored document.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Gun Confiscations Surge Under California Red Flag Law

Figures from the California Justice Department show that gun confiscations are surging under the state’s red flag law.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports there were 86 gun confiscation orders issued in California in 2016 and 104 in 2017. There were 424 orders issued in 2018.

The surge is largely due to approaches adopted by counties like San Diego, where the state-level adoption of a red flag law opened the door to county and municipal confiscatory plans.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Schoolhouse Gang at Centennial High School Targets White Students, Parents Say

A student at Centennial High says a schoolhouse gang forced him to fight on camera, not once or twice, but three times.

“The kid throws my son on the floor and is stomping him all in the head,” said Sherry, the mother of one victim who did not want to be fully identified.

Sherry says the school suspended her 16-year-old son last week for a fight in the bathroom, but after looking into it she learned that the entire week he was being targeted by a gang of 15-20 black male students.

“His good friend told me they target white kids only because they fell that they’re weak,” Sherry said.

Her son who doesn’t want to be identified says, “They haven’t fought anybody that’s not white. They haven’t fought any African Americans or Mexicans. It’s all been white people.”

Sherry’s son says his problem with the group started after they attacked one of his friends.

[Comment: This is why Soros funded BLM. Globalists are seeking to foment a race war in the US.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Secret Panel Wants to Examine Presidents’mental Health

Insist on anonymity while making demand all candidates submit

A secretive working group is devising a plan to create a medical panel that would screen the health of the president and candidates in the hopes of determining that President Trump is not fit for office or stopping another like him.

The public face of the five-person group, most of whom have decided to remain anonymous, is Dr. Bandy Lee, a Yale University psychiatrist who edited a controversial book of essays concluding Trump is dangerous to the country because he has shown he is mentally unfit.

“Based on the experience with the current president, we are calling for regular fitness for duty exams on presidential and vice presidential candidates, preferably as a requirement sometime before they take on the job, and even preferably before they run,” Lee said.

Lee’s group realizes that Congress won’t enact such a requirement, which would include annual exam every year after winning the election, and instead is looking to demand that candidates voluntary submit to being examined by the panel.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

These Are the Worst Cities to Live in America. Is Yours One of Them?

Deciding on the right city to live in will always require some compromise.

A city like New York may have a booming job market, but it is also one of the most expensive places in the country.

Alternatively, while a dollar may go a long way in Houston, residents of the the south Texas city are also nearly three times more likely to be a victim of a violent crime than the typical American.

While there is no such thing as the perfect city, the United States is full of places with few, if any, strengths. Poor socioeconomic conditions tell a similar story of urban blight in dozens of cities across the country.

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

Trump Pokes Fun at Klobuchar’s Climate-Change Stance as She Announces Candidacy in Snow

President Trump poked fun at Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sunday for vowing to tackle climate change as she kicked off her 2020 presidential campaign in a snowy, freezing Minneapolis park.

“Well, it happened again,” Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday evening. “Amy Klobuchar announced that she is running for President, talking proudly of fighting global warming while standing in a virtual blizzard of snow, ice and freezing temperatures. Bad timing. By the end of her speech she looked like a Snowman(woman)!”

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

Virginia Lawmakers Weigh Impeachment of Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax Over Sexual Assault Allegations

(RICHMOND, Va.) — Virginia lawmakers on Monday will reluctantly face the unprecedented prospect of impeaching the state’s second most powerful leader as they struggle to address revelations of past racist behavior and allegations of sexual assault roiling its highest levels of office.

At least one lawmaker said he will try to pursue impeachment of Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax after two women accused Fairfax of sexual assault in the 2000s, a move that experts believe would be a first in Virginia. Fairfax has vehemently denied the claims and called for authorities, including the FBI, to investigate.

There’s little sign of broad appetite for impeachment, with lawmakers set to finish this year’s session by the month’s end. But the Legislature is swirling with questions about lines of succession and the political fallout for Democrats should the governor, lieutenant governor or attorney general leave office, willingly or not.

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

Virginia Governor Reeling From Blackface Scandal Refers to Slaves as “Indentured Servants”

Fresh on the heels of a poll that found a majority of black Virginians think Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam should remain in office, the governor, who is still reeling from the fallout of a blackface scandal (albeit a scandal that has been somewhat overshadowed by several credible allegations of sexual assault against his lieutenant governor), is apparently determined to change their minds.

During an interview Sunday with CBS This Morning’s Gayle King, Northam committed a gaffe that, considering his current circumstances, is bound to leave his few remaining defenders slackjawed in disbelief. While explaining to King why he felt he should finish out the remaining three years of his term (while pursuing an agenda of racial equality), Northam casually referred to the slaves who once populated the former confederate state as “indentured servants.

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

Washington State Bill Proposes ‘Composting’ of Human Corpses

Washington State is poised to become the first state in the Union to allow “human composting,” or the “accelerated conversion of human remains to soil.”

