Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/14/2019

Houthi rebels in Yemen announced that they were responsible for drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities, which forced the shutdown of about 50% of the Kingdom’s oil production. Oil experts expect the price of crude oil to rise significantly as a result of the attack.

In other news, former Prime Minister David Cameron said that a second Brexit referendum cannot be ruled out, and identified the Tory Brexit supporter Michael Gove as a “foam-flecked Faragist”.

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

Thanks to Insubria, JD, 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. I 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
» Over a Million Households Climbed to Middle Class Under Trump, Census Data Shows
 
USA
» Beto Doubles Down on “Mandatory” Confiscation of the AR-15, AK-47
» Climate Activists Plan to Bring Traffic to a Standstill in D.C.
» Democrats Represent All Countries But America, Mr. Kirk
» Democrats Call for Communist Revolution and Civil War During Third Presidential Debate
» Dems Call for Boycott of ABC After Airing Brutally Honest Ad Against Socialism
» Does New Drone Footage Reveal Underground Lair on Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Pedo Island’?
» Dopey Former Bartender Says “Miami Will Not Exist” In Few Years if We Don’t Obliterate Economy With Her Green New Deal
» Ex-NFL Player Arrested for ‘Jussie Smollett-Style’ Hate Crime Hoax
» HBO and Apple Lead Hollywood’s Climate Change Propaganda Campaign
» Here’s the Former NBC Exec Who’s Pushing Trump on Using Google to Determine Who Owns a Gun
» Lyft Driver Accused of Groping Charlotte Woman
» Older iPhones Reported ‘Breaking’ After Apple Unveils iPhone 11
» Only in Illinois: Wife of Indicted Political Boss Will Hold Highest Judicial Post in State
» Over One Billion Users Worldwide Vulnerable to Hackers Using Google Calendar Security Flaw
» People Are Already Getting Arrested for Trying to “Storm Area 51”
» Red Flag Gun Laws Are Rooted in Communist Methods of Oppression
» Sam Brownback Says Christian Persecution is at All-Time High
» Seattle Area Council Member Proposes New Plan for Homeless Problem — Bus Homeless People Out of the City
» Snowden Spills: Infamous Whistleblower Opines on Spycraft, AI, And Being Suicided
» Teen Activist Being Exploited by Left Says U.S. Has ‘Moral Responsibility’ on Climate Change
» The Corporation: A Peculiar Institution
» Top Economist: Professor’s Research Showing “America Has Most Mass Shootings in the World” Is Bogus… “Academic Malpractice”
» US Woman Left Semi-Comatose After Using Mercury-Tainted Anti-Aging Cream
» USC Hosts Anime Writing Course, But Apparently Lacks Funds for State-Required Constitution Course
 
Europe and the EU
» Austria’s Freedom Party Elects Norbert Hofer as New Leader
» France: Police Face Protesters in Nantes as ‘Yellow Vest’ Marches Resume
» Italy: Govt Team Completed With Undersecretaries
» Sweden: Gang Rape in Luleå, Police Currently Looking for ‘Two Dark-Skinned Men’
» UK: Flashback: Cameron Promised No Second Referendum, ‘When the British People Speak, They Will be Respected’
» UK: Former PM Cameron Says Second Referendum ‘Can’t be Ruled Out’
» UK: Historian: ‘Absurd’ MPs Using Parliamentary Sovereignty to Deny National Sovereignty
» UK: Julian Assange to Stay in Prison Over Absconding Fears
» UK: Labour Leavers Switching to Brexit Party, Not Tories; ERG Urge Boris to Agree Election Pact
» UK: Remain Media Quiet as Court Rules No Deal Brexit Does Not Breach Irish Peace Deal
» UK: Tommy Robinson Sits Down With Ezra Levant: What Happened in Prison, What’s Next
 
Middle East
» Saudi Arabia Oil and Gas Production Reduced by Drone Strikes
 
South Asia
» Osama Bin Laden’s Son Killed in US Operation: White House
 
Immigration
» Italy: Migrants Drift to Leftist-Controlled Areas for Higher Welfare Benefits
» Italy: Ocean Viking Ship Allowed to Disembark Rescued Migrants
 
Culture Wars
» Netherlands: Doctor Who Drugged Dementia Patient’s Coffee Without Her Knowledge, Gave Her Lethal Injection, While Family Restrained Her, Acquitted by Court
» Netherlands: Islamic Primary School Distributes Anti-Gay Literature
» Teach My Child Acceptance, BBC — But Not the Unscientific Nonsense That is 100+ Genders
» Thousands of Fetal Remains Found at Home of Former South Bend Abortion Doctor
 

Over a Million Households Climbed to Middle Class Under Trump, Census Data Shows

Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times

More than 1.2 million American households moved to above $50,000 in annual income between 2016 and 2018, according to Census Bureau data released on Sept. 10, a sign of a growing middle class.

