Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/1/2020

Early this morning Seattle Mayoress Jenny Durkan ordered city police to retake the CHAZ/CHOP autonomous zone in downtown Seattle. Ms. Durkan had previously spoken favorably of the occupied zone, but changed her mind after BLM protesters assembled outside her home and threatened her.

In other news, the mayor of Miami has ordered all citizens to wear face masks, indoors and outdoors. First-time violators will be given a warning; a second offense will be punished with a $50 fine.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, EF, 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. 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
» Italy: ‘New Poor’ Up 34% in Pandemic Says Caritas
» The Jobs Aussies Don’t Want: Thousands of Positions Are Open With No Takers Despite Coronavirus Economic Crisis — as Young People Are Accused of Refusing Work Because They Make More Money on Jobseeker
 
USA
» “You’re a F**king Black Judas” — Topless NY BLM Protester Attacks Police for Being Uneducated, Illiterate, Working Class Rubes (Video)
» After Watching Tucker Carlson, Trump Reportedly Regrets Going Along With Kushner’s ‘Woke S***’
» American Jews Must Stand Up to Structurally Anti-Semitic BLM
» Black Florida Sheriff “I’ll Deputize Gun Owners to Stop Godless BLM Mob”
» Black Lives Matter Militant Says He Wants to Murder NYPD Police Officers, ‘I Wanna Hang Him From a F***ing Tree’ (Video)
» Breaking: LA School Police Chief Resigns After School Board Cut $25 Million in School Police Funding, Ordered All Officers Off Campus
» Breaking: Democrat Tyrant Gavin Newsom Closes Down All Indoor Dining, Museums, Theaters in California After Allowing BLM/Antifa to Riot
» Carry Permit Demand Skyrockets in Illinois
» CNN Accused of Activism After it Questions Brands That Haven’t Joined Facebook Ad Boycott
» Drug Overdoses in the U.S. Continue to Rise During Coronavirus Pandemic
» Emancipation Memorial in Boston to be Removed Following Unanimous Vote by Boston Art Commission
» ‘Enough is Enough’: Police Storm Into CHAZ After Seattle Mayor Orders ‘Occupied’ Area Cleared; 13 Arrested So Far
» Far Left Governor Jay Inslee Booed Off Stage in Eastern Washington
» Fox News Anchor Ed Henry Fired Over Sexual Misconduct Allegation
» Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Sets Record for Largest Audience in Cable News History by Calling for Equal Justice Under the Law and Free Speech
» Fox Streaming Platform Will Feature Farrakhan’s ‘Message’ From ‘God’ On July 4
» Fresno State Faces Calls to Remove Gandhi Statue
» Hah! Hundreds March in Sanford, FL Against Facemask Laws Chanting “My Body, My Choice!” (Video)
» Huge: Massive CDC Fraud Uncovered — CDC Grossly Overcounting Active China Coronavirus Cases Causing States to Keep Their Economies Closed Indefinitely
» Hundreds of Officials Who Served Under George W. Bush Are Endorsing Biden
» Kansas Researcher Faces More Charges Over Alleged China Ties
» Massive Protests Will Rock Our Cities on July 4th as a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse is Visible Above America
» Mayor Orders American Flags Removed From All City Buildings
» Michigan House Passes Bill to Make Human Implantable Employee Microchips ‘Voluntary’ For Now
» Now it’s Personal: Seattle Mayor Moves to Dismantle CHOP After Protesters Show Up at Her House
» NYC Mayor De Blasio Defends Ban on Religious Gatherings, Says Black Lives Matter Protests OK Because of ‘Profound Meaning’ (Video)
» Outrageous: Last Week Judge Emmet Sullivan Was Ordered to Dismiss General Flynn Case — What the Hell is This Corrupt Judge Waiting for?!?!!
» Really? New BS Study Claims Black Lives Matter Riots Slowed Overall Spread of Coronavirus
» Richmond Mayor Cites ‘Public Safety, ‘ Spread of COVID-19 in Ordering Removal of Confederate Statues
» Scholar Forced to Resign Over Study That Found Police Shootings Not Biased Against Blacks
» Seattle Mayor Calls for Investigation and Possible Expulsion of Unhinged Socialist Councilperson Kshama Sawant
» Seattle Police Moving People Out of CHOP Zone Following Mayor’s Order
» Sick. NY Times Pervert Paul Krugman Smears Florida Seniors as “White Supremacists” As COVID Numbers Climb in State
» Social Distancing is a “CIA Protocol” That Amounts to Torture (Video)
» South Beach to Issue $50 Fines to Those Not Wearing Masks
» St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones Labels Catholic Prayer Rally a KKK Meeting — Then Three St. Louis Christians Beaten, One Knocked Out by Leftist and Kicked in the Head (Video)
» Statue of Abe Lincoln Liberating U.S. Slaves Gets Booted by Boston
» Think the “Cancel” Mobs Can’t Get Any Worse? Think Again
» U.S. Seizes 13-Ton Shipment of Human Hair Products From China on Strong Suspicion of Forced Labor
» Virginia Dems Seek to Downgrade Assault Against Police to Misdemeanor
» Watch Live: General Flynn, Tucker, John Macarthur Tell us How to Save America
» What Makes July 4th Truly Significant?
» White Liberal Attacks Black Man for Trying to Remove BLM Signs From Fence
» Will Judge’s Decision to Allow Lawsuit Against “MeToo” List Creator Curb Growth of Crowd-Sourced Witch Hunt Lists?
» Woke Harvard Senior Claims TikTok Video of Her Saying She’ll Stab and Watch Bleed Out the Next Person With ‘Caucasity’ To Say All Lives Matter is a Joke
 
Canada
» Alberta Knocks 20 Per Cent Off Corporate Tax, Slashes Foreign Workforce
» Toronto City Council Votes to Make Masks Mandatory in All Indoor Public Spaces
» Vandals Behead Six Statues at Sudbury Catholic Park
 
Europe and the EU
» Britain Throws Opens Doors to 3m Hong Kongers
» Czechia: A Feast on the Charles Bridge Symbolically Ends the Pandemic
» German Intelligence (BND) Spies and Analyzes the Communications of Foreign Journalists
» Germany Considers Disbanding Special Forces Unit After Discovering Members Hold Nationalist Views
» Germany: Antifa Extremists Allegedly Cut Power to Street Lights in Berlin Before Rioting
» Google Thwarts Publishers’ Attempts to Increase User-Privacy and Cut Google’s Dominance
» Hungarian Scholar Says Success of German-French Axis is Nowhere Near Guaranteed
» Hungary: PM Orban’s Approval Rate Surges Following Successful Pandemic Handling
» Italy: Conte’s “Divide and Rule”
» Italy: 14 Tonnes of Drugs Produced by ISIS Seized in Salerno
» Italy Seizes World Record 14 Tons of Amphetamines Made by ISIS
» ‘Language Barrier’ Partially Blamed for Coronavirus Surge in UK City Forced Back Into Lockdown
» Merkel Tells Europe to Prepare for Brexit Deal Not Materialising
» Poland: Analysis: Numbers Not Looking Good for Trzaskowski Heading Into Second Round
» Poland: PM Morawiecki: Pandemic Under Control, Go Out and Vote!
» Prosecutor Appeals Sentence of African Convicted of Rape in Czechia
» Sebastian Kurz Accused Erdogan of Stoking Tensions in Europe After Turkish Clashes With Kurds
» UK: ‘Black Jesus’ Last Supper Painting to Adorn the Altar of St Albans Cathedral
» UK: Virtue Signalling Football Establishment Distances Itself From ‘Political Movement’ BLM
 
Balkans
» Chess Champ’s YouTube Podcast Taken Down for Referring to ‘Black Against White’
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Italy-German-France-Spain Against Annexation
 
Middle East
» France-Turkey Tense Nerves Arrested: “Spying on the French”
» From Museum to Mosque? Turkish Court to Rule on Hagia Sophia’s Fate
» Hagia Sophia Should Not Become Mosque — Bartholomew
» John Kerry Secret Meetings With Iranian Officials Highly Suspicious
» Twitter Sued for Allegedly Conspiring With Saudi Arabia Government to Shut Down Dissenting Voices
 