Senate Bill 5001, titled “Concerning human remains,” would allow for human composting, also known as “recomposition” in Washington, local KIRO-TV reported.

According to the bill, human remains “means the body of a deceased person, includes the body in any stage of decomposition, and includes postreduction human remains.”

“There’s really only two options for when we die: cremation and burial,” said Katrina Spade, a human composting advocate and CEO of Recompose, the company hoping to become the go-to firm for human composting in Washington if it becomes legal.

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

Zookeeper Threatens to Push Conservative Woman Into Alligator Pit

Employee was promptly fired and escorted off zoo by police

A zookeeper at the Alligator Farm in Saint Augustine, Florida was fired this week after wishing death upon conservative reporter Kaitlin Bennett.

This past Sunday, Bennett visited the Alligator Farm with her family and fiance.

Two days later, a zookeeper named Ethan Patterson took to Twitter to say, “I just want y’all to know that Kent state gun girl came to my place of work and it took everything in me to not push her over the railing into the mouths of 250 alligators.”

Patterson was swiftly fired from the establishment and escorted from the property by police.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

“Progressive” Attacks on Capitalism Were Key to Hitler’s Success

The following, written in 1940, is excerpted from Interventionism, An Economic Analysis, which was originally part of Nationaloekonomie, the German predecessor to Human Action.

Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini constantly proclaim that they are chosen by destiny to bring salvation to this world. They claim they are the leaders of the creative youth who fight against their outlived elders. They bring from the East the new culture which is to replace the dying Western civilization. They want to give the coup de grace to liberalism and capitalism; they want to overcome immoral egoism by altruism; they plan to replace the anarchic democracy by order and organization, the society of “classes” by the total state, the market economy by socialism. Their war is not a war for territorial expansion, for loot and hegemony like the imperialistic wars of the past, but a holy crusade for a better world to live in. And they feel certain of their victory because they are convinced that they are borne by “the wave of the future.”

It is a law of nature, they say, that great historic changes cannot take place peacefully or without conflict. It would be petty and stupid, they contend, to overlook the creative quality of their work because of some unpleasantness which the great world revolution must necessarily bring with it. They maintain one should not overlook the glory of the new gospel because of ill-placed pity for Jews and Masons, Poles and Czechs, Finns and Greeks, the decadent English aristocracy and the corrupt French bourgeoisie. Such softness and such blindness for the new standards of morality prove only the decadence of the dying capitalistic pseudo-culture. The whining and crying of impotent old men, they say, is futile; it will not stop the victorious advance of youth. No one can stop the wheel of history, or turn back the clock of time.

The success of this propaganda is overwhelming. People do not consider the content of alleged new gospel; they merely understand that it is new and believe to see in this fact its justification. As women welcome a new style in clothes just to have a change, so the supposedly new style in politics and economics is welcomed. People hasten to exchange their “old” ideas for “new” ones, because they fear to appear old-fashioned and reactionary. They join the chorus decrying the shortcomings of the capitalistic civilization and speak in elated enthusiasm of the achievements of the autocrats. Nothing is today more fashionable than slandering Western civilization.

This mentality has made it easy for Hitler to gain his victories. The Czechs and the Danes capitulated without a fight. Norwegian officers handed over large sections of their country to Hitler’s army. The Dutch and the Belgians gave in after only a short resistance. The French had the audacity to celebrate the destruction of their independence as a “national revival.” It took Hitler five years to effect the Anschluss of Austria; two-and-one-half years later he was master of the European continent.

Hitler does not have a new secret weapon at his disposal. He does not owe his victory to an excellent intelligence service which informs him of the plans of his opponents. Even the much-talked-of “fifth column” was not decisive. He won because the supposed opponents were already quite sympathetic to the ideas for which he stood.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Anti-Semitic Attack on Paris Bagel Shop

The Bagelstein shop in Paris’s historic Ile Saint-Louis district has been targeted before, the owner said. France has seen a massive uptick in anti-Jewish incidents in the past year.

The managers of the Bagelstein restaurant in Paris’s 6th arrondissement said on Sunday that they had been the victims of an anti-Semitic attack. The store window had been graffitied with the German word meaning “Jews” in yellow paint overnight.

“We discovered the tag on Saturday morning, and it was probably done on Friday night into Saturday,” co-founder of the chain, Gilles Abecassis, told French news agency AFP on Sunday. He added that some of their other windows have also been vandalized in the past.

Abecassis said that he thought the yellow color of the graffiti was significant, not because of the recent yellow vest protests in France, but “maybe for the Star of David,” armbands the Nazis forced Jews to wear.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

BBC ‘Journalist’ Compares the British Working Class to ‘Cannibals’ or ‘Creatures From Outer Space’

This is just a short taster clip from the soon to be released Tommy Robinson expose Documentary. This is what the BBC ‘so called Journalist’ and Politicians really think of the people who pay their wages.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Conte, Not Salvini Should Meet Macron Says France

Italian ministers meet their counterparts — spokesman

(ANSA) — Paris, February 8 — Premier Giuseppe Conte and not Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini should meet French President Emmanuel Macron after France recalled its ambassador citing “unprecedented attacks”, a French government spokesman said Friday.

