Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/10/2019

An explosion on a bus in Stockholm sent the driver to the hospital, but fortunately there were no passengers onboard at the time. Swedish police say the incident is not terror-related, and they are investigating it as a traffic accident.

In other news, Canada’s National Trust says that 9,000 — roughly a third — of the country’s churches are expected to close over the next decade.

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

Thanks to Dean, Dora, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» New York City is Edging Toward Financial Disaster, Experts Warn
 
USA
» Bias Report Filed Against Professor for Defending Brett Kavanaugh
» Connecting Dots Creates Shocking Truth
» Deaths From Suicide, Drugs & Alcohol Hit an All-Time High in 2017
» Democratic Presidents Behaved a Lot Worse Than Trump in the White House
» Destroying America From Within, Part 3
» Exclusive: Berkeley Assault Suspect’s Higher Ed Employment History More Extensive Than First Thought
» Police Arrest Husband, Stepdaughter of Woman ‘Killed by Panhandler’ In Baltimore
» Selling Socialism to America
» Vox Writer: ‘I Eat Takeout or Soylent for ~99 Percent of My Meals’
» Wrongful-Death Claims Reveal Tragic Toll of Medical Blunders at City Hospitals
 
Canada
» Exclusive: Rebel Uncovers Where Terrorist Omar Khadr Hid $3m of His Ill-Gotten Payout
» From Sacred to Secular: Canada Set to Lose 9,000 Churches, Warns National Heritage Group
 
Europe and the EU
» 12 Foreign Fighters Back in Italy — Salvini
» Amid Surge in Knife Violence, British Supermarket Chain Pulls Kitchen Knives Off Shelves
» Finland: Terror-Linked Muslim Wanted for Stabbing His Ex-Wife and 3 Children, In Honor-Related Attack
» France: Strasbourg and Lyon to Trial Women Bus Request Stops
» Italy: We’ll Sign Framework Accord With China — Conte
» Italy: 64,000 Shops Lost in 10 Yrs — Confcommercio
» London Police Change Their Story on Arrest of Christian Street Preacher
» No Deal Brexit to Give UK £140 Billion Boom Say Economists — Ignore ‘Project Fear Hysteria’
» Orban: No Place for Multiculturalism in Hungary
» Pope Francis: Exploiting Workers is a ‘Mortal Sin’
» Sweden: Stockholm Bus Explosion Sends Driver to the Hospital
» Trump, Czech Prime Minister Babis Have Much in Common
» UK: “We May Never Leave EU”, Theresa May Issues Warning to Brexiteer MPs Before Crucial Vote on Her Deal
» UK: Twenty Arrested for Child Sexual Exploitation in Wakefield, Yorkshire
 
Middle East
» Swedish ‘Islamophobia Expert’ Turned ISIS Fighter Arrested in Syria
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australians Claiming to be Aboriginal Will be Forced to Undergo DNA Testing to Prove it Under a One Nation Proposal to Crack Down on Welfare Fraud
» From Rioting Apex Thugs to Girls Trading Punches and African and Islander Youths Brawling on the Streets: ‘Family-Friendly’ Moomba Festival is Marred by Gang Violence for the Fourth Year Running
» Man Shot Dead in Melbourne ‘Predicted His Own Death on Snapchat’ Before He Was Gunned Down — Making Him the Fifth to Die in a Shooting in the City in 10 Days
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» 8 Americans Among 157 Dead After Ethiopian Airlines Flight Crashes After Takeoff
 
Latin America
» Internet Collapses in Venezuela With 80% Offline; Twitter, YouTube, Soundcloud Blocked
» Venezuela’s Long Road to Ruin
 
Immigration
» Over 1,500 Migrants Cleared From Bulldozed Italian Shanty Town
» Report: Merkel Govt May Have Let in Thousands of War Criminal Migrants
» Researcher Blames Multiculturalism for Rise of Arab Clan Gangs in Germany
» Swedish Conservative Leader: Mass Migration Has Led to Insecurity for Women
» UK: Romanian Migrant Sentenced for Kicking Mother of Two to Death at Bus Stop
 
Culture Wars
» Update: ‘Transgender Woman’ Arrested by NYPD for Hate Crimes Following Mace Attack Spree
 
General
» “Is it Really Human Beings Doing This?”
» Amazon’s Modern Day ‘Book Burning’ Campaign Against Conservative Authors
 

New York City is Edging Toward Financial Disaster, Experts Warn

New York City is careening closer to all-out financial bankruptcy for the first time since Mayor Abraham Beame ran the city more than 40 years ago, experts say.

As tax-fleeced businesses and individuals flee en masse, and city public spending surges into the stratosphere, financial analysts say Gotham is perilously near total fiscal disaster.

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

Bias Report Filed Against Professor for Defending Brett Kavanaugh

In a University of Oregon classroom in October of 2018, a professor was finishing his lecture when he made a rhetorical aside. The professor was discussing a PowerPoint slide that referenced “Potiphar’s Wife,” a Biblical story in which a married woman makes an offer to have sex with one of her husband’s slaves, Joseph, only to have him turn her down. To punish him, Potiphar’s wife then accuses Joseph of rape

“This is an issue in our society,” the professor allegedly said. “Now that you all know what this phrase means, you can go use it to describe the Kavanaugh trial,” he is recounted as saying.