Russia
» Russian Voters Agree to Let Putin Seek 2 More Terms, Hold Power Until 2036
 
South Asia
» India: New Species of Freshwater Fish Found in Maharashtra Named After Manipur Professor
 
Far East
» China Has Been Spying on Xinjiang Citizens for Longer Than Had Been Anticipated, Research Shows
» Chinese Opera Singer Censored Online for “Image Violations” For Looking Like President Xi Jinping
» Hundreds of Hong Kong Protesters Arrested on First Day of New National Security Law
 
Australia — Pacific
» How Australia’s $270B Defence Boost is Designed to Deter and Respond to Military Threats — as Fears Grow of a War in Asia Within 10 Years and Scott Morrison Warns of a ‘Dangerous and Disorderly’ Post-Pandemic World
» Victoria Records 73 New Cases of Coronavirus as it Battles a Second Wave of the Deadly Disease
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Grandmother, 71, Dies of Shock After She Was Forced to Watch Her Three Granddaughters Being Raped at Gunpoint at Her Home in South Africa
 
Immigration
» France: 70 Migrants Set Up Camp in Downtown Paris
» Germany to Address Migration During Its EU Presidency, Says Ambassador Israng
» Illegal Migrant Spared Prison After Stabbing Woman 14 Times During Home Invasion
 
Culture Wars
» Chicago: Independence Day Fireworks Cancelled, But Gay Pride ‘Protest’ For Black Trans Lives Goes Ahead
» Gender “X” Option Now Available on Driver’s Licenses in Rhode Island, Hawaii
» Life in a Pod: The New Normal
» More Than 260,000 Sign Petition to Block Film Starring Paris Jackson as “Gender-Bending” Jesus
» One in Ten Irish Babies Aborted in First Year Since Legalization
» Pope Francis: Media Should Help People ‘Distinguish Good From Evil’
» Reddit Backtracks on Shocking “Hate Against Majority Allowed” Rules, Makes Them Even Vaguer
» Woman Who Works With Planned Parenthood to Recover Baby Parts Describes Beating Baby Hearts, Dissecting Intact Babies
 

Italy: ‘New Poor’ Up 34% in Pandemic Says Caritas

In three toughest months of COVID crisis, from March to May

(ANSA) — ROME, JUL 1 — The number of “new poor” in Italy has risen by 34% during the coronavirus pandemic, Catholic charity Caritas said Wednesday.

Caritas said it had assisted almost 450,000 people during the three toughest months of the COVID emergency, from March to May.

Almost two thirds of these, 61.6%, were Italian, it said.

The new poor were defined as those who had turned to Caritas for the first time.

Some 92,000 struggling households were given access to diocesan funds.

Another 3,000 or more families used support activities for distance learning and remote working.

Some 537 small businesses also received support, Caritas said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

The Jobs Aussies Don’t Want: Thousands of Positions Are Open With No Takers Despite Coronavirus Economic Crisis — as Young People Are Accused of Refusing Work Because They Make More Money on Jobseeker

Retail sales assistants, truck drivers, child carers, receptionists, managers and registered nurses are the top jobs employers are looking to hire for, according to the National Skills Commission.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

“You’re a F**king Black Judas” — Topless NY BLM Protester Attacks Police for Being Uneducated, Illiterate, Working Class Rubes (Video)

De Blasio’s New York—

Black Lives Matter activists abused New York police last night at City Hall as the city council gathered to vote to cut one billion from the NYPD.

One topless trans activist was filmed abusing police officers calling them uneducated, working class, illiterate idiots.

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

After Watching Tucker Carlson, Trump Reportedly Regrets Going Along With Kushner’s ‘Woke S***’

President Donald Trump reportedly regrets letting son-in-law Jared Kushner take the reigns on foreign and domestic policy, in light of the negative public response to the Trump administration’s ill-received efforts to placate Black Lives Matter rioters over the past month.

Axios reported Wednesday that sources inside the White House say Trump wants “no more of Jared’s woke s***,” after several weeks of abysmal polling for the administration that indicates an uphill battle in the 2020 election, and no net increase in black voters.

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

American Jews Must Stand Up to Structurally Anti-Semitic BLM

by Caroline Glick

The silence of the Jews of America in the face of rising anti-Semitism is stunning.

Over the Shavuot festival on May 30, members of Black Lives Matter (BLM) carried out a pogrom in Fairfax, the oldest Jewish community in Los Angeles, largely populated today by ultra-Orthodox Jews. They vandalized five synagogues and three Jewish schools. Most of the Jewish businesses on Fairfax Avenue were looted.

As Daniel Greenfield reported at Frontpage, Allyson Rowen Taylor, a co-founder of StandWithUs, shared an account of the riots in which they chanted, “F**k the police and kill the Jews.”

Aryeh Rosenfeld, whose store was looted, told The Jerusalem Post that when he came to defend his store there were people driving through the streets screaming “effing Jews” at the Jewish store owners.

Greenfield revealed that the Jews were not incidental victims in a larger night of “anti-racist” rioting by BLM. BLM in Los Angeles is led by outspoken anti-Semites with intimate ties to the virulently anti-Semitic Nation of Islam.

Over the past several years both the BLM-L.A. head Melina Abdullah and her daughter Thandiwe Abdullah, who is the co-founder of the BLM Youth Vanguard, have racked up long records of anti-Semitic rants and fawning praise for Nation of Islam leader Farrakhan. Farrakhan, who has praised Hitler, recently called Jews “termites” and obsessively rails against Judaism and Jews.

As its charter makes clear, BLM itself is structurally anti-Semitic…

           — Hat tip: EF [Return to headlines]
 

Black Florida Sheriff “I’ll Deputize Gun Owners to Stop Godless BLM Mob”

Darryl Daniels, an African-American Sheriff of Clay County in North Florida has a stern message for what he calls “godless disruptors” who have destroyed towns across America and murdered law enforcement officers during “peaceful” Black Lives Matter and Antifa domestic terrorist gatherings.

Clay County is a suburb right outside of Jacksonville, where the RNC will be held next month, capped off by a much anticipated speech by President Trump as he officially accepts the Republican nomination for President of the United States. He announced that violence and destruction will not be allowed in his county and that if the police are overwhelmed by brutish BLM and Antifa thugs, he will have no choice but to make the gun owners of Clay County “special deputies” in order to quell domestic terrorist and insurrectionist activity.

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

Black Lives Matter Militant Says He Wants to Murder NYPD Police Officers, ‘I Wanna Hang Him From a F***ing Tree’ (Video)

A Black Lives Matter militant on Tuesday evening proudly boasted over a megaphone that he wanted to murder NYPD police officers.

“I wanna put my foot on his f***ing neck like he do us. I wanna put my foot on his back like he do us. I wanna hang him from a f***ing tree like he do us” the militant said directing his threats at the police officers.

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

Breaking: LA School Police Chief Resigns After School Board Cut $25 Million in School Police Funding, Ordered All Officers Off Campus

Los Angeles School Police Chief Todd Chamberlain on Wednesday afternoon announced his resignation to the department, per sources, reported FOX LA.

“Decision comes after school board decided last night to cut $25 million in school police funding and ordered all officers off campus/out of uniform for now,” reported Bill Melugin.

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

Breaking: Democrat Tyrant Gavin Newsom Closes Down All Indoor Dining, Museums, Theaters in California After Allowing BLM/Antifa to Riot

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday announced he will be rolling back the state’s reopening due to the surge in Coronavirus cases.

On Wednesday, Newsom shut it down.

Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Orange County were ordered to close indoor operations at restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, zoos and museums.

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

Carry Permit Demand Skyrockets in Illinois

The Chicago Tribune reported last week that, “…more than 40,000 Illinoisans applied for a gun permit in a little more than two weeks this month, more than 500% over this time last year, according to Illinois State Police.” Applications for the state’s Firearm Owner’s Identification Card (FOID) from June 1 to 17 also increased by 501 percent when compared to the same period last year.