Commenting on Salvini’s willingness Thursday to meet Macron, Benjamin Griveaux told Europe 1: “Dialogue has never been broken off, but there is also a premier in Italy, his name is Giuseppe Conte, he is the head of the Italian government and Macron has met him many times”.

He went on “as you know, these Italian ministers have already sat down with their French counterparts on the occasion of the various European councils they take part in”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive — Hungary Blames Brussels for Brexit, Will Do ‘Huge Harm’ To EU

Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjartó has revealed that his government blames the European Union for the British people’s vote for Brexit in 2016, and admitted it will inflict a huge blow to the bloc in economic and security terms, in an exclusive interviewwith Breitbart News.

“We regret it a lot, the decision of the British people [to vote for Brexit],” the Hungarian statesman told Breitbart’s Deputy Political Editor Amanda House.

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

France Should Apologise for Libya Strikes — Toninelli

Pity they don’t say sorry says transport min, M5S bigwig

(ANSA) — Genoa, February 8 — France should apologise for the French-led airstrikes on Libya that helped topple dictator Muammar Gheddafi in 2011, the consequences of which Italy is still paying for in terms of migrant flows, Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said Friday.

Toninelli is a senior member of the anti-establishment populist 5-Star Movement (M5S), whose leaders met with Yellow Vests members in Paris Tuesday and sparked a diplomatic crisis in which France recalled its ambassador.

“France committed a serious mistake in 2011 and we are still paying the consequences of it, we Italians principally,” said Toninelli.

“It’s a pity they don’t say sorry,” he said while adding “there is no clash with France…it’s a friendly people”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

French Media Claims 150 Yellow Vests Have Their Phones Tapped

A new report from a French magazine claims that at least 150 Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) activists have their phones tapped by the French government and are being tracked online.

The report comes from weekly political magazine Le Point, which says that French security services agents have been tracking the Yellow Vest protestors and listening to their phone conversations, building on prior similar claims by Le Canard Enchaîné, the satirical weekly which broke a scandal involving former presidential candidate Francois Fillon, France-Soir reports.

Le Point claims that intelligence services are tracking 50 activists in Paris and 100 in the rest of the country, and that the agency responsible for the tracking is the Intelligence Directorate of the Prefecture of Police of Paris (DRPP).

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘God Emperor Trump’: Float With President’s Face on it Makes Appearance in Italy’s Carnival Parade

Although he wasn’t there in person, President Donald Trump made an appearance at Italy’s Viareggio Carnevale over the weekend.

The float, titled, “The Master Drone,” was created by Fabrizio Galli and depicted Trump as a God emperor from the Warhammer 40,000 series. In the series, the Emperor of Mankind is the greatest embodiment of universal order. As written on the parade’s website, the parallelism between Trump and the character in the series has “never been more fitting.”

“Donald wants to go back to the moon, travel to Mars and create the first space army,” the website said. “…The time of intellectuals, philosophers and of old and worn culture is over.”

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

Hard Brexit Risks 100,000 German Jobs: Report

A study has shown that Germany stands to lose the greatest number of jobs if Britain exits the EU without a deal. Some of the country’s well-known auto and tech hubs are likely to be the worst hit.

A hard Brexit could cost more than 100,000 jobs in Germany, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday, citing a study by the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH) and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

The study, which looks at the effect of a hard Brexit down to individual districts and cities, showed that some of Germany’s well-known auto and technology hubs could face the maximum brunt.

“In no other country is the effect on total employment as great as in Germany,” Oliver Holtemöller, one of the authors of the study, told the newspaper.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Hand Over Terrorists, Victim’s Nephew Asks French Envoy

Bring them back with you says Ciotta

(ANSA) — Rome, February 8 — The nephew of a brigadier killed by a far-left terrorist group in 1977 has written to the French ambassador to Italy to launch an appeal to extradite former terrorists living in France.

Potito Perruggini Ciotta, nephew of Giuseppe Ciotta, killed by the Fighting Communist Brigades, said “your excellency, when and if you should decide to come back to Rome, please take into consideration the possibility of bringing with you to Italy the fugitive Italian terrorists hosted in your country forever.

“Not only the relatives of the victims but all the Italian people would be grateful and happy”.

France recalled its envoy in a diplomatic spat on Thursday.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Foibe, Volpi (Lega): “No More Mistakes From the Past, The Country Does Not Forget, We Build the Future”

“Today on the day of remembrance lies the shared memory of the country with respect to dramatic historical events”. Thus the Undersecretary of Defense, at Lega, on. Raffaele Volpi commented on the tragedy of the Foibe in “Day of Remembrance”.

