Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/31/2020

A Greek Orthodox priest in the French city of Lyon was shot and grievously wounded outside his church by a southern-looking attacker. A suspect was arrested in a nearby kebab shop a few hours later.

In other news, beginning on Monday, restaurants and bars in Michigan will be required to record the names and phone numbers of all patrons, in case they have to be located due to COVID-19 contact tracing.

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

Thanks to JD, PL, 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.

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Terrorism Trial in Portugal

A trial is underway in Portugal involving alleged operatives for the Islamic State. One of the interesting things about this story is that most of the conspirators seem to have ethnic Portuguese names.

Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this article from the Portuguese daily Público:

Alleged jihadist denies involvement with DAESH (ISIS), but can’t explain compromising telephone calls with his brother

Cassimo Ture admitted that his brother, Sadjo Ture, gave him a book the day he was arrested in England, and at his request went to pick up a man at the Lisbon airport, but denies belonging to a terrorist organization. The defense attorney says that his client is only being accused because the brother was investigated in the United Kingdom.

by Sonia Trigueirao
October 26, 2020

Cassimo Ture — who is on trial, together with Romulo Costa, for, allegedly, participating in a terrorist cell with six other Portuguese citizens) accused of belonging to Daesh (ISIS), and joining forces, recruiting, and financing the terrorist organization, supporting the travel of Portuguese and British citizens to Syria to fight on the side of the jihadists — denies the accusations against him, but he cannot explain the content of some compromising telephone calls with his brother, Sadjo Ture, and the favors he did for him.

“My only organization is my family, and it is for this that I fought,” he said, denying ever taking part in any terrorist organization, as he is charged in the indictment. Cassimo Ture, who only decided to speak at the end of the trial — the final arguments are already scheduled for November 9 — explained that his concern was to bring a woman from Guinea to Portugal, deal with her nationality, and then take her to London, where she currently lives with two of her children.

“I deny the charges; I never belonged to any terrorist organization; I never adhered to that cause; I am Muslim and I frequent religious locations, but I never had anything to do with this,” he stated before the panel of judges.

As for the other accused, Celso, Edgar, and Romulo Costa, the accused (Ture) said that he knew them from the neighborhood where they grew up and studied, in Massama, only when they were young, denying having contact with them as adults.

As for his brother, Sadjo Ture, who, together with Celso da Costa, was suspected in the UK of kidnapping two journalists, John Cantlie and Jeroen Oerlemens, in July 2012, on the Turkish-Syrian border, he said that he never suspected that it could be connected to terrorist activities.

According to the indictment, Sadjo Ture forged qualification certificates in order to register students into British universities and receive social assistance in that country. Since that was all done on the Internet, the social assistance was transacted via codes, then sent to the email addresses of the students, who in reality didn’t exist, which allowed any person to pick up the money.

Sadjo Ture then sent the money to Cassimo, who distributed it to the other members of the group, such as Celso Costa and Edgar Costa. The brother of Cassimo had a book where he kept all the email records that he used, and the respective codes, in order to access the social assistance support. The book was found by the Judicial Police during searches at the home of the parents of Romulo Costa.

Cassimo Ture admitted that his brother gave him the book when the two were at the airport in London, and the police detained Sadjo. “He said that he would tell me later to whom to deliver it,” he told the judge, noting that he never opened the book to see what was in it, and that, also at that time, he didn’t know why his brother was being arrested. An explanation that did not convince the judge, who asked him if he weren’t curious to know. “I asked, but he said that they were his things. My brother was very reserved,” he said, admitting that Sadjo had sent him money several times, but that it was to help himself and his parents. “I never delivered money to anyone,” he swore.

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Geert Wilders: Erdogan is a Tyrant, a Dictator, and a Terrorist

As reported here on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is suing Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) in the Netherlands, for saying unpleasant things about him.

In the following interview, Mr. Wilders answers questions about the Erdogan affair. One of the interesting (and unexpected) aspects of this crisis is the fact that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is backing Mr. Wilders.