A first-time gun buyer—who asked that his name not be used—explained to the reporter that despite being a liberal Democrat who once supported most gun control legislation, “My views have recently changed, and I have accepted that the Second Amendment provides for the personal ownership and use of a firearm.” Among the reasons cited for his change of opinion were the pandemic, its commensurate increase in unemployment and civil unrest.

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

CNN Accused of Activism After it Questions Brands That Haven’t Joined Facebook Ad Boycott

The Stop Hate for Profit campaign has dominated the news cycle about Facebook for more than a week and created intense pressure on the company to censor more content under the guise of the vague and subjective terms “hate speech” and “misinformation.”

While most reporting has focused on the campaign and the advertisers who have decided to boycott Facebook in response to the campaign, today CNN was accused of stepping beyond the bounds of journalism and into the realm of activism by publishing an article that was initially titled: “These are the big brands that haven’t pulled ads from Facebook yet.”

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

Drug Overdoses in the U.S. Continue to Rise During Coronavirus Pandemic

Federal and local officials are reporting a surge in overdoses across the United States, suggesting that the ongoing isolation, financial hardships, and disruptions to the drug trade due to the coronavirus pandemic are contributing factors.

According to data obtained by The Washington Post, overdoses are not merely increasing during the pandemic but accelerating as states teeter on whether to proceed with their reopening plans.

Suspected overdoses, including those that do not result in fatality, jumped 18% in March, 29% in April, and 42% in May, according to the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program.

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

Emancipation Memorial in Boston to be Removed Following Unanimous Vote by Boston Art Commission

The Emancipation Memorial in Boston, which depicts President Abraham Lincoln and a newly freed former slave, will be taken down after the Boston Art Commission voted unanimously for its removal.

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

‘Enough is Enough’: Police Storm Into CHAZ After Seattle Mayor Orders ‘Occupied’ Area Cleared; 13 Arrested So Far

Seattle police stormed into the city’s protest zone early Wednesday morning, shortly after Mayor Jenny Durkan issued an executive order that demanded protesters leave the area, which has been occupied for more than two weeks.

As police flooded into the zone, protesters responded with chants and calls for them to leave. The protesters had erected barricades and occupied several blocks around a park and the east precinct of the Seattle Police Department after police fled, dubbing the zone the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP.

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

Far Left Governor Jay Inslee Booed Off Stage in Eastern Washington

Far Left Governor Jay Inslee was heckled and booed off stage during his visit to the Tri-Cities area on Tuesday.

Inslee still has most of the state locked down including the eastern part of Washington state.

Inslee was finally forced to move his rally inside.

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

Fox News Anchor Ed Henry Fired Over Sexual Misconduct Allegation

Ed Henry on Wednesday was fired from Fox News over a sexual misconduct claim.

Daytime news anchor Ed Henry was fired after an investigation into allegations of “willful sexual misconduct in the workplace.”

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

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Sets Record for Largest Audience in Cable News History by Calling for Equal Justice Under the Law and Free Speech

FOX News cable television set a new record this past quarter. The Tucker Carlson Show set the record for the largest cable news show audience during a single quarter in cable news history. He did this by calling for equal justice under the law and for free speech.

These are two issues the Democrats cannot claim and Republicans appear oblivious to.

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

Fox Streaming Platform Will Feature Farrakhan’s ‘Message’ From ‘God’ On July 4

The man who is too extreme for the extreme lefties on Twitter gets to broadcast his thoughts on America for a massive streaming audience? What are these media executives smoking?

Fox Television Station’s latest streaming venture aimed at African American audiences, “Fox Soul” announced that it would be airing radical Nation of Islam leader and preacher Louis Farrakhan’s “Message of Hope” to their platform on July 4th.

On Twitter, the streaming app’s announcement read, “LIVE ON FOX SOUL: THE CRITERION THE HONORABLE MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN will deliver his MESSAGE TO AMERICA on JULY 4th at 11am ET / 8am PT.” The advertisement also linked to his religious group’s website for those seeking more information on the minister’s speech or the generally insane tenets of the religious group. Though the tweet has since been deleted.

In a creepy tweet, Farrakhan’s own Twitter account characterized his upcoming address as “the message that God has formed in me. It is for every inhabitant of this planet. If it is the Will of God, I will deliver it to the world on July 4th.”

No self-respecting person would watch his speech for a couple obvious reasons, not that that creepy religious imagery wasn’t enough.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fresno State Faces Calls to Remove Gandhi Statue

A student is circulating an online petition for the removal of a Gandhi statue from the California State University-Fresno campus.

“I want to raise awareness about a prominent South Asian figure, Gandhi, and his racist remarks,” Akhnoor Sidhu said, local media reported, alleging that Gandhi called for the segregation of black people and was deeply prejudiced.

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

Hah! Hundreds March in Sanford, FL Against Facemask Laws Chanting “My Body, My Choice!” (Video)

This drives the communists nuts.

Hundreds of Floridians marched in Sanford, Florida on Wednesday against the facemask laws.

Florida is having a surge in coronavirus cases as more younger people are being tested.

Most people who get the virus show minor symptoms. Many do not even know they had it.

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

Huge: Massive CDC Fraud Uncovered — CDC Grossly Overcounting Active China Coronavirus Cases Causing States to Keep Their Economies Closed Indefinitely

The CDC is over counting the number of China coronavirus cases in an apparent effort to keep the country shut down throughout the summer. This fraudulent activity was uncovered by the far-left Atlantic proving even a dead clock is right twice a day.

On May 21, 2020, the Atlantic reported that the CDC was over counting the number of cases of individuals with the China coronavirus.

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

Hundreds of Officials Who Served Under George W. Bush Are Endorsing Biden

Hundreds of officials who served under Republican President George W. Bush are set to endorse Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

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

Kansas Researcher Faces More Charges Over Alleged China Ties

A University of Kansas researcher hid Chinese payments while conducting research funded by the U.S. government, and then lied to federal authorities about doing so, a new federal indictment alleges. The indictment charges Feng “Franklin” Tao of Lawrence, Kansas, with seven counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements, the Associated Press reported.

Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of the money Tao acquired.

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

Massive Protests Will Rock Our Cities on July 4th as a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse is Visible Above America

The level of hatred that we are witnessing all over America right now is extremely chilling, and it is rising with each passing day.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mayor Orders American Flags Removed From All City Buildings

What’s worse is when the American people allow their said representatives to act in such a fashion for it shows the rest of us that he/she is not alone in their cowardice capitulating treason (Luke 22:48) towards America and her children….

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Michigan House Passes Bill to Make Human Implantable Employee Microchips ‘Voluntary’ For Now

Michigan State Rep. Bronna Kahle sponsored the successful bill, and while the microchips are not widely used throughout the state she believes they will become standard in the coming years. “With the way technology has increased over the years and as it continues to grow, it’s important Michigan job providers balance the interests of the company with their employees’ expectations of privacy,” said the bill’s sponsor Michigan State Rep. Bronna Kahle. “While these miniature devices are on the rise, so are the calls of workers to have their privacy protected.”

The bill will be introduced to the State Senate where, if it passes, Governor Gretchen Whitmer will be able to sign the legislation into Michigan law.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Now it’s Personal: Seattle Mayor Moves to Dismantle CHOP After Protesters Show Up at Her House

The proverbial last straw seems to have been the appearance of protesters outside of Durkan’s residence.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NYC Mayor De Blasio Defends Ban on Religious Gatherings, Says Black Lives Matter Protests OK Because of ‘Profound Meaning’ (Video)

Christians and Jews are being openly persecuted against in the United States while Black Lives Matter militants are given special treatment.

There is zero equality under the law.

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

Outrageous: Last Week Judge Emmet Sullivan Was Ordered to Dismiss General Flynn Case — What the Hell is This Corrupt Judge Waiting for?!?!!

A week ago today the DC Appeals Court dropped all charges against General Michael Flynn Case!

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

Really? New BS Study Claims Black Lives Matter Riots Slowed Overall Spread of Coronavirus

A new study claims that the Black Lives Matter riots actually may have slowed the overall spread of the Coronavirus.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the streets rioting, looting and protesting without social distancing.