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

Connecting Dots Creates Shocking Truth

In 2009…

James Comey left the Justice Department to go and cash-in at Lockheed Martin. Hillary Clinton was running the State Department, on her own personal email server. The Uranium One “issue” comes to the attention of Hillary. Like all good public servants do in looking out for America’s best interest, she decides to support the decision and approve the sale of 20% of U.S. Uranium to, no other, than the Russians! Notice that it was not a Donald Trump collusion with the Russians…it was Hillary.

This appeared to be a straight up deal, but was it? The people got absolutely nothing out of if. However, prior to the sales approval, no other than Bill Clinton rushed to Moscow, got paid Five Hundred Thousand bucks for a one hour speech, then met with Vladimir Putin at his home for several hours. Again, this was a Clinton, not a Trump.

Meanwhile, the FBI had a mole inside the money laundering and bribery scheme. And the FBI director during this time? Yep, Robert Mueller who even delivered a Uranium Sample to Moscow in 2009. And who handled that case within the Justice Department out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland? Better sit down…Rod Rosenstein.

As for the informant, The Department of Justice placed a GAG order on him and threatened to put him behind bars if he spoke out about it.

Sudden Thawt Dept. How did 20% of the most strategic asset of the United States of America end up in Russian hands when the FBI has an informant, a mole, providing inside information to the FBI on the criminal enterprise?

After the sale was approved, 145 Million dollars in “donations” made their way into the Clinton Foundation from entities directly connected to the Uranium One deal. Lois Lerner was still at the Internal Revenue Service working with the Charitable Division where she regularly blocked legitimate churches and ministers from receiving a tax exemption.

WHOOSH! It is now 2015: …

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Deaths From Suicide, Drugs & Alcohol Hit an All-Time High in 2017

Don’t let anyone tell you America is in decline!

From Axios:

In 2017, more than 151,000 Americans died of suicide or causes related to drugs or alcohol — the highest rate in U.S. history, according to a new study by Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust…The drug and suicide epidemics have hit rural America hardest, at the same time that blue collar jobs are disappearing and technology and automation is transforming the workforce.

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

Democratic Presidents Behaved a Lot Worse Than Trump in the White House

by Victor Davis Hanson

Progressives claim President Trump marks a new low in American political and presidential history, personifying a singularly odious message.

But if we examine the present pantheon of progressive icons, and strip away their reliance on liberal-media protection and transfer them instead into the present age of tabloid promiscuity and cyber omnipresence, would we now have a very different view of their presidencies?

The progressive Woodrow Wilson administration likely would never have completed its two elected terms had it operated on media protocols common just a half-century later.

For nearly a year during the failing health and death of First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson, the president fell into a state of debilitating depression, carefully hidden from the press. Much later, during the last 17 months of Wilson’s presidency, he was more or less unable to fulfill his duties due to a series of strokes that left him partially paralyzed and visually impaired. Those realities were carefully hidden from the public by the efforts of his second wife, Edith Bolling Wilson, and physician Dr. Cary Grayson.

In the present case, we know that Trump is neither comatose nor is Melania running the country.

The country never learned the full extent of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s paralysis. Much less did it know of FDR’s past and ongoing affairs — the mechanics of which were sometimes carried out in the White House and with the skillful aid of his own daughter Anna. By fall 1944, Roosevelt, seeking a fourth term, was suffering from a series of life-threatening conditions. Worrying that the public would not vote yet again for a terminally ill president, sympathetic journalists and military physicians covered up Roosevelt’s illnesses — on the theory that FDR would survive long enough to get elected to a fourth term and ensure a continued Democratic administration.

[…]

John F. Kennedy, by contemporary standards, was a serial sexual harasser, if not a likely assaulter. While physically in the White House he carried on sexual trysts with subordinates and others without security clearances, mostly with the full knowledge of the complacent White House press corps. One former JFK intern, Mimi Alford, later wrote a memoir describing losing her virginity at 19 years of age to the president in the White House presidential bed.[…]

Lyndon Johnson was not just a serial adulterer and often corrupt, but displayed a level of crudity that would now be seen as clinical, from conducting business while defecating on the toilet to exposing his genitals to staff — apparently as some sort of Freudian proof of his own, and by extension, his nation’s, manhood. […]

There is no reason to review the escapades of an impeached Bill Clinton. Despite the efforts of a sympathetic media, many of his transgressions were in part aired to the public. They ran the full gamut of a classical sexist and misogynist, from likely sexually assaulting chance acquaintances to attempting to defame and ruin the reputations of women deemed liable to disclose past liaisons.

What differentiates Trump’s womanizing from that of prior presidents, like Clinton’s, is that his escapades were prior to, not during, his presidential service.