Many thanks to Gary Fouse for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

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A Smorgasbord of Coronamadness

News on the Wuhan Coronavirus — or, more accurately, on the increasingly arbitrary and totalitarian government responses to the disease — is coming in so thick and fast that I have a hard time keeping up with posting it. I’ve collected five videos and a translated article below.

The first four videos were translated from the German. Many thanks to MissPiggy and Hellequin GB for the translations, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling.

Video #1: Decorative Christmas masks

The first clip is a bright, cheery plug for various Christmas-themed mask designs on German TV. It really gives me the creeps:

Video #2: Dr. Bodo Schiffmann’s practice raided by the CoPo

Bodo Schiffmann is a German otorhinolaryngologist. He has become well-known as an outspoken critic of the government’s policy on mask-wearing in response to COVID-19. Earlier this month I reported on an incident when the Corona Police visited Dr. Schiffmann’s birthday party, which was cut short. In the following video he receives another visit from the CoPo, this time at his practice:

Video #3: Card-players busted by the CoPo

In this clip from Germany, a group of people playing cards in an apartment are visited by the police. Being too noisy seems to have been their original offense, but it’s not clear why those who don’t live in the apartment are forced to leave. Evidently there has been some kind of violation of Corona regulations:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/30/2020

Brahim Aouissaoui, the Tunisian who allegedly killed three people at a church in Nice, was a boat migrant who landed at Lampedusa. He then entered France illegally, and was unknown to French security services.

In other news, a 16-year-old Tatar in Russia shouted “Allahu Akhbar” at police and called them the “enemies of Allah”. When he attacked them with a knife, the officers shot him dead.

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

Thanks to AA, Caroline Glick, JD, MC, Reader from Chicago, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, 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.

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Truths and Lies

Our Israeli correspondent MC weighs in on next Tuesday’s presidential election in the USA.

Truths and Lies

by MC

For Islam, ‘truth’ is what you can deceive the unbeliever into believing, so a ‘religion of peace’ can be easily confused with a ‘religion of submission’ by a slight difference of ‘interpretation’ in translation.

For the soft communist, the modern Democrat, ‘truth’ is whatever you decide that you want it to be. In effect, these two ideals are the same, the sole difference being that one was drafted in a pre-Darwin era, the other in a post-Darwin era. Islam is pre-Darwin, and thus it has to struggle with the idea of a creator who conforms to the vicissitudes of humanity in the form of Mohammed. Post-Darwin, even this limitation is removed.

We know that Islam is untrustworthy, and that everything a Muslim communicates to an unbeliever carries the potential for deceit, but do we ever apply the same standard to the soft communism of modern-day Democrats?

If you are an atheist, you believe that no deity will ever hold you to account for your lies (or truths for that matter), and that therefore, if you can stopper your human critics and accusers, then the lie becomes the de-facto ‘truth’.

Since Western Civilization was founded upon the ideas of honesty and accountability, then what is left after the communist/Islamic takeover? Barbarianism? Tyranny?

Every vote for Biden is thus a vote for an amoral man who will eventually enslave you.

Only Judeo-Christianity has fought slavery. Destroy Judeo-Christianity, and you and I will become slaves once more.

Luckily, these soft communists are greedy and, like their hard Communist predecessors in Russia and other places, seek to line their own pockets and enhance their own lifestyles at public expense. They get careless and leave incriminating evidence in computer shops and on email servers.

But what happens next is critical.

One of the things we have learnt over the last four years is just how limited the power of the President is when faced with this same godless treachery. A Western nation relies on the morality and integrity of its leaders, no matter of what political persuasion. When faced with mass amorality, even a moral president is almost powerless.

We had eight years of an amoral President, eight years in which the USA lost the trust of many nations. Here in Israel, especially here in Sderot, we viewed with horror the previous President’s embargo on Iron Dome missile replacements because he considered Ben Gurion airport ‘unsafe’ during the last conflict with Gaza.