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

Richmond Mayor Cites ‘Public Safety, ‘ Spread of COVID-19 in Ordering Removal of Confederate Statues

Using what he claims are “emergency powers,” Richmond, Virginia’s Democrat Mayor, Levar Stoney, ordered the removal of ALL Confederate monuments positioned on city property today, citing the potential for the spread of COVID-19 among Black Lives Matter and AntiFa-linked rioters who have held the city’s Monument Avenue under a violent siege for 33 days, perhaps becoming the first Democrat politician in America to acknowledge that rioting increases the risk for disease spread.

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

Scholar Forced to Resign Over Study That Found Police Shootings Not Biased Against Blacks

Michigan State University leaders have successfully pressured Stephen Hsu to resign from his position as vice president of research and innovation after the Graduate Employees Union launched a campaign to oust him from his role.

This came after the union, which represents teaching and research assistants, crawled through years of blog posts and interviews Hsu had conducted and criticized him for sharing content on genetic differences among different races.

But the main thrust to oust Hsu came because the professor touted Michigan State research that found police are not more likely to shoot African-Americans.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Seattle Mayor Calls for Investigation and Possible Expulsion of Unhinged Socialist Councilperson Kshama Sawant

After initially passing off CHAZ/CHOP as an innocuous dance party, Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan is now calling for the communist utopia to be dismantled after a series of shootings have taken place there and citizens are pursuing legal action against the city for letting the cesspool grow.

The mob, of course, is now turning their rage toward Mayor Durkan. Led by open marxist city councilor Kshama Sawant, the horde descended upon the mayor’s home to protest on Sunday. This has now prompted Durkan to call for investigating Sawant’s ties to the terrorists and the rumors that Sawant was the one who unlocked the doors to city hall to let the terrorists take over the building a few weeks ago. Durkan is calling for the possible expulsion of Sawant from the city council.

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

Seattle Police Moving People Out of CHOP Zone Following Mayor’s Order

Police officers in Seattle are working to take back the area known for weeks as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, or Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.

The area, which includes several city blocks, a park, and an abandoned police precinct, was taken over by demonstrators demanding defunding of the police department and other actions.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan issued an executive order around 5 a.m. Wednesday that people must leave Cal Anderson Park, which is included in the protest zone, and that city departments would begin working together Wednesday to clean the area and resume city control. The order specified police department authority to remove people from the area and to arrest those who refuse to comply.

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

Sick. NY Times Pervert Paul Krugman Smears Florida Seniors as “White Supremacists” As COVID Numbers Climb in State

On Tuesday Paul Krugman smeared Florida seniors as “white supremacists” and joked about the climbing COVID-19 numbers in the state.

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

Social Distancing is a “CIA Protocol” That Amounts to Torture (Video)

In a video that couldn’t be found anywhere on YouTube (which isn’t a big surprise), a woman blasts social distancing as a “CIA protocol” the amounts to torture. She says that the world’s governments are using social distancing to destabilize the mental health of the entire planet.

The video below is on a platform called Bitchute, and will not be removed by any censors. Bitchute is decentralized. In the video, Leigh Dundas says “social distancing is actually a technique that might be causing more harm to our children than that which it seeks to avoid. So, social distancing is a euphemism for social isolation. It was a technique that was developed about 70 years ago by the CIA and they found it was REALLY REALLY good at breaking down enemies of the state.”

So what in the h*ll are we doing to our children? Why are they enemies of the state? Because we all are enemies of the state. If you aren’t a politician, you are the enemy and they want to enslave us under the New World Order and the government is a part of the plan to manufacture compliance. This is not a conspiracy theory. They are coming out and saying it now, and several sites, including this one, have proven this time and time again. Your inability to understand what’s going on or break your own mental chains does not make it “unreal.”

“It destroys the part of the brain that is responsible for learning in our children and ourselves, which is known as the ventral striata…in 1951, the CIA held a secret meeting at the Ritz Carlton in Canada and it was a meeting with doctors present who had ties to, and I quote ‘the US, UK, and Canadian military forces.” The CIA realized at that meeting and others that “social distancing and social isolation techniques were quote ‘the ideal way of breaking down a prisoner.’“

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

South Beach to Issue $50 Fines to Those Not Wearing Masks

Mayor of Miami Beach Dan Gelber has announced that beginning on Tuesday, citizens who are not wearing a facial covering can be fined up to $50. The rule applies indoors and outdoors in situations where social distancing cannot be properly observed.

Gelber said a $50 fine will be imposed for a second violation, following an initial verbal warning.

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

St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones Labels Catholic Prayer Rally a KKK Meeting — Then Three St. Louis Christians Beaten, One Knocked Out by Leftist and Kicked in the Head (Video)

Last Wednesday The Gateway Pundit announced a prayer rally on Saturday at the iconic St. Louis Statue on Art Hill in Forest Park.

We planned the rally because there is currently a petition by local leftist and radical Umar Lee to remove this beautiful landmark in St. Louis City. And these radicals want to change the name of St. Louis City.

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

Statue of Abe Lincoln Liberating U.S. Slaves Gets Booted by Boston

The Boston Arts Commission unanimously voted Tuesday to take down the city’s historic Emancipation Memorial after activists demanded the statue’s removal.

The memorial depicts Abraham Lincoln standing with one arm raised over a freed slave crouched on his knees. Broken chains are depicted around the black man’s wrists and the word “emancipation” is written at the statue’s base.

The statue was funded largely by contributions from former slaves, according to WBZ 4.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a Democrat, supported the vote to remove the statue from Boston’s Park Square, according to WBZ4. Walsh was reportedly already considering the statue’s removal.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Think the “Cancel” Mobs Can’t Get Any Worse? Think Again

America is in the midst of one of the great moral panics in our nation’s history. If we don’t stand up for our nation’s core values, the situation could get even worse — and soon. If you’ve spent any time on social media in the last three weeks, you’ve probably noticed the organized campaigns to get college and even high schoolstudents expelled or denied admission based on their political views. You’ve also seen gleeful mobs celebrating as Americans lose their jobs for running afoul of someone’s momentary political obsessions.

In every sector of American society, people are having their careers destroyed to the pitiless baying of the “woke” masses. It’s happening in business. CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman spent 20 years building the fitness brand into a multi-billion dollar company, only to be thrown out of the empire he built for declining to go along with the “racism is a public health crisis” dogma.

It’s happening in journalism. New York Times editor James Bennet, a liberal, was fired for publishing an op-ed by a sitting Republican senator advocating for a military response to nationwide rioting — a position the majority of Americans agreed with. The same fate befell Philadelphia Inquirer editor Stan Wischowski, who was terminated for approving an article that condemned looting and arson.

It’s happening in entertainment, in academia, and pretty much anywhere someone can be found who is not sufficiently supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement.

It’s even happening to people who didn’t do anything at all. An L.A. Galaxy soccer player was forced to resign because his wife tweeted that rioters should be shot. A lawyer in San Francisco was fired because his wife was rude to a man she thought was spray-painting BLM propaganda on a building that wasn’t his (it was). On Thursday, this Stasi-esque trend reached another level when a company called Equity Prime Mortgage fired the stepmother of the officer charged in the controversial shooting of drunk driver Rashad Brooks after he fought with and fired a taser at police. The stepmother was apparently fired for no reason other than family loyalty.

On Monday, the panic reached what one can only hope will be its peak when a San Diego Gas and Electric employee lost his job for “making a white supremacist hand gesture.” We’ve long since debunked the notion that the OK sign is somehow racist — that was just a fiction perpetrated by internet trolls — but in this case, this man lost his livelihood despite the fact he wasn’t even making an OK sign. He was apparently cracking his knuckles as he drove.

What America is going through right now is not merely another, more intense round of “cancel culture.” We’re now in the midst of a full-force, totalitarian remolding of our society, one that seeks to place the petty resentments of an outraged minority of leftist activists above everything else in American life. Because of their willingness to riot, loot, and assault anyone they perceive to be insufficiently sympathetic to their cause, leftists are able to bully ordinary people into submission. As a result, television shows such as “Cops” and “Live PD,” classic films such as “Gone With the Wind,” and iconic brands such as Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Buttersworth, and Uncle Ben’s rice are consigned to the “dustbin of history.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Seizes 13-Ton Shipment of Human Hair Products From China on Strong Suspicion of Forced Labor

Nearly 13 tons of wigs and human hair products have been seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection over fears that they were made through forced labor in China.