A study published by the liberal Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy found that coverage of the Trump presidency in its first hundred days was 80 percent negative, as evidenced in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, in addition to CNN, CBS, Fox News and CNBC parent NBC, as well as European news outlets the Financial Times, BBC and ARD in Germany. The same researchers found that coverage of Trump was about twice as negative as had been true of reporting on Barack Obama.[…]

[NOTA BENE: Obama’s escapades have yet to be shared, but they will surface eventually…]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Destroying America From Within, Part 3

by Roger Anghis

Once muslims have established a mosque and created an enclave they begin to grow the population. They use population to take a country over. A popular must have 2.5 children per married couple. Most places are producing less than that but the muslim populations in the UK, Germany, Sweden and even America are producing 5-7 children per married couple. They will actually out populate the local people. Their population growth is where they do their dirty work on the nations they immigrate to. When the Muslim population remains at or under 2%, their presence tends to fly low under the radar. In the 2% — 5% range, Muslims begin to seek converts, targeting those they see as disaffected, such as criminals. When the population reaches 5% they exert influence disproportionate to their numbers, becoming more aggressive and pushing for Sharia law. When the population hits the 10% mark Muslims become increasingly lawless and violent. Once the population reaches 20%, there is an increase in rioting, murder, jihad militias, and destruction of non-Muslim places of worship. At 40%, there are “widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare.” Once beyond 50%, infidels and apostates are persecuted, genocide occurs, and Sharia law is implemented. After 80%, intimidation is a daily part of life along with violent jihad and some state-run genocide as the nation purges all infidels. Once the nation has rid itself of all non-Muslims, the presumption is that ‘Dar-es-Salaam’ has been attained — the Islamic House of Peace.[1]

What does it look like in America? Not good for our kids and grandkids. Even when Muslims are a minority population they can and do transform whole cultures and societies. And not for the better.

[Comment: Recommended reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive: Berkeley Assault Suspect’s Higher Ed Employment History More Extensive Than First Thought

Zachary Greenberg, the 28-year-old man facing three felony charges and one misdemeanor charge in connection to the incident involving Leadership Institute Field Representative Hayden Williams, has worked, volunteered, and studied at numerous institutions of higher education in California for the better part of a decade, a Campus Reform investigation has found. Greenberg has pleaded not guilty to each of the charges.

Williams, who is an employee of Campus Reform’s parent organization, suffered a black eye and symptoms of a concussion after Greenberg punched him in the face on the campus of the University of California-Berkeley. Williams’ cell phone was also damaged during the altercation.

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

Police Arrest Husband, Stepdaughter of Woman ‘Killed by Panhandler’ In Baltimore

BALTIMORE, Md. (FOX 5 DC)- The husband and stepdaughter of a woman who was allegedly stabbed to death by a panhandler in Baltimore last December have been arrested for murder in connection with her death Baltimore City Police announced Sunday, according to WBAL-TV.

Keith Smith and his daughter, 28-year-old Valeria Smith, were arrested in Harlingen, Texas, near the U.S./Mexico border, for the murder of Jacquelyn Smith, Acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said at a news conference. They were reportedly preparing to leave the country.

WBAL-TV reports on Dec. 1, 2018, Jacquelyn Smith was riding in a car on Valley Street when she saw a woman holding a sign that read “please help me feed my baby.” The woman was also reportedly carrying what appeared to be a baby in her arms.

Reports say when Jacquelyn Smith gave the woman money, “a man reached into the car, grabbed Jacquelyn’s wallet, stabbed her and ran away.” Jacquelyn Smith later died in a local hospital.

The crime attracted national attention and prompted many people to regard panhandlers warily.

Harrison said that the concocted story took advantage of negative perceptions of Baltimore crime…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Selling Socialism to America

Socialism is a tough sell to Americans who evaluate ideas based on facts and a remarkably easy sell to Americans who evaluate ideas based on feelings. The adult world of facts is a foreign land to the infantilized world of feelings where low-info millennial voters currently dwell…

Low-info low-level political leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Ortez (AOC) have emerged to help sell Socialism to America. Who is buying? AOC’s supporters are low-info millennial voters who have been indoctrinated toward collectivism by the leftist liberal narrative that dominates public education K-12 and dictates university curricula. The leftist takeover of college campuses and its rejection of objective reality is discussed in chilling detail by Andrew Cunningham in his 3.8.19 American Thinker article.

[Comment: Mass drinking of socialism kool-aid is the result of decades of a reducation system designed to halt the development of logical thinking — and push emotion-driven reasoning. Emotion driven citizens are easier to manipulate.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Vox Writer: ‘I Eat Takeout or Soylent for ~99 Percent of My Meals’

Vox writer Dylan Matthews, who has written in favor of open borders and called for Obama to unilaterally ban everyone from buying guns, said Wednesday he only eats “takeout or Soylent” for about “99 percent” of his meals.

“I eat takeout or Soylent for ~99 percent of my meals,” Matthews said on Twitter. “The fact that we assume everyone (esp. women) should be forced to take on, IDK, 10 hours of cooking labor every week when there are efficiencies to be gained by outsourcing it … it’s totally nuts.”