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

Beto Doubles Down on “Mandatory” Confiscation of the AR-15, AK-47

Beto O’Rourke shocked the host on MSNBC when he doubled down to say that confiscation of AK47 and AR-15’s will be mandatorily confiscated from Americans.

This is in direct opposition to what Beto said just last year (see below).

The NRA called him out on it!

Democrats just don’t understand the meaning of the Second Amendment and why our founders put it in place.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Climate Activists Plan to Bring Traffic to a Standstill in D.C.

As the United Nations Climate Action Summit opens in New York later this month, a coalition of activists plans to bring D.C.’s streets to a standstill by blocking key intersections around the city.

“It’s important to call attention to the climate emergency,” says Kaela Bamberger, a spokesperson for the group. “The point being to disrupt business as usual for people and policy makers in decision-making positions, and also to essentially shut the city down until the issue gets the type of attention that it deserves based on the gravity of the crisis that we’re in.”

She declined to say exactly which streets will be blocked or exactly when the protest will start, but it is aimed at disrupting the morning rush hour on September 23.

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

Democrats Represent All Countries But America, Mr. Kirk

Noting in all the foofaraw of the Democrat debates that there has not been a single American flag on stage for all three debates, American writer and founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk is asking on Twitter what country are the Democrats trying to represent?

Everybody else’s country, Mr. Kirk. Make that everybody else’s but the one whose borders are being ignored, called America.

A quick scan of Google images from Democrat debates shows no flag. As Kirk points out: “Not in Detroit, Not in Miami. And not last night in Houston”.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Democrats Call for Communist Revolution and Civil War During Third Presidential Debate

Beto and other dems openly admit they’re coming for your guns.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Dems Call for Boycott of ABC After Airing Brutally Honest Ad Against Socialism

ABC aired a brutally honest ad against socialism during the Democratic Debate last night that caused the left to call for a boycott of ABC.

The ad begins with a photo of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) and then it begins to burn to show the atrocities caused by socialism.

The left was mad about the burning picture but not about the photos of the results of socialism.

The video is below and is called “New Faces GOP” and was produced by a GOP Super PAC.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Does New Drone Footage Reveal Underground Lair on Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Pedo Island’?

Ever since Jeffrey Epstein made national headlines for pedophilia in 2008, the disgraced financier’s lifestyle has been under a microscope. Following his June 6 arrest on federal charges of sex trafficking minors, however, particular attention has been paid to his Caribbean island, Little St. James — also known as “pedo island,” where Epstein allegedly kept a harem of underage sex slaves to serve at the pleasure of he and his rich and famous visitors.

While Epstein sat in jail pending trial — before his alleged suicide — a YouTube channel under the name “Rusty Shackleford” began uploading high-resolution drone footage of just about every visible nook and cranny of Little St. James. From the main property where a previously seen computer mysteriously disappeared days later, to the strange cube-shaped “temple,” to Epstein’s giant sun-dial, to an ambulance — the island, which is still being maintained by an active staff of locals, has no shortage of oddities.

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

Dopey Former Bartender Says “Miami Will Not Exist” In Few Years if We Don’t Obliterate Economy With Her Green New Deal

Earlier this year Democrat leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed an impossible $93 trillion Green New Deal to obliterate and ruin the US economy in the name of global warming junk science.

The liberal media has been propping up this lunacy since AOC introduced it months ago.

And they wonder why no one trusts them anymore?

But AOC was not through.

This idiot told an audience this week that Miami will not exist in a few years if we don’t obliterate the US economy.