The CBP issued the detainment order for all shipments arriving from Lop County Meixin Hair Product Co. Ltd. based in Xinjiang, China. Officials believe they have strong evidence the wigs and hair care products are linked to forced labor, potentially from the Uighur concentration camps in the communist country.

Several female survivors of the Uighur subjugation testify that women’s heads are shaved when they are imprisoned in the camps, something that National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot says is “highly suspicious” given the recent shipment.

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

Virginia Dems Seek to Downgrade Assault Against Police to Misdemeanor

Virginia Democrats have reportedly drafted a proposal which contains a long list of criminal justice reforms, including downgrading the charge of an assault on a law enforcement officer from a felony to a misdemeanor.

Under current law, assaulting a police officer is a Class 6 felony with a minimum penalty of six months in jail to a maximum of five years. Misdemeanors are only a one-year maximum and have no minimum.

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

Watch Live: General Flynn, Tucker, John Macarthur Tell us How to Save America

Share this link to alert President Trump!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What Makes July 4th Truly Significant?

This Fourth of July, while you celebrate American liberty, let’s not forget the words of Thomas Paine: “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

White Liberal Attacks Black Man for Trying to Remove BLM Signs From Fence

Oh, the irony.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Will Judge’s Decision to Allow Lawsuit Against “MeToo” List Creator Curb Growth of Crowd-Sourced Witch Hunt Lists?

Some might call it a witch hunt, and sometimes it turns into a manhunt — these are online campaigns, often inspired by the prevailing mood of the moment, set by mainstream media.

But it is on social media where these can spread and cause real harm. And the question of what, if any liability of social and tech platforms who allow it, is being raised once again — not least importantly in light of CDA’s Section 230.

These are some of the key issues emerging from a lawsuit filed by Stephen Elliott, an author accused of rape in the “S***ty Media Men” Google spreadsheet created by Moira Donegan at the height of the “MeToo” movement. It’s a media and entertainment industry blacklist compiled by anonymous contributors.

Elliott decided to sue Donegan for libel, and now a New York federal judge has ruled against a motion to dismiss that lawsuit.

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

Woke Harvard Senior Claims TikTok Video of Her Saying She’ll Stab and Watch Bleed Out the Next Person With ‘Caucasity’ To Say All Lives Matter is a Joke

A Black Lives Matter TikTok video by Harvard Senior Claira Janover in which she threatens to stab and watch bleed out “the next person who has the sheer nerve, the sheer entitled caucasity to say ‘all lives matter’“ went viral Tuesday in spite of a disclaimer Janover posted under the video stating “for legal reasons this is a joke”.

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

Alberta Knocks 20 Per Cent Off Corporate Tax, Slashes Foreign Workforce

Updated With Video 30 June 2020

Jason Kenney announced on Monday that his Conservative government is cutting the general tax burden on corporations in an attempt to reinvigorate the economy.

“We must act now,” Kenney told the press on Monday, adding that rate would drop from 10 per cent to 8 per cent effective July 1. Quite the Dominion Day present for Albertan businesses struggling through the economic catastrophe.

There’s more. Much more. Kenney went on to announce the largest policy shift we have seen come from his government since he took office: temporary foreign workers are on the chopping block. Not just temporary foreign workers either, but one third of the immigration certificates in the provinces inventory will be scrapped.

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

Toronto City Council Votes to Make Masks Mandatory in All Indoor Public Spaces

Face masks will soon be mandatory in all indoor public spaces in Toronto.

The Toronto city council voted on the matter earlier today. All Toronto residents who hope to go shopping or out for dinner will be required by law to wear a mask.

“It is about respecting and protecting each other,” said Toronto Mayor John Tory on Tuesday morning.

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

Vandals Behead Six Statues at Sudbury Catholic Park

Vandals have desecrated half of the statues at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Sudbury.

Greater Sudbury Police say the exact date that the statues were vandalized is not known. A total of six statues have had their faces or entire heads removed.

The statues, presenting scenes from the Bible, were all created in the 1950s.

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

Britain Throws Opens Doors to 3m Hong Kongers

London | The British government has confirmed it will give almost 3 million Hong Kong residents the option to resettle in Britain, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson steps up the response to China’s new national security law for the city.

Anyone in Hong Kong with British National (Overseas) status and their immediate families can apply for, and will receive, a five-year, unrestricted visa. At the end of that they can apply for settled status, and 12 months later they can move to citizenship.

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

Czechia: A Feast on the Charles Bridge Symbolically Ends the Pandemic

A celebration on the Charles Bridge became a symbolic farewell to the coronavirus crisis. A 500-meter-long table appeared on the 515-meter-long bridge, and anyone could join the banquet.

There are still few tourists in Prague due to the coronavirus pandemic and the following restrictions. Prague tourist sites, that might be sometimes overflowing with travelers, are now much more accessible to Czechs. The Pianos on the street Association, therefore, decided to use this situation and organize a feast for about 2,000 people. The banquet was held on Charles Bridge, one of the oldest medieval Prague sites. Anyone who brought something of their own to eat and drink could sit at the table.

The feast began on Tuesday evening and could be attended by anyone, the only condition was that each guest brought something to the table. There were white tablecloths, vases with flowers, and on top of that a view of Prague castle in the background.

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

German Intelligence (BND) Spies and Analyzes the Communications of Foreign Journalists

The German Federal Court of Justice has ruled that intelligence agencies do not have the right to spy on telecommunications by foreign citizens en masse. The ruling, in response to a lawsuit filed by several groups of journalists after a Reporter Without Borders dossier. Journalists collaborated with the German civil rights society and argue in their case that the existing law did not prevent espionage agencies from spying on journalists’ communications as they please. This could potentially allow intelligence agencies to identify the sources that journalists use in their work and even share that information with intelligence agencies from other countries in order to target the sources.

The German foreign intelligence agency, the Federal Intelligence Service or BND, has the opportunity to have access to a large volume of telecommunications data and content. This is because Germany is home to some of the world’s most active and largest internet exchange points. The country’s vast telecommunications infrastructure includes the so-called DE-CIX exchange in Frankfurt, believed to be the second busiest Internet node in the world. DE-CIX Internet exchange alone is believed to bring over a trillion messages a day to and from Western Europe, Russia, the Middle East and North Africa.

The BND, as is known, is not authorized to spy on communications from German citizens. However, according to German media, the agency believes that Internet messages between foreigners, which pass through German exchanges, can be intercepted and analyzed…

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

Germany Considers Disbanding Special Forces Unit After Discovering Members Hold Nationalist Views

German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is said to be considering a massive restructure to the elite Special Forces Command (KSK) Bundeswehr unit after a series of far-right extremist allegations involving the unit’s members.

Information from the Defense Committee of the Bundestag has revealed that at least one company of the unit— consisting of 70 soldiers — is to be dissolved but Kramp-Karrenbauer rejected calls for completely dissolving the army’s special forces, saying that they were still needed.

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

Germany: Antifa Extremists Allegedly Cut Power to Street Lights in Berlin Before Rioting

Electricity in an area of Berlin was cut off on Tuesday after far-left Antifa militants allegedly vandalised street lights by tearing out cables before members of the group set fires and vandalised property.

The rioters tore out cables from street lights in the Riga Strasse area of Berlin, a neighbourhood known for links to far-left Antifa extremism due to the street being the location of the notorious Riga 94 squat. The sabotage is said to have led to power outages from Liebigstrasse to Zellestrasse.

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

Google Thwarts Publishers’ Attempts to Increase User-Privacy and Cut Google’s Dominance

Some things never change, and with Google’s data-driven advertising business model and a complicated, to put it mildly, relationship with traditional media publishers — here we go again with another round of that fight.

Sadly, there are no good guys to cheer for here: the fight is over who gets access to more highly monetizable user data, to then use or abuse it.