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

Wrongful-Death Claims Reveal Tragic Toll of Medical Blunders at City Hospitals

Medical misconduct has killed 468 people in New York City’s 11 public hospitals in the past five years, their shattered families allege in wrongful-death claims.

The city has paid out $34 million to 56 families since 2014, according to a Post analysis of city comptroller data obtained through a Freedom of Information request. More than 400 cases are pending.

One of the biggest payouts by the Health and Hospital Corp. system — $3.2 million — went to the family of Georgia Thompson, who died six years after doctors at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn ignored her tuberculosis diagnosis, then repeatedly botched her treatment, leading to a harrowing three-week decline that ended with her death of catastrophic organ failure in 2014, according to court documents.

[…]

In another Kings County case, Everton Lee of Brooklyn lost both his pregnant wife, Yvonna Harvell, and their unborn son in 2015 when physicians ignored Harvell’s past history of cardiac problems, failed to notice that an X-ray showed she had an enlarged heart and missed symptoms of peritonitis — a cascade of negligence that led to both deaths, according to court documents. The city paid the widower $900,000 in 2017.

Kings County had the highest number of wrongful-death claims of any HHC hospital, with 91 filed from 2014 through 2018 — far more than the 54 cases logged against No. 2, the much larger Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. […]

[NOTE: Just one more example of why “Public Health” is an oxymoron]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive: Rebel Uncovers Where Terrorist Omar Khadr Hid $3m of His Ill-Gotten Payout

Omar Khadr, the Canadian-born son of al-Qaeda royalty who killed US Army medic Christopher Speer and maimed soldier Layne Morris while fighting for enemy forces in Afghanistan, was never repentant.

He was convicted and sentenced by a jury at Gitmo for forty years for his admitted war crimes, but he wouldn’t stay there.

As part of an Obama administration political pressure campaign, Canada repatriated Khadr and when he got back, he quickly went about using our legal system against us.

His sentence was reduced to just bail, and he walks the streets of Edmonton a free man with a whitewashed past.

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

From Sacred to Secular: Canada Set to Lose 9,000 Churches, Warns National Heritage Group

A national charity that works to save old buildings estimates that 9,000 religious spaces in Canada will be lost in the next decade, roughly a third of all faith-owned buildings in the country.

National Trust for Canada regeneration project leader Robert Pajot says every community in the country is going to see old church buildings shuttered, sold off or demolished.

“Neighbourhoods are going to have multiple churches closing,” Pajot said. “Some people qualify this as a crisis, and I kind of agree. It is going to hit everybody.”

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

12 Foreign Fighters Back in Italy — Salvini

5 in jail, 7 being monitored

(ANSA) — Rome, march 8 — Twelve foreign fighters have recently returned to Italy and five of them are in jail while the other seven are being monitored, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Friday.

Of the more than 130 foreign fighters linked with Italy, he said, 48 have died in Syria and Iraq.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Amid Surge in Knife Violence, British Supermarket Chain Pulls Kitchen Knives Off Shelves

In the face of rising knife violence rates in the UK, supermarket chain Asda will no longer be selling individual kitchen knives. This comes on the heels of the company’s decision in 2016 to securely package all knives after a customer was stabbed inside a Poundland, another British grocery chain. For their part, Poundland stopped selling knives altogether last year. The grocery chains aren’t entirely incorrect — England does have a growing knife violence problem. However, regulating knives won’t stop the violence. And, boy, does England have a growing knife violence problem.

Over the first three months of 2019, England, with a population of just under 56 million, has seen 41 people killed by a knife based on this BBC report. According to the LA Times, “There were 285 knife homicides in England and Wales from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, the highest number since comparable records began in 1946.”

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

Finland: Terror-Linked Muslim Wanted for Stabbing His Ex-Wife and 3 Children, In Honor-Related Attack

Finnish police is looking for the 34-year-old assailant Hayder Abduljabar Al-Hmedavi, who stabbed two adults. One of whom is his former spouse and mother of his three children whom he also stabbed, Tundra Tabloids reports.

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

France: Strasbourg and Lyon to Trial Women Bus Request Stops

Women travelling on public buses after 22h in Strasbourg and Lyon will soon be allowed to ask the driver to drop them off between two stops, if it will mean that they have a shorter walk home in the dark.

Buses in Paris and Grenoble already offer this service, but this week (on March 8, International Women’s Day) Strasbourg and Lyon announced that they too planned to introduce the scheme soon.

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

Italy: We’ll Sign Framework Accord With China — Conte

For Belt and Road Initiative

(ANSA) — Genoa, March 8 — Premier Giuseppe Conte said Friday the government’s mooted project with China is an “important one of infrastructural connectivity which proposes great willingness on the part of China to cultivate an exchange. With all due caution, I think it can be an opportunity for our country. The upcoming meeting in Italy with the Chinese president will be an occasion to sign the framework accord. It doesn’t mean that we will be bound the day after, but we will be able to enter and dialogue”.

Conte was referring to Italy possibly signing up for the Belt and Road Initiative, the ‘new Silk Road’, on which talks are at an advanced stage.