“History, memory, adds the Hon. Volpi, they must enable us not to commit the same mistakes and to look to the future of our country with the awareness that it is due to the victims of these dramas. Unfortunately, in the circuit of those who yesterday put the city of Turin to fire and flame, social centers and anarchists are still reading strong elements of denial with respect to the drama of the sinkholes. The men of the police who have been injured are our new heroes, emphasizes the Hon. Volpi, they are those who against cowardice outside the time of reality guarantee in favor of all citizens order and law”.

The Hon. Raffaele Volpi of the Lega: “We can no longer accept either violence or irregularities, sometimes supercharged by some administrations, and inevitably Irregular social centers must be cleared and sealed and those who perform violence methodically have been arrested and tried for years”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Orban Announces Major Family Protection Package for Hungary

Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced a seven-point family protection action plan in his state-of-the nation address in Budapest.

“This is Hungary’s answer to challenges, rather than immigration”, the prime minister said.

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

Pope Francis Leading His Flock to the Slaughter?

The two foremost representatives of Christianity and Islam, Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb — the Grand Imam of Al Azhar who was once named the “most influential Muslim in the world” — just signed “A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.” The Document “forcefully rejects,” to quote Vatican News, “any justification of violence undertaken in the name of God,” and affirms “respect for believers of different faiths, the condemnation of all discrimination, the need to protect all places of worship, and the right to religious liberty, as well as the recognition of the rights of women.”

The Document is being portrayed as a “historic pledge of fraternity” and applauded as a “historical breakthrough.” The problem is that one of the two men who signed it, Dr. al-Tayeb, has repeatedly contradicted — when speaking in Arabic and appearing on Arabic media — all the lofty sentiments it highlights.

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

Spain: Conservatives, Populists Rally Against Pro-Open Borders Socialist Government

Thousands of Spaniards in Madrid are joining a rally called by right-wing political parties to demand that Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez step down.

The conservative opposition Popular Party and the centre-right Citizens party organized Sunday’s rally, which was also backed by the far-right Vox party. They claim that Sanchez must resign for holding talks with separatists in the north-eastern region of Catalonia.

Sanchez’s government broke off negotiations with the Catalan separatists on Friday, when Vice President Carmen Calvo said the separatists wouldn’t budge from their demand for an independence referendum.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Thousands Demand Pedro Sanchez Resign

Thousands of supporters of Spain’s right-wing opposition have rallied in Madrid to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Many are furious his government is negotiating with Catalonian separatists.

Huge crowds of anti-government protesters converged on central Madrid on Sunday to pressure Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to step down and call fresh elections.

An estimated 45,000 people packed into the capital’s Plaza de Colon, many of them waving Spanish flags and signs reading “Stop Sanchez” and “For a united Spain, elections now!”

The rally was organized by the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) and the center-right Citizens Party, with backing from the far-right party Vox.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Study Claims European Slaughter of Indigenous Americans Caused ‘Little Ice Age’

A study alleges that millions of indigenous Americans died following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in North America in 1492, and this drastic depopulation resulted in substantial global cooling.

The study, conducted by researchers from University College London and published in the journal Quarternary Science Reviews, claims that the deaths induced by European colonists occurred on such a large scale that they led to a “Little Ice Age,” a period of global cooling between the 16th and mid-19th century.

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

Sweden Environment Minister Hires Activist Behind Nuclear Site Break-Ins

The new chief of staff for Swedish Environment and Energy Minister Isabella Lövins was previously the head of Greenpeace in Sweden and was behind break-ins at several nuclear power plants in 2012.

The new chief of staff, Annika Jacobsson, headed the Swedish branch of Greenpeace between 2012 and 2014. On October 9th 2012, 70 environmental activists belonging to Greenpeace broke into the Forsmark and Ringhals nuclear power plants to “carry out our own stress test to see if one can get into the reactors,” Jacobsson said at the time, SVT reports.

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

The Guardian View on the Rift Between Paris and Rome: A New Age of Schism?

France’s decision to withdraw its ambassador from Italy points to the deeper divisions that threaten a troubled continent

Before this week, the last time that France recalled its ambassador from Italy was in June 1940, when Benito Mussolini’s fascist government declared war on France and Britain. On Thursday, however, the same thing happened again, when ambassador Christian Masset was instructed to leave the Palazzo Farnese, the stunningly beautiful embassy building in which part of Puccini’s opera Tosca is set, to return to Paris for “consultations”.