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

Ex-NFL Player Arrested for ‘Jussie Smollett-Style’ Hate Crime Hoax

A former NFL player has been accused of faking a hate crime in an effort to profit from an insurance payout, but his stupidity in failing to cover his tracks has won him comparisons to Jussie Smollett, the ‘Empire’ actor who infamously fabricated a hate crime in which he was allegedly attacked by two white men in MAGA hats.

This time around, Edawn Coughman, who played in both the NFL and Canadian football leagues, was arrested and charged earlier this week with insurance fraud and filing a phony police report.

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

HBO and Apple Lead Hollywood’s Climate Change Propaganda Campaign

Hollywood is ramping up its efforts to feature the environment and climate change storylines in its TV movie productions, with a host of recent and upcoming titles being released this year addressing global warming, pollution, and other issues, according to a new report.

Among the most prominent titles are HBO’s Years and Years, starring Emma Thompson, and Apple’s upcoming Losing Earth, based on the New York Times Magazine article about climate change.

Variety reported that Hollywood is wrestling with the way it portrays climate change as the industry takes a more activist role.

[Comment: Much better to watch reruns of old tv shows like Rockford Files…]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Here’s the Former NBC Exec Who’s Pushing Trump on Using Google to Determine Who Owns a Gun

One of the key figures in talks to push Trump into using Google to determine the next mass shooter is a longtime friend of the president who is a former NBC executive

One of the chief proponents urging the Trump administration to use big tech companies to collect data on users who could potentially conduct violent actions is a former NBC executive and long-time friend of President Donald Trump.

Reports show former NBC chairman Bob Wright has briefed Trump officials on a proposal to create an agency called Health Advanced Research Projects Agency, or HARPA, to design inventive ways to use data for preventing violent incidents. Wright is one of Trump’s long-time friends.

Ivanka Trump asked people pushing for the new agency if it could prevent mass shootings, one person familiar with the conversations who spoke on anonymity because off the sensitive details told The Washington Post on Sept. 9. Her questions came after the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

Alex Jones warns the gun grabbing leftist presidential hopefuls that their rhetoric is an endorsement of triggering the second American Civil War.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Lyft Driver Accused of Groping Charlotte Woman

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A former Lyft driver, Adnan Razzak Mohammed, has been charged with sexual battery after a passenger accused him of groping her while he was driving her home.

“It was the most uncomfortable feeling in the world,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified.

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

Older iPhones Reported ‘Breaking’ After Apple Unveils iPhone 11

Right after Apple announced the iPhone 11, numerous owners of older iPhones began to report device malfunctions reminiscent of a 2017 debacle in which the company admitted slowing the performance of older phones — ‘officially’ in order to extend their battery life.

At the time, Apple said in a statement that it had “never — and wound never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product.”

According to USA Today, however, the coincidences are piling up.

“So, of course I’m suspicious that yesterday’s Apple announcement killed my current iPhone. It just stopped working. Awesome,” claimed Twitter user ZarduBen.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Only in Illinois: Wife of Indicted Political Boss Will Hold Highest Judicial Post in State

Authored by Austin Berg via IllinoisPolicy.org

Illinois Supreme Court Justices chose Anne Burke as their chief on Sept. 10. One could almost hear the gears turning on the Chicago machine, a hobbled but still functioning apparatus now in the sights of federal investigators.

Anne Burke is an accomplished lawyer. She helped start the Special Olympics. These facts should not prevent criticism arising from her 50-plus year marriage to a 50-year Chicago political boss: Ed Burke.

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

Over One Billion Users Worldwide Vulnerable to Hackers Using Google Calendar Security Flaw

According to The Independent, the flaw allowing scammers to trick Google Calendar users into exposing their personal details was first detected in 2017. The schemers use its setting that automatically adds an event from an email invitation into a person’s calendar, even if the message was unwanted.

Google is “working diligently” to eliminate a weakness that could allow perpetrators to steal the sensitive data of Google Calendar users, the company stated in an update to the Help page for the service.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

People Are Already Getting Arrested for Trying to “Storm Area 51”

Authored by John Vibes via The Mind Unleashed blog

The viral campaign to “storm Area 51” was scheduled for September 20th, and after months of controversy, the organizers decided instead to set up a festival called “Alien Stock” in the middle of the desert, where all of the Area 51 enthusiasts could gather in a safe and legal way. Unfortunately, locals in the small town of Rachel, Nevada were not very happy about the idea of thousands of curiosity seekers descending on their neighborhood.