Now we find that Joe is pushing the green New Deal. Like the Nazi’s Hunger Plan, the DNC has a prime purpose: to starve millions to death by tampering with their food supply. The Hunger Plan was a cynical exercise to emasculate and destroy the Eastern European Slav population by starvation. It was estimated that it would destroy thirty million Slavic Untermenschen, but due to the failure of the invasion of Russia it only killed about five million.

The Ukraine is the breadbasket of Eastern Europe in the same way as the Midwestern prairies and Central Valley of California are to the USA. Both Hitler and Stalin could not resist the temptation to meddle with Ukrainian food production, and between them managed to kill tens of millions of people by slow starvation.

Not a nice way to die…

But this is what the Green New Deal will do to the USA. The denial of fossil fuels will implode farms and farming, and battery power will not rise to the occasion, firstly because the rare earth elements which battery manufacturing requires are, well, rare, and secondly because batteries do not create electricity, they only store it. So how will the required electricity be generated?

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/29/2020

Multiple jihad attacks took place throughout France as angry Muslims reacted to statements by President Emmanuel Macron. Three people were killed — one was beheaded — by a mujahid shouting “Allahu Akhbar” in a church in Nice. Police in Avignon shot an armed attacker dead when he tried to assault them. Meanwhile, a man was arrested in Saudi Arabia after allegedly attacking guards at the French consulate with a knife.

In other news, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that Muslims have the right to kill millions of French people.

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

Thanks to Dean, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, 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.

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Jihad: Muslims Speak

Jihad: Muslims Speak

Compiled by Michael Copeland

  • “Jihad stands for killing all kafirs [non-Muslims] around the world. Push your sword into their bodies, cut them into pieces. … Sword is the key to Allah’s paradise.” —Ayatollah Khomeini. Islam Watch, 4 April 2010
  • “Jihad is not inhumane, despite its necessary violence and bloodshed, its ultimate desire is peace which is protected and enhanced by the rule of law.” —Ibrahim Sulaiman, modern Islamic scholar. The Religion of Peace
  • “Jihad is the most talked about duty in the Koran … Nothing else is mentioned more than the topic of fighting.” —Anjem Choudary
  • Jihad means to war against non-Muslims …signifying warfare to establish the religion”, a “communal obligation” (o9.0, o9.1).

    The scriptural basis for jihad, prior to scholarly consensus is such Koranic verses as:

    Fighting is prescribed for you (Koran 2:216)
    Slay them wherever you find them (Koran 4:89)
    Fight the idolaters utterly (Koran 9:36)” —The Manual of Islamic Law, Reliance of the Traveller

  • “And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you” —Koran 2:190
  • “…jihad is a religious duty because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.” —Ibn Khaldun, The Muqadimmah. An Introduction to History, Franz Rosenthal, translation by Raymond Ibrahim
  • “The goal of Islam is to rule the entire world and submit all of mankind to the faith of Islam. Any nation or power that gets in the way of that goal, Islam will fight and destroy. In order to fulfill that goal, Islam can use every power available every way it can be used to bring worldwide revolution. This is Jihad. “ —Maulana Maududi, ‘Jihad in Islam‘. Quoted by Tradewinds, comment Jihad Watch
  • “I have complete faith that Islam will invade Europe and America, because Islam has logic and a mission. The jihad will lead to smashing Western civilization and replacing it with Islam which will dominate the world ….” —Muhammad Mahdi Akef, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood 2004-10. Front Page Magazine, 11 February 2004; American Thinker, 20 April 2007
  • “There is a time when a military struggle must take place in [Britain]. Jihad. It’s called conquering.” —Omar Bakri, 1997. The Guardian
  • “Where is your weapon? Where is your weapon? Come on to the Jihad.” —Omar Bakri. Quoted by Tony Blankley, The West’s Last Chance
  • “Many thanks to God, for his kind gesture, and choosing us to perform the act of Jihad for his cause and to defend Islam and Muslims. Therefore, killing you and fighting you, destroying you and terrorizing you, responding back to your attacks, are all considered to be great legitimate duty in our religion.” — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow 9/11 defendants
  • “The greatest sacrifice made in the way of Allah is Jihad. In it man sacrifices not only his own life and belongings but destroys those of others also.” —Maulana Maududi, Towards Understanding Islam
  • “You shall not regain Al-Aqsa [Jerusalem] and Palestine without preparations, rockets, and guns… not… through negotiations, capitulations, kisses, or hugs. The one thing that will restore Palestine to you is Jihad, Jihad, and more Jihad.” — Sheik Muhammad Zaghmout, head, Palestinian Islamic Council in Lebanon, 2012.