That said, in Europe, publishers are going down the route of championing privacy — but privacy concerns here are hardly anything but a means to a business end.

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

Hungarian Scholar Says Success of German-French Axis is Nowhere Near Guaranteed

Although at their Monday meeting in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron showed a united front two days before Germany took over the revolving presidency of the European Union, the success of their European vision is far from guaranteed, Hungarian politician and scholar Tibor Navracsis said in an interview with conservative daily Magyar Nemzet.

Navracsis said Germany’s main ambition for its presidency, “saving” the European Union”, had one chief enemy: time. He said that on the one hand, a deal regarding the European Union’s seven-year (2021-2027) will have to be hammered out by the end of the year, while the approval of the €750 billion economic recovery package was even more pressing. (Indeed, Macron wants the package approved this month).

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

Hungary: PM Orban’s Approval Rate Surges Following Successful Pandemic Handling

After ten uninterrupted years in office, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban managed to further increase his approval rating due to the government’s successful handling of the coronaviurs pandemic, the Nézopont Institute said in an analysis of fresh polling data.

“The Prime Minister has unequivocally benefited politically from the successful actions against the coronavirus,” the analysis said, adding that while in in the previous two years Orban’s approval rating hovered around 50 percent (50 percent in 2018 and 52 percent in 2019), early this year he managed to improve further to 54 percent, but the latest poll, conducted between June 24 and 26, showed that his approval rating now stands at 62 percent.

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

Italy: Conte’s “Divide and Rule”

(by Massimiliano D’Elia) Last night the closure of the States General with a press conference. After ten days of meetings with all the categories that represent the Italian productive, social and cultural spine, the Prime Minister summarized: “Now we must reinvent Italy with a more modern, more digital, greener nation “.

The project sees among its cornerstones the development of high speed, the implementation of public infrastructures, the creation of a single optical fiber network accessible to all Italians.

Conte, on the sidelines of the press conference, announced the study for the VAT reduction in a progressive and anticipated manner that a further budget shift will be requested to manage the various instances of the current economic emergency. However, companies disagree on the VAT cut: “It’s just a show, reducing rates is not necessary”.

But to start giving a concrete signal to the age-old question of bureaucracy, the head of government said that the draft of the Simplifications decree. Perhaps already in the next Council of Ministers. The decree will change the rule abuse of office and tax damage, two crimes that block many Italian mayors from signing works of significant public interest.

On opposition Giuseppe Conte: “They have not collected my invitation, I will make another proposal”. Then he specifies that he will “reserve”, or rather correct himself, “offer” single meetings to the oppositions, to avoid confusion. A skilful move that of the premier because, after some conciliatory declarations by Forza Italia on the support to the Senate on the Mes, having single meetings one could also compare on “arguments” from undergrowth in favor of the Government line, such as the Mes precisely. The line on Berlusconi’s Mes is already very clear, yesterday reiterated: “It would be a disaster if we were forced to do without the help of the EU because of the uncertainties and the government’s lack of ability to influence”…

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

Italy: 14 Tonnes of Drugs Produced by ISIS Seized in Salerno

‘Jihad drug’ haul biggest ever, worth over 1 bn euros

(ANSA) — TARANTO, JUL 1 — Italian police on Wednesday seized 14 tonnes of drugs produced by ISIS in Syria to fund terror, in the port of Salerno south of Naples.

The drugs were amphetamines and a synthetic drug called captagon, which is used across the Middle East to ease fear, fatigue and pain among fighters, and which was found in the lair of the 2015 Bataclan terrorists in Paris. Capragon has been dubbed “the ISIS drug” or “the Jihad drug”.

The 84 million pills, the biggest haul ever, had a street value of over one billion euros, they said.

The drugs were hidden in paper cylinders for industrial use, and machinery built in such a way as to elude scanners, police said.

ISIS uses captagon and other amphetamines for all its fighters, and controls its distribution across the Middle East.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Seizes World Record 14 Tons of Amphetamines Made by ISIS

Italian police said on Wednesday that they had seized 14 tons of amphetamines made by the Islamic State group in Syria. The haul was worth about one billion euros and was a world record.

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

‘Language Barrier’ Partially Blamed for Coronavirus Surge in UK City Forced Back Into Lockdown

Leicester has found itself in the extraordinary position of returning to lockdown after experiencing a surge of coronavirus cases while the rest of the country sees restrictions lifted, with a local councillor partially blaming the rise in infections on a “language barrier”.

The multicultural English city of Leicester, which has a population of 330,000, will see non-essential shop doors shut on Tuesday and schools close on Thursday after a spike in coronavirus cases, with the local council reporting 944 new cases in the last two weeks.

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

Merkel Tells Europe to Prepare for Brexit Deal Not Materialising

Progress of Brexit talks between the United Kingdom and the European Union is “to put it cautiously, very limited”, Germany’s Angela Merkel told her national Parliament today.

Germany took over the rotating presidency of the European Council on Wednesday, and German Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel was asked for an update during a Parliamentary questions and answers session, during which she revealed her advice that European nations should step up preparations for no deal. The United Kingdom left the European Union at the end of January but continues to be subjected to the bloc’s rules and regulations until the end of 2020 unless an extension is agreed — a further betrayal of the Brexit project.

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

Poland: Analysis: Numbers Not Looking Good for Trzaskowski Heading Into Second Round

Communication around the first-round results has been dominated by the “percentage” message. President Duda received 43.5 percent of votes and Trzaskowski 30.46 percent.

Yet behind those percentages are real people — millions of them. Behind Duda stand 8.45 million and over 5.9 million behind Trzaskowski. This “humanization” of the results reveals the magnitude of the challenge confronting the Civic Platform candidate.

That 13 percentage point difference between the Warsaw mayor and the incumbent president is a difference of more than 2.5 million people. Trzaskowski needs to overcome this gap and more to win on July 12.

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

Poland: PM Morawiecki: Pandemic Under Control, Go Out and Vote!

“Be confident in going to the ballots on July 12. Youth, elderly and those in their prime. This is safer than when you go out to the shop or the post office each day. There is nothing to be afraid of,” PM Mateusz Morawiecki said.

The PM informed that the pandemic situation in Poland is under control and that there have been increasingly fewer infections.

He also referred to the ongoing elections and the government’s program, emphasizing that Law and Justice (PiS) is conducting policy based on “human dignity, care for every person and Polish tradition, culture and identity.”

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

Prosecutor Appeals Sentence of African Convicted of Rape in Czechia

The public prosecutor has appealed against the verdict of a district court, which sentenced a Libyan man to two years in prison for raping a minor and stealing her mobile phone.

Public prosecutor Vera Šipalova is pushing for a tougher sentence. She explained that she decided to appeal the decision because she originally proposed a higher sentence of three years in prison.

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

Sebastian Kurz Accused Erdogan of Stoking Tensions in Europe After Turkish Clashes With Kurds

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has accused Turkey of sowing strife in Europe after members of the far-right Turkish Grey Wolves clashed with Kurdish leftists and their Antifa allies in Vienna.

Chancellor Kurz summoned the Turkish ambassador to Austria on Monday and told the press “that there must be an end to Turkey trying to influence the people here in Austria and instrumentalising them for their conflicts”.

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

UK: ‘Black Jesus’ Last Supper Painting to Adorn the Altar of St Albans Cathedral

England’s historic St. Albans Cathedral has said that in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, it will install a painting that reimagines Jesus Christ as a black man above its altarpiece.

The artist of the 2009 remaining of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper, Lorna May Wadsworth, used Jamaican model Tafari Hinds as the reference for her portrayal of the Christian Messiah. The art also casts the Twelve Disciples as an ethnically diverse group.

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

UK: Virtue Signalling Football Establishment Distances Itself From ‘Political Movement’ BLM

England’s Premier League Football has attempted to distance itself from the “political movement” of Black Lives Matter, after the sporting body had devoted games to the far-left organisation by taking the knee and wearing shirts that replaced players’ names with ‘Black Lives Matter’.

The Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, made the announcement on Tuesday, allegedly after the UK branch of the movement, BLMUK, posted from its official Twitter account messages about “abolishing” the police, anti-capitalist remarks, and ‘FREE PALESTINE’ posts employing the antisemitic dog whistle that Israel was ‘gagging’ the “right to critique Zionism and Israel’s settler-colonial pursuits” in British politics.

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

Chess Champ’s YouTube Podcast Taken Down for Referring to ‘Black Against White’

A CHESS champ’s Youtube podcast was taken down because it referred to “black against white”.

The series was removed because it contained “harmful and dangerous” content.

Croatian ace Antonio Radic’s ‘Agadmator’s Chess Channel’ has over 700,000 subscribers — attracting 275million hits on YouTube — with fans loving his analysis of games.

He was assessing a match played by Hikaru Nakamura, a Japanese-born American chess grandmaster.

Antonio, who takes on top players from around the world, believes his latest podcast was removed by an algorithm which picked out key words.

He said: “I have uploaded 1,800 videos over three years and there wasn’t a single guideline violation.

“It could refer to the current world situation.”

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

Italy-German-France-Spain Against Annexation

Plans could increase threats against State, ambassadors say

TEL AVIV — Israeli annexation plans will increase threats towards Israel, said in a letter published by Walla the ambassadors to Israel of Italy, Gianluigi Benedetti, of Germany, Susanna Azum-Reiner, of France, Eric Danon, and of Spain, Manuel Gomez-Acebo. The letter was a sign of growing EU pressure against Israel’s plans that should start today. The ambassadors stressed that their constant and steady work to promote security in Israel and stability in the region brought them to fear the “adverse and long-lasting consequences of a potential annexation”. The “negative” consequences could include, they added, “a possible destabilization of the West Bank and the growth of tension in the entire region. Moreover, regional voices have already highlighted the risk about the fact that a similar step could endanger flourishing Israeli relations with Arab States”. “Our States — they continued — attribute maximum value to the principles of international law such as the one regarding a ban on unilateral border changes”.

Opening their intervention published by Walla, the four EU representatives recalled the “solid friendship” that each of their countries “has built with the State of Israel and its population”. They wrote that, in consideration of this long friendship and the work for security in Israel, they stressed their governments’ thoughts on the possible annexation of parts of the West Bank. The move would be a “violation of various principles on which we have collectively built our basic rules ever since the Second World War”. The ambassadors then stressed that their respective countries “will not recognize any change of 1967 borders, except for those agreed by both sides” and that “any decision to annex would have consequences on the close relationship” with Israel.

Israel is today at a crossroads, they denounced. “We remain convinced that, despite hardships and difficulties, the only way out of this conflict remains a negotiated solution with the obligation for both sides not to take unilateral steps”, they said.

“Moreover — they concluded — we are strongly engaged in continuing to act on Palestinians so they can engage in meaningful direct talks to reach a global agreement that is reciprocally acceptable, based on a two-State Solution in conformity with international law and agreed parameters”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

France-Turkey Tense Nerves Arrested: “Spying on the French”

Four men were arrested by Turkish authorities in Istanbul, believed to be members of an espionage cell run by an agent who collected information on extremist groups in favor of French intelligence.

The arrests were reported Tuesday by a newspaper linked to the Turkish government. However, the news of the arrests has not been confirmed by Turkish officials. If the arrest was confirmed, a short circuit would arise between two NATO countries.

Il Turkish newspaper Sabah revealed the name of the agent in the pay of France, it is called Metin Özdemir. He is reportedly a Turkish citizen who worked in the security department of the French consulate in Istanbul. According to the newspaper, Özdemir admitted to the Turkish police that he had been sent to France, where he followed an eight-month training course on security techniques. He was then sent to Georgia by France’s Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), where he collected information for his transalpine principals.

In exchange for his services, the DGSE would pay Özdemir by also offering him a job in the French Foreign Legion…

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

From Museum to Mosque? Turkish Court to Rule on Hagia Sophia’s Fate

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s greatest monument, the Hagia Sophia, has spent the past eight decades as a museum, its secular status serving as a compromise between Muslims and Christians who have both worshipped beneath its vast dome over the centuries.

Now, however, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants the Unesco World Heritage site to become a mosque again to fulfill a dream nurtured by his conservative supporters. It’s a move that risks roiling relations with Turkey’s neighbor Greece and other Western countries, who argue the 6th-century architectural marvel belongs to all humanity.

A top Turkish court is set to rule on Thursday on a petition to cancel a 1934 decision by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Turkey’s secular republic, that converted the Hagia Sophia — known as Ayasofya in Turkish — from a mosque to a museum.

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

Hagia Sophia Should Not Become Mosque — Bartholomew

Appeal on the eve of decision by Turkish Council of State

ISTANBUL — “The conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque would disappoint millions of Christians worldwide” and “we consider it to be damaging that in the 21st century it has become cause of confrontation and conflict”, the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I said. He launched an appeal ahead of a decision scheduled on Thursday by the Turkish Council of State on a request to change the status of Istanbul’s landmark, which has been a museum since 1935. “I hope that reason will prevail in the end”, added the patriarch, warning of the risk of a clash between the Christian and Muslim worlds.

A Christian basilica for nearly a millennium, Hagia Sophia was transformed into an Islamic place of worship by Sultan Mehmet II after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

The new reconversion into a mosque is supported by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had promised to intervene last year on the eve of administrative elections on March 31.

Greece is staunchly opposed to the measure, denouncing a potential violation of the UNESCO convention that recognized it as a world heritage site. According to the patriarch of Constantinople, the green light for the transformation into a mosque of “Hagia Sophia, which due to its holiness is a vital crossroads for East and West, would divide these two worlds, even more at a time when humanity, afflicted and suffering due to the deadly pandemic of the novel coronavirus, needs unity and a common orientation”. For Bartholomew, instead, “as a museum, Hagia Sophia can function as a place and symbol of meeting, dialogue and peaceful coexistence of peoples and cultures, reciprocal understanding and solidarity between Christianity and Islam”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

John Kerry Secret Meetings With Iranian Officials Highly Suspicious

A law enforcement source informed this writer that the “inside the Beltway” scuttlebutt alleges that Deep State politicos such as former Secretary of State John Kerry have secretly met with Iranian officials…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Twitter Sued for Allegedly Conspiring With Saudi Arabia Government to Shut Down Dissenting Voices

Twitter is being sued for allegedly conspiring with Saudi authorities by blocking accounts of its critics, a law firm handling the case on behalf of the plaintiff has announced.

Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, is the one behind the lawsuit that contains allegations of unauthorized access to his content on the platform. Al-Ahmed, a Saudi scholar, lost his citizenship and had to seek asylum in the US after supposedly exposing “major news stories such as the Pentagon’s botched translation of the 9-11 Bin Laden tape and the video of Daniel Pearl’s murder.”

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

Russian Voters Agree to Let Putin Seek 2 More Terms, Hold Power Until 2036

Russian voters have approved changes to the country’s constitution that would allow President Vladimir Putin to seek two more terms and hold power until 2036.

The preliminary results showed 80% of voters supported the amendments, according to officials. Polls had been kept open for a week to encourage voting while keeping crowd numbers low during the pandemic, a move Putin’s political opponents denounced as a way to rig the election.

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

India: New Species of Freshwater Fish Found in Maharashtra Named After Manipur Professor

A team of scientists from Maharashtra and Kerala has discovered a new species of freshwater fish found in the Western Ghats and named it after a well-known professor of the Manipur University.

The new fish genus is called ‘Waikhomia hira’. ‘Waikhomia’ is derived from the surname of Professor Waikhom Vishwanath, a well-known taxonomist with the department of life sciences of the Manipur University, while hira means diamond.

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

China Has Been Spying on Xinjiang Citizens for Longer Than Had Been Anticipated, Research Shows

A recent investigation by security firm Lookout indicates that the Chinese government has carried out a hacking and surveillance campaign by installing malware on the smartphones of the Muslim people living in Xinjiang since 2011.

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

Chinese Opera Singer Censored Online for “Image Violations” For Looking Like President Xi Jinping

One of the ways China’s internet censorship exhibits itself is by keeping tight control over how the country’s political leadership is portrayed and mentioned online — if at all.