After the festival was announced, a warning was posted on the town’s website in response to the news, stating that local residents would defend their property by force if they had to, saying that “the situation could get ugly.”

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

Red Flag Gun Laws Are Rooted in Communist Methods of Oppression

This week government officials came back from their summer recess, and I have heard from a couple different sources that the US Senate in particular is seeking to fast track legislation on Red Flag gun laws as well as a possible ban on private party transfers of firearms and a possible ban on high capacity magazines. I can only hope that these are just rumors, but I suspect they are accurate.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has publicly vowed to pursue any new gun control legislation that the Trump Administration supports, and Donald Trump has openly called for Red Flag gun laws involving mental health guidelines. The mainstream media now claims that a majority of Americans on both sides of the political divide support red flag legislation, but we all know how rigged such polls can be. The real question is, does the average American even know what red flag laws would entail? I think they do not.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sam Brownback Says Christian Persecution is at All-Time High

America’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, Sam Brownback, said this week that hostility toward Christians in the world has reached an all-time high.

“There is more persecution of Christians now, arguably than any time in the history of the world, and the Christian faith is the most persecuted faith in the world, by far,” Brownback said in his keynote address at the sixth annual Solidarity Dinner hosted by In Defense of Christians (IDC) in Washington, DC.

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

Seattle Area Council Member Proposes New Plan for Homeless Problem — Bus Homeless People Out of the City

Seattle has a massive homeless problem, perhaps only second to Los Angeles, California.

The city has already spent a fortune trying various things to solve the problem but nothing has been effective.

Now an area council is proposing a new fix for the problem. Bus them to other cities!

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

Snowden Spills: Infamous Whistleblower Opines on Spycraft, AI, And Being Suicided

Edward Snowden has finally laid it all out — documenting his memoires in a new 432-page book, Permanent Record, which will be published worldwide on Tuesday, September 17.

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

Teen Activist Being Exploited by Left Says U.S. Has ‘Moral Responsibility’ on Climate Change

As annoying as teen climate activist Greta Thunberg may be, we must remember that she is a child who is being exploited by adults for political purposes.

To make matters worse, she has some serious mental health issues. She is autistic, has obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suffers from Asperger syndrome.

She is currently in the United States on a sort of climate change tour, and to speak at the United Nations. She is also participating in protests.

During a demonstration at the White House on Friday, Thunberg said the U.S. has a moral responsibility to act on climate change.

Funny, her handlers don’t seem interested in bringing this message to China or India.

[Comment: Go back to school Greta.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Corporation: A Peculiar Institution

by Servando Gonzalez

Even perfunctory analyses of the way corporations operate and how they affect society show that corporations should be banned for the same reason slavery was banned. Actually, corporations have become nothing but a modern, more efficient form of slavery.

Though, as the result of some legal chicanery, for some purposes they are considered people, corporations have no soul. Moreover, they have no ethics, principles or morals. Despite claims on the contrary they usually make in their institutional advertising, the only purpose of a corporation is to maximize the profits of its shareholders — at any cost.

A film based on Joel Bakan’s book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, shows that most corporations exhibit many of the traits of psychopathic behavior, such as:

  • Callous unconcern for the feelings of others;
  • Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships;
  • Reckless disregard for the safety of others;
  • Deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning of others for profit;
  • Incapacity to experience guilt;
  • Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behavior.

Corporations have created a particular sort of mirage. You look around and are tricked to believe that you see hospitals, colleges, department stores, hardware stores, drug factories, airlines, etc., but that is part of the illusion. Ultimately, corporations do not care about the products they make — be it cars, drugs, electronic gadgets, food, books, gas, or airplanes —, much less about their workers or the customers who buy their products. Their only goal is to persuade you to buy their products, disregarding whether or not their products are safe, negatively affect your health or create an addiction. To reach their goals they resort to any type of mind manipulation through advertising that includes falsehood, fabrications, deception, and outright lies, in order to maximize their profits.