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The New Kings of Jihadist Terrorism: Azerbaijan and Turkey

David Boyajian sends this urgent update on the Azerbaijani-Armenian war.

The New Kings of Jihadist Terrorism: Azerbaijan and Turkey

by David Boyajian

The vicious war against the Armenian Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh) and Armenia by Azerbaijan, Turkey, and thousands of their jihadist terrorists has passed the one-month mark.

The presence of jihadis, which include ISIS, is consistent with the debauched political cultures and national ambitions of Azerbaijan and Turkey. It also tells us that the U.S./NATO/EU stance towards those countries continues to be dangerously passive.

Just days ago, right in our nation’s capital, Azeri demonstrators chanted “jihad, jihad, jihad” and flashed the hand signal of Turkey’s homicidal, neo-fascist Grey Wolves.

It’s not surprising. Azerbaijan and Turkey are longtime Turkic allies of jihadist terrorists.

Turkic Jihadist Terror

  • In the early 1990s, Azerbaijan deployed thousands of jihadis and terrorists, including Afghan Mujahedin, Chechens, and Grey Wolves against Artsakh’s Armenians who had voted for self-determination. Turkish army officers also took part.
  • Al-Qaeda cells in Baku, Azerbaijan helped to plan the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. A dozen Americans and 212 others were killed.
  • The U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center reports that ISIS ranks have included over 900 Azerbaijanis and 7,400 Turks.
  • Ahmet S. Yayla, Turkey’s chief of counterterrorism from 2010-13, wrote: “Turkey was a central hub for the travel of over 50,000 ISIS foreign fighters, and the main source of ISIS logistical materials … making Turkey and ISIS practically allies.
  • Secret wiretaps revealed that Turkey has supplied ISIS in Syria via Ilhami Bali, codenamed Abu Bakr, a 36-year-old Saudi-born Turk.
  • Columbia University has issued two valuable studies: ISIS-Turkey Links and Turkey-ISIS Oil Trade.

Today’s Turkic Jihadist Terror

  • Since September, Azerbaijan and Turkey have brought in ISIS commander Sayf Balud, the Hamza and Sultan Murad Brigades, Syrian terrorists, and thousands of other jihadis to battle Armenians. Many were present even before September.
  • Some of the jihadis had committed atrocities against Christian Armenians and Assyrians, Kurds, Yazidis, and others in Syria and elsewhere.
  • Azerbaijan is using some jihadis as human shields for its soldiers. Others are thrust into battle while Azeris point guns at their backs to prevent retreat.
  • Armenian forces have dealt them severe blows. One jihadi warned, “Jihadi, don’t come, we have been deceived, everything is a lie. This is a meat grinder.”

Artsakh’s Ordeals

In the early 1920s, the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin transferred the ancient Armenian territory of Artsakh (96% Armenian) to Azerbaijan to indulge Turkey. No country/people named Azerbaijan/Azeri had ever existed before 1918.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/28/2020

As rioting continued in Philadelphia, the city imposed a 9pm curfew in an effort to stem the violence. Police said that looters had turned the shopping area in the Port Richmond neighborhood into a “total loss”. Meanwhile, hundreds of rioters took to the streets in Brooklyn, vandalizing police vehicles and businesses and doing battle with police.

In other news, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening legal action after the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a cartoon depicting him in his underwear.

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

Thanks to Insubria, JD, JM, Reader from Chicago, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, 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.