If the deal goes through, Conte said he could rule out reprisals by US ratings agencies.

China hopes Italy will go ahead and join its Belt and Road Initiative despite US pressure not to, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said earlier Friday.

“Historically, Italy was a stop on the Silk Road,” said Wang.

“We welcome Italy and other European countries that are taking an active part in the Belt and Road Initiative.

“Italy is an independent country and we trust you will stick to the decision taken by you in an independent way,” Wang said answering a question on outside pressure, especially from the US, on Rome joining the new Silk Road, where negotiations with Beijing are in their final stages.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: 64,000 Shops Lost in 10 Yrs — Confcommercio

45,000 more hotels and eateries

(ANSA) — Rome, March 6 — Italy has lost 64,000 shops in the last 10 years, retail group Confcommercio said Wednesday.

“The loss of 64,000 shops in the last 10 years and the convulsive and disordered evolution of the structures of dining and accommodation are impoverishing our cities, which now more than ever must be relaunched,” said Confcommercio President Carlo Sangalli.

Some 63,826 shops closed in the 10 years between 2008 and 2018, a drop of 11.1%, while some 44,924 new hotels, bars and restaurants were opened, a rise of 15.1%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

London Police Change Their Story on Arrest of Christian Street Preacher

The Met Police have changed their narrative on the arrest of a Christian street preacher last month after an investigation was launched into their conduct.

While police originally claimed they had walked the preacher some 200 meters away and then let him go, they now admit that they drove him away in a car, dropping him off several miles away.

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

No Deal Brexit to Give UK £140 Billion Boom Say Economists — Ignore ‘Project Fear Hysteria’

Leaving the European Union without a deal is Britain’s best bet for future success and would lead to a £140billion Brexit boom, according to economists.

MPs will be given a vote on ruling out quitting the bloc unless an agreement is in place if Theresa May’s exit plan is rejected on Tuesday. But the pro-Leave Economists for Free Trade group has made a last push to keep the option on the table and accused Remainers of “Project Fear” hysteria about walking away. Its analysis found Britain will flourish if it leaves on March 29 on world trade rules.

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

Orban: No Place for Multiculturalism in Hungary

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has hit back at Western European critics, stating clearly that multiculturalism has no place in his country.

The new statements come from an interview of Orban by French politician Philippe de Villiers as part of the newly released book, I Pulled the Thread of Lies, and Everything Unravelled, according to a press release from the Hungarian prime minister’s office.

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

Pope Francis: Exploiting Workers is a ‘Mortal Sin’

Pope Francis railed against unjust employers Friday, saying it is hypocritical to go to church on Sunday and then exploit one’s workers.

“Many Christians, even Catholics, who say they are practicing Catholics exploit people! They exploit their workers!” the pope said during his daily homily at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta Friday.

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

Sweden: Stockholm Bus Explosion Sends Driver to the Hospital

STOCKHOLM — A natural gas-powered bus that didn’t have any passengers on it caught fire from an explosion in Sweden’s capital, but there were no signs it was terror-related, Stockholm police said Sunday.

The city’s police department tweeted that the bus driver was rushed to the hospital with severe burns but no one else was known to have been injured.

The department said the incident was being investigated as a traffic accident.

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

Trump, Czech Prime Minister Babis Have Much in Common

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis now have another thing in common: They both like the same campaign slogan.

Babis said Thursday at the White House that he similarly wants to “Make the Czech Republic great again.”

The two leaders already have much in common.

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

UK: “We May Never Leave EU”, Theresa May Issues Warning to Brexiteer MPs Before Crucial Vote on Her Deal

Prime Minister Theresa May has ostensibly delivered an ultimatum to euroskeptic MPs, claiming that if they reject her Brexit deal on Tuesday, then they run the risk of the UK never leaving the European Union, RT.com writes.

[Comment: Theresa May is bluffing.]

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

UK: Twenty Arrested for Child Sexual Exploitation in Wakefield, Yorkshire

Nineteen men and one woman have been arrested on suspicion of perpetrating sexual offences against two underage girls in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

The suspects are alleged to have victimised two girls between 2014 and 2016 when they were aged between 14 and 15, according to the BBC.

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

Swedish ‘Islamophobia Expert’ Turned ISIS Fighter Arrested in Syria

Swedish-Norwegian “Islamophobia” expert turned Islamic State jihadist Michael Skråmos has been arrested by Kurdish forces in Syria, with sources claiming Norway wants to prosecute the extremist.

The 33-year-old, born in Sweden to Norwegian parents, was captured this week in the village of Baghouz in one of the very few remaining areas under any form of Islamic State control, Swedish newspaper Expressen reports.