Usually it takes some sort of action by social media users to end up censored for this particular “offense” — but as the case of opera singer Liu Keqing shows, not necessarily.

Reports are saying that the only discernible reason for Liu’s online presence to be restricted “repeatedly” is his striking resemblance to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

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

Hundreds of Hong Kong Protesters Arrested on First Day of New National Security Law

HONG KONG — A draconian new national security law failed to deter thousands in Hong Kong from attending illegal protests Wednesday, the 23rd anniversary of the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule.

Scattered demonstrations across Hong Kong Island, the city’s commercial and financial heart, were met with an overwhelming show of force from police who deployed water cannons, tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters and, in some cases, journalists. Seven officers were injured, including one who was stabbed in the arm and three who were hit by a motorcycle, police said.

About 370 people were arrested by late evening, including 10 accused of violating the new law, a sweeping piece of legislation that gives China’s communist rulers near-carte blanche to silence critics in a city that has fiercely defended its autonomy from Beijing. Most of the arrests were for alleged offenses such as unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct, police said.

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

How Australia’s $270B Defence Boost is Designed to Deter and Respond to Military Threats — as Fears Grow of a War in Asia Within 10 Years and Scott Morrison Warns of a ‘Dangerous and Disorderly’ Post-Pandemic World

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has outlined how $270billion will be spent beefing up Australia’s defence hardware — as the post-pandemic world poses the biggest threat since World War II.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Victoria Records 73 New Cases of Coronavirus as it Battles a Second Wave of the Deadly Disease

Victoria has reported 73 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday. Around 300,000 Melbourne residents from 10 postcodes have been ordered back into lockdown.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Grandmother, 71, Dies of Shock After She Was Forced to Watch Her Three Granddaughters Being Raped at Gunpoint at Her Home in South Africa

The grandmother, 71, was confronted by an intruder who broke into her home in KwaZulu-Natal province. The attacker locked the sisters aged 19, 22 and 25 in a room and took them out to rape them.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

France: 70 Migrants Set Up Camp in Downtown Paris

A group of more than 70 migrants have set up camp in Place de la République in downtown Paris to demand more state aid.

Hungarian news site Origo reports that all of the migrants are adults, but want to be declared minors so they would be entitled to higher state contributions.

The action was supported by three NGOs — Comede (French abbreviation for Committee for the Health of Exiled), Utopia56, set up in 2016 to help migrants stranded in Calais seeking entry to the United Kingdom, and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, with strong ties to billionaire financier George Soros).

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

Germany to Address Migration During Its EU Presidency, Says Ambassador Israng

During its EU Council presidency, Germany wants to address the migration situation as Berlin considers it important for all states to show solidarity on this issue. At the same time, Germany realizes there must be other forms of solidarity than the compulsory migrant quotas. This was stated by German Ambassador Christoph Israng yat a meeting of the Czech Senate Committee on the EU yesterday.

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

Illegal Migrant Spared Prison After Stabbing Woman 14 Times During Home Invasion

Court determines Algerian attacker is ‘insane,’ orders him to pay victim one euro in damages

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Chicago: Independence Day Fireworks Cancelled, But Gay Pride ‘Protest’ For Black Trans Lives Goes Ahead

Fireworks displays are canceled, but the LGBTQ community was able to march for black trans lives with impunity.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gender “X” Option Now Available on Driver’s Licenses in Rhode Island, Hawaii

People applying for a driver’s license in Rhode Island or Hawaii can now select “X” as their gender.

The states have opted to provide “X” as a gender-neutral option, in addition to male and female. In Hawaii, a person can select “X” without providing any documentation regarding his or her gender. In Rhode Island, the applicant must complete and submit a “gender designation form.”

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

Life in a Pod: The New Normal

If you want to go out socialising from now on, you’ll likely be doing it in a plastic pod. This isn’t some weird dystopia, it’s the new normal in 2020.

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

More Than 260,000 Sign Petition to Block Film Starring Paris Jackson as “Gender-Bending” Jesus

A petition to stop distribution of a movie that features Paris Jackson as a female Jesus has garnered more than 260,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning.

The film, called “Habit,” features the daughter of the late Michael Jackson alongside actress Bella Thorne. Jackson’s character reportedly is a gender-bend of Jesus and includes “a nose ring, tousled waves, and a traditional robe,” according to the plot’s synopsis.

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

One in Ten Irish Babies Aborted in First Year Since Legalization

Irish women have taken full advantage of the repeal of constitutional protection for unborn babies, with 6,666 abortions performed during the first year of legalization, according to official figures released Tuesday.

During 2019 there were 59,796 live births recorded in Ireland, meaning that more than one in ten (10.5 percent) of known pregnancies (66,837) ended with an abortion, noted Dr. Angelo Bottone in an essay for the Iona Institute Tuesday.

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

Pope Francis: Media Should Help People ‘Distinguish Good From Evil’

ROME — Pope Francis told members of the Catholic Press Association Tuesday that the media should build bridges, defend life, and help people, especially the young, “to distinguish good from evil.”

In their reporting, journalists should help people “to develop sound judgments based on a clear and unbiased presentation of the facts, and to understand the importance of working for justice, social concord and respect for our common home,” the pope told them.

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

Reddit Backtracks on Shocking “Hate Against Majority Allowed” Rules, Makes Them Even Vaguer

Reddit sells itself as the “front page of the internet,” but there have also been those willing to describe it as “the cesspool of the internet.” Some do it because they don’t like the original nature of the platform (that’s been undergoing major changes for a while now); others, because they’re sick and tired of those growing restrictions that at times manifest as blatant censorship.

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

Woman Who Works With Planned Parenthood to Recover Baby Parts Describes Beating Baby Hearts, Dissecting Intact Babies

A new video released Tuesday by The Center for Medical Progress shows Planned Parenthood workers and affiliates who retrieve baby body parts from the abortion clinics describing under oath the gruesome dissection techniques that take place at the abortion provider, and the reality that baby body parts dissected sometimes have beating hearts.

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

9 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/1/2020

  1. Commie RAT Durkan has been hit with multiple lawsuits from the businesses inside the glorious people’s collective utopia zone.
    Being a RAT lawyer herself that is the only reason the plug was pulled.
    The one silver lining is that now people know what Amerikwa the Kwanstain will be like when the CPUSA gets back into the crackhouse at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

  2. I’m thinking of legally buying a gun and applying for a concealed carry permit. What kind of gun should I get?

    • If you live in Chicago, a shotgun would be what I would recommend. I have a Keltec KSG which is very compact but holds 14+1 rounds of 00 buck. Enough to take quite an honor guard with you to Valhalla. Pistols can be concealed easily, but if there were riots I wouldn’t be out on the street anyway. Also, they take a lot of practice to be able to shoot well and probably not too accurate under stress of actual combat. Shotgun wouldn’t qualify for concealed carry though, but good to have in an apartment. I am told Glocks are very reliable, but for a first time pistol owner I would recommend a revolver since their is no magazine and they are ultra-simple and ultra-reliable. Plenty of good revolvers to choose from and . 38 caliber or . 357 magnum is probably the best for stopping power and controllability for a new pistol owner.

      I own a Walther PPKS that is my concealed carry of course, but I also own a WWII 1911 that is very easy to shoot and quite powerful. With semi-autos you must get out and practice until you can cock, shoot, reload, and safe without thinking. There is a world of difference between shooting on a range under ideal conditions and having to use it for real when there is the distinct possibility of being shot or knifed if you don’t get it right.

  3. “In other news, the mayor of Miami has ordered all citizens to wear face masks, indoors and outdoors.” Indoors as in private homes?

    • As far as I could tell, the order didn’t specify. Indoors or outdoors, the qualifier was “in situations where social distancing cannot be properly observed.”

        • I had to set up the image on gravatar. I don’t know why it no longer shows, and it’s too much trouble to try and figure it out.

  4. There is an extremely strong correlation between Third World living conditions and Democratic government control.

    Not everyone can be Mugabe.

    If their policies would be better, you would have uniform First World conditions in Democratic controlled areas.

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