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Open Letter to Al-Azhar Institute’s Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb

The following open letter was written by Ashraf Ramelah of Voice of the Copts.

Open Letter to Al-Azhar Institute’s Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb

A few days ago news reports stated that you called a meeting of the Muslim Council of Elders in Cairo in order to plot a legal response against the French government over the recent issue of free speech in France that led to the murder of a French school teacher on October 16. You have accused the deceased of using “hate speech” in regard to a lesson he taught on the freedom of speech.

“Hate speech” is the term used around the world to shut down free speech by those, in particular, who wish to limit others from threatening their sinister agendas. However, in this case, “hate speech” actually fosters the agenda of jihad in that cold-blooded murder of the infidel is a justifiable reaction.

An eighteen-year-old Muslim man slaughtered the teacher because the teacher showed the famous picture published years ago by Charlie Hebdo, another victim of justified jihad. I have no doubt that you are deeply distraught over any words or a picture disrespecting the Islamic prophet just as the jihadist was who decapitated the school teacher. For this, you have my sincerest sympathies.

According to reports, the Muslim Council of Elders condemned “freedom of speech and expression,” calling it a slogan for a “systematic campaign” to undermine the prophet and mock Islamic sanctities. The Council has now affirmed its intention to resist this “hate speech” through legal means using the judicial system to deal with this matter.

As you seek to limit free speech in a Western nation, Al-Azhar Institute, under your leadership, remains silent in Egypt and never attempts to limit violence or “hate speech” against Christians. As a Copt born in Egypt, I have never recalled your condemnation of the destruction of Coptic churches, violence against the Coptic congregation and clergy or the kidnapping of Coptic girls. Could it be so because every one of these actions can be attributed to religious Muslims practicing jihad, which is promoted by freely spoken slogans?

Thankfully, no Egyptian Muslim is ever slaughtered for the sentiments of jihad spoken freely, which you completely condone by your silence. As well, you are silent regarding the slaughtered — the Coptic Christian — because it is the fulfillment of that spoken word. Now, you propose an action that serves to restrict freedom in another nation on behalf of Islam and Islam alone, similar to Egypt.

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We’ll Boycott Ourselves, That’ll Show ’Em

Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this article from the Dutch daily Dagelijkse Standaard:

Netherlands-hating Sharia-Lover Arnoud van Doorn after Rutte Support for Macron: “Boycott Dutch Products”

by Tim Engelbart
October 26, 2020

The most clownish councilor in the Netherlands has struck again! This time he calls for a country to be boycotted. Which country, you ask? Well, the Netherlands. Where we all, including Arnoud van Doorn, live. Crack!

We wondered whether we should write the article. Because isn’t attention precisely what this frequently truant Hague councilor wants? Well, yes, undoubtedly. But putting the spotlight on this type of silly words might wake up his supporters. Van Doorn is not busy representing them in the community council of the capital city [The Hague], but makes them completely ridiculous with his almost-satirical proposals.

Take, for example, his latest idea: We must boycott the Netherlands. That’s what Van Doorn said in an angry tweet he sent this afternoon after Prime Minster Rutte declared his support for President Macron — who is busy dealing with the radical Islamists, from whom the idea came to cut down Samuel Paty, literally and figuratively.

“The Dutch government supports Macron in his anti-Muslim smear. Scandalous!” writes Van Doorn, purposefully in English, in a dastardly attempt to start an international riot. He shares a screenshot of Rutte’s declaration of support for his French counterpart. But then comes this hilarious part: “Boycott French and Dutch products”.

In brief: Van Doorn is calling for a financial hit on his own country because the prime minister is wholeheartedly committed to freedom of expression. A word like “traitor” doesn’t roll easily from my lips, and not now, but stupid, is it not now on the tip of my tongue?

But anyway, it may be that calling out a councilor who, hopefully and eventually, will be expelled in 2022 from the municipal council, is not the best course of action. So let’s laugh at Van Doorn: Because how does this madman see it for himself that he will boycott Dutch products? Does he now and then want to die of hunger and thirst? Because if you want to be consistent here, you yourself can’t drink tap water or eat bread from the bakery. So it’s stupid of Van Doorn to call for such an impractical boycott. Ha ha. What an anti-social dullard!