Although the conflict between France and Italy is only a war of words this time, it is not an operatic spectacle. This is a serious political event, and its symbolism is potent. For two of the European Union’s foundation members to fall out in this way is astonishing after nearly 75 years of western European peace. It is a mark of the degree to which Italy’s far-right and anti-establishment coalition government is prepared to flout the European orthodoxy of the postwar period. The threatening implications for the EU can hardly be disputed…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Brexit: Theresa May Begging MPs for More Time to Amend Her ‘Deal’

LONDON (AP) — With Brexit just 47 days away, the British government is asking lawmakers to give Prime Minister Theresa May more time to rework her divorce deal with the European Union.

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said Sunday that Parliament would get to pass judgment on May’s Brexit plan “by no later than Feb. 27.”

The promise is a bid to avert a showdown on Thursday, when Parliament is set to vote on the next moves in the Brexit process. Some lawmakers want to try to steer the country toward a softer exit from the bloc.

[Comment: She need more time to put the lipstick on the pig of a “deal”. ]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Mohammed Amin: It is Time to Abandon the Word “Islamophobia”

Modern usage of “Islamophobia” comes from the 1997 report by the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia: Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All.

I wrote in 2012 that the report was seriously flawed, because it conflates attitudes towards Islam and attitudes towards Muslims. Re-reading the report while composing this article I noted that it does not contain a short, quotable definition of “Islamophobia”; perhaps one of the many disadvantages of committee authorship.

Subsequently, there have been attempts to steer the word Islamophobia away from its somewhat nebulous Runnymede 2017 definition, and instead to use it as a shorthand for reprehensible behaviours such as:

  • anti-Muslim hatred,
  • anti-Muslim bigotry,
  • anti-Muslim prejudice,
  • anti-Muslim discrimination.

However, when people seek to use “Islamophobia” as a shorthand for the above behaviours, others respond by asserting their freedom to have negative views of Islam, and profess a legitimate fear of Islam, thereby harking back to the original meaning of “Islamophobia” as understood by the Runnymede 2017 report…

           — Hat tip: Mark H [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Muslim Taxi Driver Loses License After Refusing to Pick Up Blind Man and His Guide Dog

Private hire driver Mohammed Saghir, arrived at a pub near Trent Bridge to take Mark Whittle and his wife, Catherine, home.

Saghir arrived outside the pub, which the couple had gone to after taking part in the Great Notts Bike Ride on June 24, 2018, and sent a text to tell them he was waiting.

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

What’s Behind America’s Nord Stream Objections?

Time could be running out for the Nord Stream 2 project as France may withhold support. The project to bring gas from Russia directly to Germany has many detractors, especially America.

France is about to withhold its support for the Nord Stream 2 project, according to a report in the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. The natural gas pipeline, a third of which is already laid across the Baltic Sea seabed, is a massive European project and would directly connect Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine and Poland. By some it has been seen as yet another contribution to energy security, by others as a geopolitical tool. It depends where you live.

Technically not a European Union project, up to this point Germany has had the support of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece and the Netherlands for the pipeline. If Paris is really about to abandon support, it could have grave effects for the 1,230 kilometer (764 mile) project since the countries work so closely together…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Israel’s Demographic Miracle

Many were the achievements justly celebrated on Israel’s 70th anniversary last month: the country’s prowess in matters military, its world-famous technological knowhow, its record of economic growth and stability, the rich variety of its cultural offerings, the vibrancy of its religious life, the indomitable spirit of its people.

Yet still another achievement, perhaps the most impressive but one that’s mostly unknown, needs to be added to the list: Israel’s stunning demographic success. In this essay, I hope to repair the deficiency.

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

The 40th Anniversary of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Today, February 10, the Iranian regime officially celebrates the 40th anniversary of the day it seized power. The fundamentalist and Islamist party of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini surprised the international community and the Iranian people when in 1979, it hijacked a revolution. The successful power-grab sentwaves through global politics.

Although some people were aware of the intentions of the Islamist party, many underestimated the extent of its organizational skills and power. To harness both the trust and the loyalty of the people, Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers initially portrayed themselves as spiritual people who had no desire to rule the country. Many, including several political parties, also believed that, during a transitional period, the ruling mullahs would relinquish any power gained.

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

Another Big Reason Not to Buy a Chinese Smartphone

Given the constant stream of anti-China propaganda (true or not), security and privacy concerns are likely top of mind for many when considering whether a Chinese smartphone will be their next purchase. However, there is, perhaps, an even more important — health-related — reason to think twice…

For most people nowadays, their smartphone is within arm’s reach 24 hours a day. It’s in their pocket while they’re at work, it’s in their hand on the train ride home and it’s on their bedside table as they go to sleep. And, as Statista’s Martin Armstrong notes, with this level of proximity and usage, many can’t quite shake the niggling feeling that they might be risking damage to themselves in the long run.

While conclusive longitudinal research on the effects of cell phone radiation is still hard to come by, for those looking to hedge their bets, this infographic shows the phones that emit the most radiation when held to the ear while calling.

The German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz) has a comprehensive database of smartphones — new and old — and the level of radiation they emit.