Proof that corporations do not care less about their customers is the fact that, to maximize profits, they have outsourced most of the manufacture of their products. But, having solved a short-term problem, they have created a long-term one: they have destroyed the way of living of their own consumers. The direct result of moving production overseas to Mexico, China, and other countries to profit from quasi-slave labor, is that they have deprived most of their working-class customers of their source of income. Currently, 9 out of every 10 products sold by the Walmart corporation are made in China, and 9 out of every 10 Walmart customers is a worker who lost his well-paid job because, to maximize its profits, Walmart does not buy American-made products.

But that is not the only problem corporations pose. Once they become economically powerful they aim for political power as well. Their ultimate goal is to take control of the state, a political system Benito Mussolini called “lo stato corporativo” — the corporate state— another name for Fascism.

Like most things wrong on this planet, the modern corporation is a Rockefeller baby — initially they called it a trust. No wonder critics called the Rockefellers one of the families that have done more damage to the people of the world.

[Comment: Recommended reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Top Economist: Professor’s Research Showing “America Has Most Mass Shootings in the World” Is Bogus… “Academic Malpractice”

While dozens of news outlets, including CNN and MSNBC, reported that America has the most mass shooters in the world, Lott says they are using flawed data by University of Alabama professor Adam Lankford.

So, if there is no evidence to prove that America has the most mass shootings in the world, why would the media and Democrats accept the flawed study without looking into it a little deeper? Could a push for gun control, regardless of the truth be the answer?

But the claim is based on just one study, and the author of that study, Adam Lankford, would not release his data to either John Stossel or researchers in the field.

Economist John Lott says that Lankford’s study has many flaws.

Watch, as top economist Jon Lott appears on John Stossel TV where he reveals the flawed data used by leftist media and politicians like Barack Obama to promote gun control. Lott calls Lankford’s study, “academic malpractice.”

The Washington Times reports — John R. Lott Jr., president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, crunched the numbers and said his count shows that the U.S. had less than 3 percent of the world’s mass public shootings over a 15-year period.

That is smaller than the 4.6 percent of the world’s population that the U.S. accounts for — and way less than the 31 percent of global mass shooters that Adam Lankford, a professor at the University of Alabama, claimed in his widely publicized studies.

[Comment: Another leftist professor pushing lies as truth in order to disarm Americans.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US Woman Left Semi-Comatose After Using Mercury-Tainted Anti-Aging Cream

A 47-year-old woman is now bed-bound in a semi-comatose state after slathering her skin with an anti-aging skin care cream that doctors say was contaminated with high amounts of methylmercury, a highly poisonous form of mercury.

One family from Sacramento, California, is grieving after their mother became ill and lost virtually all motor functions due to a mercury poisoning that experts say is the first of its kind in the US.

Jay, the California woman’s son, told local Sacramento news outlet KTXL that his mother quickly became sick at the end of June and was taken to the hospital for a week after using a special kind of Pond’s Rejuveness Anti-Wrinkle Cream that she had been importing from Jalisco, Mexico, through a friend for 12 years.

Though she had been using the cream without any issues for over a decade, doctors were eventually able to identify this recent batch was tainted with methylmercury, a form of mercury that is toxic to the central and peripheral nervous systems

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

USC Hosts Anime Writing Course, But Apparently Lacks Funds for State-Required Constitution Course

The University of South Carolina offers a course in which students can learn about anime writing while it refuses to comply with a state law mandating a Constitution course.

For three credits, USC students can take “Media Writing Advanced: Manga and Anime,” according to The State. At the same time, the school has flouted a state law mandating that students take a course on the Constitution and other founding documents, stating funding concerns.

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

Austria’s Freedom Party Elects Norbert Hofer as New Leader

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s far-right Freedom Party elected former minister and presidential candidate Norbert Hofer as its leader on Saturday as it seeks to return to power in a Sept. 29 national election, trying to move beyond the scandal that brought down the previous administration.

The Austria Press Agency reported that more than 98% of delegates at a party congress in Graz backed Hofer, who ran unopposed. Hofer was designated for the job after Heinz-Christian Strache, the party’s leader of the past 14 years, resigned in May following the publication of a video in which he appeared to offer favors to a purported Russian investor.

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

France: Police Face Protesters in Nantes as ‘Yellow Vest’ Marches Resume

NANTES, France (Reuters) — Hundreds of demonstrators faced police in a tense stand-off in the French city of Nantes on Saturday as revived “yellow vest” protests against the government of President Emmanuel Macron took place across the country.