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

Australians Claiming to be Aboriginal Will be Forced to Undergo DNA Testing to Prove it Under a One Nation Proposal to Crack Down on Welfare Fraud

One Nation’s New South Wales leader Mark Latham has taken aim at people who identify as indigenous, when they are not of Aboriginal heritage.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

From Rioting Apex Thugs to Girls Trading Punches and African and Islander Youths Brawling on the Streets: ‘Family-Friendly’ Moomba Festival is Marred by Gang Violence for the Fourth Year Running

Recently Melbourne’s Moomba festival has been spoiled by terrifying gang violence which erupted again on Saturday night as police used batons and pepper spray to break up running battles.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Man Shot Dead in Melbourne ‘Predicted His Own Death on Snapchat’ Before He Was Gunned Down — Making Him the Fifth to Die in a Shooting in the City in 10 Days

The victim, who has not been identified, died on Springvale Road in southeast Melbourne after emergency responders were unable to revive him. The gunman remains at large.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

8 Americans Among 157 Dead After Ethiopian Airlines Flight Crashes After Takeoff

Eight Americans were among the 157 people killed when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

The 4-month-old Boeing 737-8 MAX plane crashed six minutes into its flight to Nairobi, Kenya, plowing into the ground at 8:44 a.m. local time, 31 miles south of Addis Ababa.

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

Internet Collapses in Venezuela With 80% Offline; Twitter, YouTube, Soundcloud Blocked

In the midst of a second nationwide power outage in Venezuela, the vast majority of the country is engulfed in a massive internet outage. The first electrical blackout, which swept across the nation on Thursday, left Venezuela with only two percent connectivity amid the ongoing presidential crisis. Most of the country has been offline since Thursday with limited or no connectivity being reported across large swaths of the South American nation. The NetBlocks Group, a private internet watchdog organization based in the UK, reported on Saturday that 96 percent of the country was offline.

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

Venezuela’s Long Road to Ruin

Few Countries Have Provided Such a Perfect Example of Socialist Policies in Practice

Word from Caracas is that locals have taken to scouring city streets for plastic garbage bags full of rubbish and, when they find them, emptying the contents so that they can resell the bags.

This sounds absurd, but it is believable in a country where extreme poverty has spread like the plague. Human capital is fleeing. Oil production is plummeting, and the state-owned oil company is in default. The garbage bag, imported with dollars, is a thing of value.

If anything was more predictable than the mess created by Hugo Chávez’s Marxist Bolivarian Revolution, it is the pathetic effort by socialists to deny responsibility. The Socialist Party of Great Britain tweeted recently that Venezuela’s problem is that socialism has yet to be tried. It blamed the crisis on “a profit-driven capitalist economy under leftist state-control.” Even more preposterous is the claim by some academics that economic liberalism in the 1980s spawned the socialism that has destroyed the country.

Learning from history is impossible if the narrative is wrong. So let’s clear the record: By the time Chávez was elected, Venezuela already had 40 years of socialism under its belt and precious little, if any, experience with free markets.

Military dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez was toppled in January 1958. Romulo Betancourt, an avowed socialist, was elected president later that year.

When Venezuela promulgated its 1961 constitution, Betancourt immediately suspended Article 96, which read: “All can freely engage in the profitable activity of their choice, without any limitations other than those provided for in this Constitution and those established by law for security, health or other reasons of social interest.”

This crucial protection remained on the shelf for 30 years, as a string of socialist governments employed price and exchange controls in counterproductive attempts to raise living standards.

Rent control in Venezuela dates to 1939 but was not enforced by Pérez Jiménez. In August 1960 Betancourt revived it, passing a new rent-control law and prohibitions on eviction. Since then, “not one apartment rental building has been built,” writes Vladimir Chelminski in his 2017 book, “Venezuelan Society Checkmated.” The legendary slums that climb Caracas’s hillsides are a testament to this socialist stupidity.

[…]

Rafael Caldera took office for a second time in 1994 and restored price and exchange controls. By 1996, facing another collapse, he reversed course again, liberating prices and opening markets. The adjustment exposed reality but was painful, especially in the face of falling oil prices. Thus, the ground was fertile for an antiestablishment candidate in 1998.

Chávez was inaugurated in February 1999, in the midst of a recovery in oil prices and with the bolivar at 576 to the dollar. He tripled down on socialism, exacerbating a long history of destroying capital that would lead to today’s disaster.

Appeared in the June 11, 2018, print edition as ‘Venezuela’s Long Road to Hell.’

[NOTE: Socialists keep re-inventing their square wheel and wonder why their economic engine can’t keep pace with reality]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Over 1,500 Migrants Cleared From Bulldozed Italian Shanty Town

Approximately 1,592 migrants have been removed from a shanty town migrant camp in southern Italy as part of the populist government’s policy to dismantle squatter camps across the country.

The shanty town, formerly located in the southern Italian city of Reggio in Calabria, was bulldozed this week by police following a series of problems stemming from the makeshift camp in recent months, Italian newspaper Il Giornale reports.

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

Report: Merkel Govt May Have Let in Thousands of War Criminal Migrants

A damning new report has claimed that since 2014, the government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has allowed thousands of war criminal migrants to enter the country.

The new report claims that from 2014 to 2019, the German government not only let in around 5,000 migrants who were subject to investigation for violating international law, but only investigated a handful of them itself, German tabloid Bild reports.