The current smartphone creating the highest level of radiation is the Mi A1 from Chinese vendor Xiaomi. Another Chinese phone is in second place — the OnePlus 5T. In fact, the two companies are represented heavily in this list, with 8 of the top 16 handsets being made by one of them. Premium Apple phones such as the iPhone 7 and the recently released iPhone 8 are also here to be seen, though, as are the latest Pixel handsets from Google.

While there is no universal guideline for a ‘safe’ level of phone radiation, the German certification for environmental friendliness ‘Der Blaue Engel’ (Blue Angel) only certifies phones which have a specific absorption rate of less than 0.60 watts per kilogram. All of the phones featured here come in at more than double this benchmark.

To take a look at the other end of the scale, we also have a list of the phones emitting the least radiation…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Judge Calls on Muslims to Disavow Violent Qur’an Verses

Australian Justice Desmond Fagan, while jailing two jihad terrorists last week, exhorted Muslims to work for genuine reform:

The incitements to violence which terrorists quote from the Koran cannot just be ignored by the many believers who desire harmonious coexistence. Those verses are not ignored by terrorists.

Indeed. But apparently Muslim leaders in Australia want you to ignore them. Responding to Fagan’s call, Dr. Ibrahim Abu Mohamed — the Grand Mufti of Australia — claimed that “only two Koran verses talk about preemptive fighting.”

Unfortunately, the reporter or reporters present apparently didn’t have the wit, interest, or journalistic standards to ask him which ones those were. There are many, many more than two verses that call upon Muslims to fight unbelievers, whether preemptively or not.

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

Brazil President Says Stabbing Probe to Conclude in a Few Weeks

Investigations into the stabbing attack on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro when he was campaigning should be concluded in the next few weeks by the federal police, he said in his first video message after the third surgery following the September incident.

Dressed in his blue hospital garment with a food tray in front of him, Bolsonaro said the stabbing by Adelio Bispo politically motivated, referring to his attacker’s past affiliation with the Socialist and Liberty Party PSOL.

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

Eight Out of Ten Prisoners in Switzerland Have Foreign Background

The number and proportion of inmates with a foreign background in Swiss prisons have increased sharply in recent years. New figures show that as many as 80 percent of all prisoners in the country are foreigners.

Last week Switzerland published official statistics showing that the number of prisoners in the Alpine state has increased by 50 percent between 1988 and 2017, Radio Télévision Suisse reports.

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

Gallup: Five Million Latin Americans Coming to U.S. In Next 12 Months

This suggests that open borders could potentially attract 42 million Latin Americans

Five million Latin Americans plan to migrate to the United States in the next 12 months, and an estimated 42 million more say they want to enter the country.

Those statistics were in a report from Jim Clifton, the chairman and CEO at Gallup:

The poll came as Democrats began using their new political clout to try to widen the catch-and-release loopholes in President Donald Trump’s border defenses.

[Comment: Democrats = Bosheviks, and the Democrat Party is an enemy of the Republic of the United States.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

German City: Only 8 Percent of Migrant School Kids Speak Fluent German

A shocking new report claims that only 8.2 percent of children in elementary schools with migrant backgrounds in the German city of Duisburg are able to speak the German language fluently.

The revelations come from a report to be presented by Dr Ralf Krumpholz, the city’s Assistant Minister for Integration, and revealed that at least 16.4 percent of migration-background children in the school system speak no German at all, Rheinische Post reports.

The report claims that only 8.2 percent of migrant-background children in 2017 could pass exams with flawless German and that 50.1 percent came from households in which another language other than German was spoken.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Milan: Migrant Jobs Project Spends 15 Million to Employ Only 120

A Milan project has been revealed to have spent at least 15 million euros over the past three years to help migrants into work, but only 120 have actually found jobs.

The Protection System for Asylum Seekers and Refugees (SPRAR) is a government-funded project that aids asylum seekers across Italy and in Milan spent millions on training courses, Il Giornale reports.

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

Pope Francis Condemns ‘Plague’ of Human Trafficking

Pope Francis spoke out against human trafficking Sunday, calling it a modern form of human slavery.

“I appeal especially to the governments, so that the causes of this plague are dealt with decisively and the victims are protected,” the pope told the crowds gathered for his weekly Angelus message in Saint Peter’s Square. “But we can and must cooperate by denouncing the cases of exploitation and slavery of men, women and children.”

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

Rep. Jayapal: Reparations Should be Paid to Families Separated at the Border

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said on Friday that the United States government should pay reparations to families that were separated after they entered the United States legally or illegally and faced immigration proceedings.

Jayapal appeared on MSNBC to talk about her interaction with Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker during a House Judiciary hearing on Friday, where she asked him about family separations.