Police responded with tear gas after some protesters threw projectiles. A spokesman with the local prefecture said 21 people had been arrested.

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

Italy: Govt Team Completed With Undersecretaries

M5S has 6 deputy ministers to PD’s four, Conte says ‘important’

(ANSA) — Rome, September 13 — The government on Friday named 42 undersecretaries ending days of sometimes heated discussions, completing the government team.

Senior government partner the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) gets 21 undersecretaries while junior partner the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) gets 18, government sources said.

The other government components, the tiny leftwing Free and Equal (LeU) party and the Italians abroad group MAIE get two and one respectively.

The M5S will also have an advantage in terms of deputy ministers with six compared to the PD’s four.

Only 14 of the 42 are women.

Government sources voiced satisfaction that an agreement had been found on the undersecretaries.

Both the M5S and the PD said they were satisfied with the number of officials they had obtained.

“Now we’re ready to give our utmost,” said M5S leader and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio.

“The government team is complete, ready to give its all for the country!,” he said.

“On Monday the new team will be sworn in which will be composed of 21 exponents of the 5-Star Movement, and six of these will be deputy ministers. For us that means: a lot of work to do and greater responsibility. We are ready!” Premier Giuseppe Conte said “the acceleration on the government team is important because the country is awaiting responses.

“This team is sufficiently young and amalgamated”, said the premier who confirmed “the new team will be sworn on Monday”.

“It’s a great team, built to last,” said Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora.

But anti-migrant Euroskeptic League party leader Matteo Salvini said “we’ve seen a disgraceful divvying up of seats by the M5S and the PD”.

Also on Friday, Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said Italy is a protagonist in Europe again thanks to the new government.

Italy has just formed an unprecedented alliance between the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left and pro-EU Democratic Party (PD), of which Gualtieri was an MEP for several years before being named economy minister in the new M5S-PD executive.

With this government, Gualtieri said, “Italy returns to being a protagonist in Europe, resumes the role that it is entitled to as a founder member (of the EU) which has ideas, imposes its vision of the EU as a path to improve, change, and make it more capable of facing the challenges of our world”. The new government has said, among other things, that it will try to change the Stability and Growth Pact, as President Sergio Mattarella also hoped in helping set up the M5S-PD coalition.

“Today we will present the government programme as illustrated in parliament by Premier (Giuseppe) Conte,” Gualtieri went on.

The programme includes averting a 23-billion-euro VAT hike, cutting the tax wedge for low-to-medium earners, free nurseries for low-to-medium income families, and trying to get investments in the green economy excluded from EU fiscal parameters.

Gualtieri said Friday, however, that the 2020 budget and excluding green investments had “different timescales,” with the first obviously taking precedence over the second.

“The reform of monetary union is on a separate plane from the 2020 budget bill,” he said.

Gualtieri stressed, however, that the time of “clashes” with Europe, like those under former interior minister and Euroskeptic League party leader Matteo Salvini, was “over”.

Salvini, who pulled the plug on an M5S-League government August 8 hoping for a snap election to capitalise on high poll numbers and never thinking the M5S would get together with traditional foe the PD, had frequent run-ins over EU fiscal constraints.

In an interview with La Repubblica daily, Gualtieri said “there will never be wars with Europe again”.

He also said the flat tax pledged by the League would be shelved, the quota 100 pension reform would run its course in three years, and a basic income would be improved.

Gualtieri also vowed that the VAT hike would not happen, with an “unprecedented” crackdown on tax evasion helping to get the 23 billion euros needed to fund its exclusion.

The minister also announced that Italy will join the pro-climate coalition.

In Helsinki, he announced that Rome was joining the coalition of financial ministers for the fight against climate change.

This is a change, since Italy had thus far chosen not to take part in the initiative, which is made up of 40 countries.

The aim of the coalition is to boost green investments.

Eurogroup President Mario Centeno said that Gualtieri had reiterated Italy’s pro-euro commitment at an informal Eurogroup meeting.

Gualtieri, he said, had outlined “the priorities for the near future and the commitment on policies that help preserve the stability of the euro”.

He said “Roberto is not new to the group, seeing as how he frequented it already before, in his capacity as chair of the economy committee.