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

Researcher Blames Multiculturalism for Rise of Arab Clan Gangs in Germany

German Islamic and migration researcher Ralph Ghadban has blamed multicultural ideology for the rise in power of Arab clan gangs, saying there are now no-go zones in Berlin.

The Lebanese-born researcher claimed that there are now several “no-go areas” in the German capital, listing the areas of Cottbusser Tor, the Tiergarten, and Neukölln, saying they were “dangerous areas, so-called no-go areas, in which Arab clans have the upper hand,” Augsburger Allgemeine reports.

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

Swedish Conservative Leader: Mass Migration Has Led to Insecurity for Women

Ebba Busch Thor, leader of the Swedish Christian Democrats (KD), has slammed the mass migration policies of the Swedish government, saying they have made women less secure.

The conservative leader slammed the left-wing establishment, saying it had largely failed on feminist issues despite supporting a supposed feminist-oriented policy in an op-ed for Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

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

UK: Romanian Migrant Sentenced for Kicking Mother of Two to Death at Bus Stop

Romanian migrant Florin Ion has been sentenced for kicking a mother of two to death in front of horrified onlookers after just four months in the United Kingdom.

The 32-year-old migrant had been on his way to collect the rest of his family from Romania in April last year when the bus transporting him pulled into a service station near Thurrock for a comfort break, Essex Live reports.

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

Update: ‘Transgender Woman’ Arrested by NYPD for Hate Crimes Following Mace Attack Spree

UPDATE 1:00 p.m. EST: NYPD arrested 37-year-old Thomas Heard, a “transgender woman,” yesterday afternoon after Heard threatened another woman with scissors. The victim was able to assist police in tracking the suspect down.

Charges include assault as a hate crime, menacing as a hate crime, harassment as a hate crime, and assault with criminal possession of a weapon.

ORIGINAL: The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is searching for a suspect in a series of racially-motivated attacks that occurred yesterday in Harlem and the Bronx.

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

“Is it Really Human Beings Doing This?”

Persecution of Christians, January 2019

Massacres Inside Churches and Attacks on Them

Philippines: On Sunday, January 27, Islamic militants bombed a Roman Catholic cathedral during Mass. At least 20 people were killed and 111 wounded. Two explosives were detonated about a minute apart in the vicinity of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo at around 8:45 a.m. According to one report, “The initial explosion scattered the wooden pews inside the main hall and blasted window glass panels, and the second bomb hurled human remains and debris across a town square fronting the cathedral.”

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

Amazon’s Modern Day ‘Book Burning’ Campaign Against Conservative Authors

In the last few weeks, Amazon crossed a dangerous and precarious line and began a modern day book burning campaign against titles written by authors from the populist right which have been arbitrarily deemed ‘politically dangerous’.

While the internet giant continues to sell books like Karl Marx’s ‘The Communist Manifesto’, Al-Qaida’s Doctrine for Insurgency: Abd al-Aziz al-Muqrin’s ‘A Practical Course for Guerilla War’, Leon Trotsky’s ‘Terrorism and Communism’, Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’, ‘The Anarchist Cookbook’, the world’s largest bookstore banned ‘Mohammed’s Koran: Why Muslims Kill for Islam’ which was co-authored by British Activist Tommy Robinson and Peter McLoughlin.

Despite scathing reviews, the book was ‘the No.1 best-selling exegesis of the Koran’ on the site. The book reportedly had over 1000 five star reviews that were left by verified Amazon customers in the last 18 months.

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

20 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/10/2019

  1. If May delays or stops “Brexit” then the consequences will be catastrophic. I don’t talk about economics but a very angry and public reaction. People tell me that we British “Don’t do that sort of thing anymore!”

    I have been predicting a replay of 1642 for over a decade. All the similarities are there and ingredients. Look at the fatuous blabbermouths and their scare “porn”. These fake but dangerous fools have created a monster that will sweep them away for their arrogant contempt of the public.

    I was called “Uneducated” only yesterday by a nut wearing a ridiculous EU starred beret. I hold a Doctorate, a Master’s Degree and BA with Honours from University of London. My aggressor informed me that “London was not a proper place of learning unlike hers!” This is the type of creature that makes up “Remain”.

    We have the modern equivalent of Maria Antoinette “Let them eat cake!” Many of these naive people fail to realise the writing is on the wall. In France the same politicians lie about the true numbers of Gilet Jaunes yesterday- Only “40,000” according to a BBC that did its best not to report the reality and their fake figures in a a very dismissive end of bulletin item.

    I have contacts in France and in Germany. The French were in their hundreds of thousands on Saturday in every major city. The Moslems and Antifa were nowhere to be seen. The stupid MSM continued to call them “Nazis”- women and children in baby strollers facing down Macron’s thugs in black boots and masks.

    Over 3,500 French patriots have been seriously wounded by rubber projectiles deliberately fired at the face. People are not going to take this much longer and the numbers are growing.

    The Remainers may fool themselves but we are not having it. If the British Government of Occupation harms Tommy Robinson- a real public hero- all hell will break loose. Tommy maybe a “Zionist” -whatever that means but I and most of my parish support him 100%. We have all had enough.