[Comment: Democrat party is riddled with, at best, socialists.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Strasbourg Worried by Closure of Cara Refugee Center

Measure can end ‘admirable efforts’ in the past — CoE

(ANSA) — Strasbourg, February 7 — The commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatovic, said she was worried by the closure of the CARA refugee center in Castelnuovo di Porto in a letter sent to Premier Giuseppe Conte on January 31 and published on Thursday.

The closure, she wrote, could “end the admirable efforts made over the past few years by social services for the integration and rehabilitation” of refugees.

In the letter, the commissioner asked for more information on alternative solutions for the accommodation provided to people with residency permits for humanitarian reasons.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Expert: New York Abortion Law ‘More Barbaric Than China’

Longtime opponent of repressive 1-child policy issues warning

Many Americans have been horrified to learn of the abortion-until-birth law passed last week by lawmakers in New York state.

How, they ask, could such a death agenda have been installed in America?

Now, a longtime opponent of China’s forced-abortion policy says New York’s abortion law is even more barbaric than “that of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Reggie Littlejohn, president of the nonprofit Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, points out that once a woman is in labor in China, the baby cannot be killed.

She pointed to an explanation of China’s policy by a physician, which she warned is not for the faint of heart.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Green New Deal’ Excludes LGBTQ Americans

The “Green New Deal” introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) last Thursday dwells on the plight of various oppressed groups, but somehow fails to mention lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Americans.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

None Dare Call it a Hoax: The Jussie Smollett Saga Continues

The bizarre case of Jussie Smollett continues to unfold with the police still investigating what Smollett insists was a “hate crime.”

Smollett tells the story of walking down the street in sub-zero temperatures and being attacked by two men wearing MAGA hats and screaming racial and homophobic slurs at him. Was this a hate crime?

Maybe it was. And then, maybe he wasn’t attacked at all.

The incident occurred in Chicago, a city torn by racial strife and massive distrust of the police.

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

Number of Witches Rises Dramatically Across U.S. As Millennials Reject Christianity

Witchcraft and other pagan religious practices increased in the U.S. over the past few decades, with millennials turning to astrology and tarot cards as they turn away from Christianity and other traditionally dominant Abrahamic religions.

The number of witches and Americans practicing Wicca religious rituals increased dramatically since the 1990s, with several recent studies indicating there may be at least 1.5 million witches across the country. A Trinity College study conducted in 1990 estimated only about 8,000 Wiccans in the U.S., but the increase has been led by a rejection of mainstream Christianity among young Americans as well as a rise in occultism.

With 1.5 million potential practicing witches across the U.S., witchcraft has more followers than the 1.4 million mainline members of the Presbyterian church.

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

UK: Mother Arrested in Front of Children for Calling Trans Activist a Man on Twitter

British police arrested a mother in front of her children for calling a trans activist a man in a Twitter argument, with a judge subsequently issuing an injunction banning her from referring to the person’s “former male identity”.

38-year-old Kate Scottow, of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, said she was “arrested in my home by three officers, with my autistic ten-year-old daughter and breastfed 20-month-old son present” in comments posted to the Mumsnet online forum, according to the Mail on Sunday.

“I was then detained for seven hours in a cell with no sanitary products (which I said I needed) before being interviewed then later released under investigation… I was arrested for harassment and malicious communications because I called someone out and misgendered them on Twitter.”

Police officers are said to have taken her DNA, fingerprints, and photograph, and continue to retain her laptop and mobile phone months after they arrested her on December 1st, hindering her university studies.

The Mail on Sunday say Hertfordshire Police have confirmed the arrest, telling the newspaper: “We take all reports of malicious communication seriously.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

15 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/10/2019

  1. re: Northam

    “…a poll that found a majority of black Virginians think Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam should remain in office…”

    Is this evidence that blacks are not always as offended by racism as liberal whites assume?

  2. re: Composting of Human remains

    I know a man who owns and operates several incinerators in Michigan. He does much business for funeral homes with incerating or cremating human corpses.

    Occasionally, he is asked by police departments to exhume the body of a long since deceased person for forensic testing. Apparently, most bodies buried in metal or any nearly air-tight casket prevents a body from decomposing properly and what is left is a horrific mess. His descriptions made me nauseous.

    In his opinion, a modern, well sealed, expensive casket is the worst thing in which to bury your beloved. An old fasioned pine box with loose fitting lid is best he claims and this is what he himself would like to be buried in. The corpse decomposes properly and within a far shorter period of time.

    So, I agree with the idea that human remains should be allowed to decompose properly.

    Although I’m not sure I would want to be used for fertiliser to grow marijuana in Seattle, unless I’m smoked by friends only.

    No doubt a few corporations and liberals have their eyes on such a money making scheme.

    • and I have begged my wife to have me buried under our avocado tree so I will be of some use after all.