“Today was not the day to discuss his presentation in detail.

The Italian dossier “will return to the fore in the context of the stability bills, together with those of all the other countries”, said the Portuguese finance minister.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Gang Rape in Luleå, Police Currently Looking for ‘Two Dark-Skinned Men’

In the earlier hours on Thursday morning, police in Luleå received a call from a woman who claimed to have been raped by two men.

The rape is said to have occurred in the residential area Notviken between two and three am.

The victim told police that the sexual assault occurred outdoors and that the two perpetrators were previously unknown to her, Fria Tider reports.

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

UK: Flashback: Cameron Promised No Second Referendum, ‘When the British People Speak, They Will be Respected’

Former prime minister David Cameron has emerged from hidingto say MPs should not “rule out” making the British people vote on Brexit again — but in 2015 he promised the first vote would be “final”, and that “There will not be another renegotiation and another referendum.”

Speaking ahead of the EU referendum, Cameron told the British people that whether their country remained in the European Union or reclaimed full independence was “Your decision. Nobody else’s.”

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

UK: Former PM Cameron Says Second Referendum ‘Can’t be Ruled Out’

Former Prime Minister David Cameron has said that a second Brexit referendum cannot be ruled out, and opposed Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament.

During an interview with The Times published on Friday, Mr Cameron was asked whether he thought there would be a second referendum, and responded: “I don’t think you can rule it out because we’re stuck.”

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

UK: Historian: ‘Absurd’ MPs Using Parliamentary Sovereignty to Deny National Sovereignty

Historian and broadcaster Dr David Starkey CBE has slammed Remain MPs for the “absurd contradiction” of asserting parliamentary sovereignty in order to deny national sovereignty.

“The idea, which is being pursued hotly by the legion of Remainers headed by Centurion Bercow, is that parliamentary sovereignty can be used to deny national sovereignty,” the Monarchy presenter said in an interview with Peter Whittle.

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

UK: Julian Assange to Stay in Prison Over Absconding Fears

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange is to remain in prison when his jail term ends because of his “history of absconding”, a judge has ruled.

He was due to be released on 22 September after serving his sentence for breaching bail conditions.

But Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard there were “substantial grounds” for believing he would abscond again.

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

UK: Labour Leavers Switching to Brexit Party, Not Tories; ERG Urge Boris to Agree Election Pact

A new study shows Leave-voting Labour voters are considering switching their support to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, and not Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party — lending weight to calls for the Tory leader do an election deal with Farage to secure Britain’s exit from the European Union.

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

UK: Remain Media Quiet as Court Rules No Deal Brexit Does Not Breach Irish Peace Deal

The High Court of Northern Ireland has ruled that a no-deal Brexit would not breach the Good Friday Agreement, which supports the peace process in the British province.

Northern Ireland, known colloquially as Ulster, was for decades wracked with violence perpetrated by terrorists claiming to be fighting on behalf of the minority of the population which supports leaving the United Kingdom and uniting with the Republic of Ireland, and to a lesser extent by loyalist paramilitaries.

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

UK: Tommy Robinson Sits Down With Ezra Levant: What Happened in Prison, What’s Next

On last night’s episode of The Ezra Levant Show, we filmed an exclusive interview with Tommy Robinson after his release from Belmarsh prison in the UK.

Tommy Robinson is a journalist whether the media likes it or not.

In this interview, questions and answers range from Tommy’s conversations with fellow prisoner Julian Assange, his treatment during his 66 day stay, his thoughts on Brexit and what he’s working on next.

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

Saudi Arabia Oil and Gas Production Reduced by Drone Strikes

Saudi Arabia has cut oil and gas production following drone attacks on two major oil facilities run by state-owned company Aramco.

Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the strikes had reduced crude oil production by 5.7m barrels a day — about half the kingdom’s output.

A Yemeni Houthi rebel spokesman said it had deployed 10 drones in the attacks.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed the attacks on Iran saying there was no evidence they came from Yemen.

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

Osama Bin Laden’s Son Killed in US Operation: White House

The Trump administration has claimed the death of Hamza bin Laden, a son of late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

According to the White House statement, he was killed in an operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

“The loss of Hamza bin Ladin not only deprives al-Qa’ida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group,” the statement continues.