    May now threatens troops on the streets. What troops? Even what Police? Javid tried to cajole the Army into supporting a take-down of lowlife gang members plaguing London-most of them criminal imports through Calais (Police informant). Neither Javid nor the PM can order the troops onto the streets-Only the Queen can as Churchill discovered in the 1920’s.

    The Army local commanders UKLF of which I was once a proud member told the posturing Home Secretary where to go- and rightly so. In my day as of now- The British Army stays well clear of politics and only the Queen can order an intervention-our oath is to Her, not dangerous ignorant posturing Remainer politicians.

    What I suspect will happen is massive public unrest and the Army from what I hear is most unwilling to open fire on its own citizens. I doubt the Queen would survive such an episode-petrol oil on a potential raging fire. Add to this the almost open support of returning dangerous jihadis and you start to have an idea of the potential explosion waiting in the wings. Every hour we are now told to feel sorry for the ISIL thug Begum. I have never seen people so angry over this attaempt to bring her back to UK. Bring her back by all means but she must stand trial for horrendous crimes but not become a public heroine. Over 40,000 Yazidis died under the regime that Begum married into. The same thugs gang raped hundreds of thousands of English women, aided and abetted by the Police and Labour politicians.

    The Queen may now have to intervene under duress as these Euro-Communists seek to ignore the Leave vote. Gerald Batten asked the Queen to dissolve the Traitor Parliament. Obviously she is reluctant in her position but that may change from Tuesday’s vote.

    The EU is history and heading for the dustbin. All it has now is threat and violence. That will not work either. How are the Police going to cope with millions of angry betrayed leavers when they cannot even handle a few drugged addled black gang members?

    I don’t know what substances the political class are if they think they can win this?

    Utter delusion!
    NB…

    Now we know why Stephen Lawrence was used as a cause- celebre to remove laws of double jeopardy to prevent endless trials. This is typical Marxist tactic. I call it the Stephen Lawrence-Tommy Robinson dialectic. They have used the changes under Lawrence to arrest and retry Tommy. We are all at risk now- as the Russians once were under Communism.

    • What are the chances that private, out of country, ‘security’ personnel would be brought in to help beat down street protesters?

      The EU army I’m sure will be used in this manner but until it is fully formed, I suspect governments will look for a substitute.

      • That’s how Pinkertons was used over 100 years ago in the US. To crack the skulls of laborers protesting for fair wages and conditions.

    • I daresay I’m naive, but I really don’t understand why returning jihadis are not treated in the same way as we would have done to British fascist supporters who’d aided the Nazis, ie charged with treason.

    • The Queen appears to be indifferent to what happens to the historic people of Britain, i.e., to the white people of Britain. Not even a murmur of public protest. Abdication in place.

      • That whole dysfunctional family is a mess. I read recently that Harry and what’s-her-face are going to raise their child as “gender fluid”. The ignorance is embarrassing. Thank heavens George Washington put his foot down re the establishment of a monarchy here.

        • Gender fluid? How brain fluid westerners parrot brainlessly the ill- meaningless terminology fabricated by mushy brained Scandinavians , as if they bear some significance.

  2. I have just contacted amazon with the complaint. I also passed on a message that if the book Mohammed’s Koran is not reinstated in a month, I will no longer be doing business with a company that does not honor the First Amendment. And I mean it.

    Phone for customer service: 1-866-216-1072

    • Well. The customer service department folks were completely useless, said that they cannot reinstate any book, and when I asked who can, they said “Jeff Bezos.”

      They would not let me speak with the manager, but I did get a supervisor, who provided corporate headquarter contact:

      jeff@amazon.com

      Amazon corporate headquarters
      P.O. Box 81226
      Seattle, WA 98108

  3. Re: Amazon’s Book Burning.

    When I read about how Tommy Robinson’s book had been banned I set about to get myself a copy. It took me nearly half an hour of searching but I managed to order a copy. It’s in new condition and cost about $30 with shipping included. I don’t remember the bookseller by name or I would post a link but my Paypal receipt lists McLoughlin as the merchant. Maybe it was a site that front ends for authors directly, I don’t know. The email was listed as pmclauth@gmail.com so an inquiry directed to that mail may yield a response with a path to purchasing the book.

    I haven’t worked so hard to get a copy of a book since “The Energy Non-Crisis” by Lindsey Williams was pulled from vendors. And I found that one too.

    If a link to a vendor for “Mohammed’s Koran” turns up I think it would be great to post it with the other books on the left of this site.

  4. I wonder if Indian book publishers / printers will come to the aid of Western authors?

    They have a large and growing industry with excellent prices and very good quality.

    I can’t imagine Hindu owned companies would mind printing books critical of islam.

      • I could contact some of them and discuss / request any info. needed.

        The good thing about India’s book industry is that there is less government red-tape and fewer middle-men to deal with. Self-publishing is always an option.

        They also have a growing business in printing books of which the copyright has expired. Very affordable and good quality.

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