  3. “The study, conducted by researchers from University College London and published in the journal Quarternary Science Reviews, claims that the deaths induced by European colonists occurred on such a large scale that they led to a “Little Ice Age,””

    I always believed the little ice age to be caused by the thirty year war, or maybe not…

    • It’s pc anti-white utter nonsense, unless of course the tens of millions who died on Mao’s ironically named Great Leap Forword caused a mini ice-age also, never mind the bloody expansion of Islam, that left so many dead it’s surprising the world isn’t covered in ice.

  4. “…400th anniversary of the introduction of slavery to Virginia, and referred to the slaves as “indentured servants”.” I hate to defend the infanticide loving DemonRat governor but he is correct. The first slaves brought to Virginia and other parts of the American colonies were in fact white “indentured servants” a euphemism for a human being enslaved for a set period of indenture ranging from three years to life. WHITE CARGO The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh gives an excellent accounting of British slavery in the Caribbean and American colonies.
    “White Cargo is the forgotten story of the thousands of Britons who lived and died in bondage in Britain’s American colonies.
    In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, more than 300,000 white people were shipped to America as slaves. Urchins were swept up from London’s streets to labor in the tobacco fields, where life expectancy was no more than two years. Brothels were raided to provide “breeders” for Virginia. Hopeful migrants were duped into signing as indentured servants, unaware they would become personal property who could be bought, sold, and even gambled away. Transported convicts were paraded for sale like livestock.
    Drawing on letters crying for help, diaries, and court and government archives, Don Jordan and Michael Walsh demonstrate that the brutalities usually associated with black slavery alone were perpetrated on whites throughout British rule. The trade ended with American independence, but the British still tried to sell convicts in their former colonies, which prompted one of the most audacious plots in Anglo-American history.
    This is a saga of exploration and cruelty spanning 170 years that has been submerged under the overwhelming memory of black slavery. White Cargo brings the brutal, uncomfortable story to the surface.”
    https://www.amazon.com/White-Cargo-Forgotten-History-Britains/dp/0814742963

    • The history of indentured servants is well-known, at least in the areas where it was practiced. In New England, even some black indentured servants were freed.

      It’s not a “forgotten history” at all. Ask the Australians.

      • That’s how my forebears came here, in 1723. My great-great….. served seven years for his freedom and then another seven years for his farmland, at least according to my sister who has researched the family’s history.

    • Excellent points. Will buy that book also.

      I studied this practice with the history of Quebec (New France) where indentured servitude was very common in the 17th and 18th centuries. Surprisingly, it was generally unpopular with the ‘masters’ as they had to contend with a high rate of run-aways and workers with poor skills. Without a welfare system, this practice was itself a form of social assistance. The young folk learned a trade and were often given government paid tools and supplies to begin their own independent careers when the contract terminated. Unfortunately, as you say, many were forced or fooled into going to the New World but for most this still represented a better life than the horrible, violent streets of London and Paris.

      Every peasant was a commodity in those days; both blacks and whites. I had a few indentured servants in my ancestry.

      The black community is more than welcome to share some of their financial reparations for slavery with me.

  5. Re: Georgetown Students may face fee to pay reparations.

    I know I’m preaching to the converted here, but really? The transatlantic slave trade was abominable and inexcusable, but:
    a) most of the twelve million back African victims were not taken in raids (though the Portuguese in particular did do this), but purchased from Muslim slave traders: Arabs, Berbers, Ottomans (Ottomen?), even other black Africans. How much should their descendants contribute? That’s to assume that we’re all responsible for the deeds of our ancestors anyway.
    b) Almost certainly, an even greater number ended up as slaves in the Ottoman Empire; the men were routinely castrated (which the majority didn’t survive), the women used as sex slaves, and their babies murdered, which is why only a few thousand of their descendants survive in Turkey (try denying this holocaust, Erdogan). Unknown numbers were left to die in the gruelling crossing of the Arabian peninsula, and on the slave ships off east Africa, where conditions were worse than on the European ones.
    c) And of course there were the unknown millions of white European and South Asian victims; the million plus taken by the Barbary pirates, even from Britain, were a small proportion of the total; central Europe and the Balkans suffered much more, causing the foundation of the Hungarian Hussars and Ukrainian Cossacks to protect the people from the slavers’ depradations. Where do we go to claim compensation please?

    Sorry I’ve gone on, but what do they teach about the slave trade in schools these days? Not these, evidently: https://gatesofvienna.net/2017/05/who-sold-the-slaves-everybody-did/#comments; https://en.wikipedia./wiki/Slavery_in_medieval_Europe

  6. Re UK: Muslim taxi driver loses licence…

    I receive updates from the UK Guide Dogs’ Association (“seeing-eye dogs” to Americans), and always sign their petitions. Reading between the lines, I believe they’re aware that the problem is Muslims’ attitude to dogs, but they haven’t responded when I’ve raised this.

    • Minnesota had a problem with Muslims making a stink about service dogs for the blind in schools, and Muslim taxi-drivers refusing to carry them. IIRC, some governmental agencies stepped in and told them to knock it off.

Comments are closed.