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

Italy: Migrants Drift to Leftist-Controlled Areas for Higher Welfare Benefits

Underage migrants from Muslim-majortity Albania and Kosovo often end up in leftist-controlled areas due to higher benefits, according to a report.

The report, which comes from the Italian Ministry of Labour, states that most Albanian migrants, who form the largest group of underage migrants who came into Italy between 2018 and 2019, end up in the leftist regions of Emilia Romagna or Tuscany, Il Giornale reports.

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

Italy: Ocean Viking Ship Allowed to Disembark Rescued Migrants

Italy has granted permission for the rescue ship Ocean Viking to disembark 82 migrants in the southern island of Lampedusa, the SOS Mediterranee charity — which runs the vessel — said Saturday.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner wrote on Twitter that an “ad hoc” agreement had been reached between Italy, France, Germany, Portugal and Luxembourg to allow the migrants to come on land.

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

Netherlands: Doctor Who Drugged Dementia Patient’s Coffee Without Her Knowledge, Gave Her Lethal Injection, While Family Restrained Her, Acquitted by Court

Accoriding to Medical Express — The doctor, who was not named in court, was cleared of any wrongdoing in carrying out euthanasia three years ago on a 74-year-old woman. The patient was given fatal drugs despite some indications she might have changed her mind since declaring in writing that she wanted euthanasia.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Islamic Primary School Distributes Anti-Gay Literature

Islamic primary schools across the Netherlands have distributed anti-LGBT literature which claims Allah destroyed an entire people based on their homosexuality.

The material is part of the sex education in Islamic schools and comes from the book Help! I am Growing Up released by the Islamic organisation ISBO for 44 schools across the Netherlands, Nederlandse Omroep Stichting reports.

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

Teach My Child Acceptance, BBC — But Not the Unscientific Nonsense That is 100+ Genders

The free-spawning new genders are little more than a narcissistic internet meme, indulged by an establishment too scared to cause offense. Treating them earnestly alienates even the tolerant, and has no place in the classroom.

The unceasing gender proliferation tipped over from a hoary dad joke into a bona fide social problem when a recent taxpayer-paid BBC Teach video featured educator Kate Daniels telling pre-teen children this: “We know that we have got male and female, but there are over 100, if not more, gender identities now.”

The “now” is particularly endearing — recognizable from my own schoolmasters having to upend years of teaching a curriculum due to superior recent knowledge (“We used to think that peptic ulcers were caused by diet but NOW we know it is a bacteria”).

Yet what are these stunning gender discoveries that have led us to find scores of new genders whose very existence we didn’t even fathom at the turn of the millennium? Quantitative experiments must have been conducted or psychological questionnaires taken. At worst, some professor of sociology or gender studies must have written a paper categorizing them.

But no. Most of these new genders have literally come from microblogging site Tumblr. They are random users’ inventions, many are whimsies or equivalents of doodling a cool picture of an imaginary animal or a pirate and making it your avatar.

Due to literal-minded inclusiveness taken to its logical conclusion, each one has now been catalogued, and is now being taught as objective fact, all in the space of less than five years. Take that, Copernicus.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Thousands of Fetal Remains Found at Home of Former South Bend Abortion Doctor

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Thousands of fetal remains were found at the home of a former South Bend abortion doctor, WSBT reports.

The remains were discovered while family members were searching through the home of Dr. Ulrich Klopfer, who passed away on Sept. 3. His home is in Will County, Illinois.

WSBT reports Kloper used to practice at the Women’s Pavilion in South Bend. His medical license was suspended in 2015 after he was accused of failing to report an abortion on a 13-year-old girl.

When the family located the remains, they called authorities and an investigation was launched. The remains of 2,246 medically preserved fetuses were eventually found.

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

3 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/14/2019

  1. “and identified the Tory Brexit supporter Michael Gove as a “foam-flecked Faragist”

    Oh dear. Cameron’s wracked with shame at allowing a referendum he at that time very firmly believed would be for remain.

    Poor lad.

    Their true selves are now revealed. They have no choice of course and it does rather let the great unwashed see them for what they are.

    Traitors.

  2. The action Westphalian nation-state international relations calls for now is a Saudi declaration of war against Yemen.

    But it can start with a démarche and a date.

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