“I’ll Send ISIS to You”

The following interview was recorded in Paris during a rally of teachers in honor and memory of Samuel Paty, the schoolteacher who was beheaded after showing the famous Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoon to his pupils.

WillowPear, who translated the clip for subtitling, includes this background:

The female teacher describes her experience in similar circumstances to those of Mr. Paty. It’s not clear exactly when she was threatened, but she underwent at least three months of counseling after the incident, so it was more than three months ago.

French teachers at the rally were wondering whether the freedom to teach is under threat in France.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

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A Tale of Two Kings

In his latest report H. Numan gets to wear both his hats at the same time: The “Dutch correspondent” one, and the “Bangkok correspondent” one.

A tale of two kings

by H. Numan

It doesn’t happen often, but I can report about The Netherlands and Thailand at the same time. Both kings have the same problems. The difference is that one of them has a lot more of those problems on his plate.

King Willem-Alexander decided to spent an autumn holiday in his mansion in Greece. Almost immediately after he announced in the troonrede (our State of the Union) the government gave him a raise of 8%. His subjects also got a steep raise, albeit in taxation. Someone has to pay for it all, and it ain’t king Billy. Just before that State of the Union the king insisted his daughter Amalia will become a millionaire on her eighteenth birthday. Then she has to set up her own private cabinet as crown princess, to the tune of €1.8 million per year. That is considered by just about everybody in the country as somewhat steep for an eighteen-year-old girl. Before this, the king bought a very nice speedboat for only two million euros.

Now, each affair could easily be managed on its own. But gaffe after gaffe after gaffe is too much. The population began to grumble when the press announced the king was taking it easy in his mansion in Greece. Especially with all restrictions and travel bans for everyone else. The grumbling — it’s only grumbling, but we Dutch sure can grumble! — became so strong the government had to order the king back home, pronto.

Back home he made a full insincere apology on national TV, on all channels. I stress insincere. Why? Because he and his wife returned home, but his daughters stayed partying in Greece. The reason? The airline was fully booked. I kid you not. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines was… fully booked.

That’s the very same airline that is forced to let the king fly Boeings whenever he feels like it. No joke: King Billy does have a commercial pilot’s license, and “asked” KLM if he could fly once in a while. Of course you can, your majesty, replied KLM. So it’s possible the captain of your plane might be the king himself. Which you probably won’t know, as he flies incognito. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am your captain, Willem-Alexander of Orange, by the grace of God king of the Netherlands, prince of Orange, count of Nassau, etc. etc. etc.” is something you won’t hear. Listen to his name though. If the captain is Willem or Wim van Buuren, it’s him. The Orange family uses that incognito a lot.

Can you imagine any airline refusing to fly a royal family, because the flight was fully booked? Especially now, during a pandemic with severe travel restrictions? And almost nobody flying? Well, about 15 million Dutch do. Because they swallowed that silly excuse as if it were speculaas (Dutch spiced cookies). Let’s tally that as one of his many gaffes. King Willem is not only king of The Netherlands, but surely king of gaffes. I can fill a book with them by now.

Over on the other side of the globe. To not-so-warm (24° C/76° F) and sunny Thailand. The cool season has started; it’s pretty chilly early in the morning.

To my surprise that televised excuse of King Willem went completely viral in Thailand. Thais are amazed. “Look at that king! Wish he was ours!” “Wow. Is that really possible????” That’s on the not-yellow brick road; the demonstrators. On the yellow brick road, royalists are outraged by it. “The king has to offer his apologies? Why on earth? Why doesn’t he throw them all in jail?”

As I wrote earlier, for the first time in history the Thai students are (somewhat) rising against the monarchy. A small protest that became nationwide. At first the demand was some restriction on the severe lèse majesté laws, and more transparent government. After that the protests grew really big; they now demand the government resign.

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