The spirited woman in the video below is an Italian business owner who refuses to knuckle under to the Coronamadness. When the Carabinieri come to shut her down, she has a few choice words to say to them, and to the surrounding community.
Many thanks to HeHa for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
Last Sunday I posted a photo of the Centennial of Communism billboard in Portugal along with the accompanying remarks by Orwell, who took the photo. One of the things he talked about was a recently enacted law that would allow the Portuguese government to expropriate property from private citizens without due process.
The following article discusses the law that Orwell referred to. Many thanks to João for translating this piece from Polígrafo, a fact-checking initiative from the Portuguese news outlet Sapo:
Has the government created a law that allows the state to expropriate any private property “at its convenience”?
(WHAT IS AT STAKE? The Assembly of the Republic passed a law, proposed by the government, which allows expropriations that are arbitrary and “at your convenience”. This claim has been widespread on social networks, where criticisms of the actions of António Costa’s executive have multiplied. But does it have factual support?)
The image, which appears to be the clipping of a legal document, has been widely shared on social networks, over the past few days. “This law grants the Government legislative authorization to approve a special regime for carrying out expropriations and establishing administrative easements necessary for the execution of interventions that are considered […] integrated within the scope of the Economic and Social Stabilization Program, approved as an annex to the Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 41/2020,” the text reads.
The caption of one of the publications that disseminates the image summarizes what seems to be at stake: “The government has made a law — passed — that basically says that what is yours ceases to be yours and becomes its own, at its convenience.”
The text suggests that, from now on, the State will be able to expropriate any private property, in an apparently arbitrary way, for convenience. But does this claim correspond to reality?
The answer is no, because the law applies only to projects under the Economic and Social Stabilization Program (PEES). Even so, it is true that, in the cases covered, the defense rights of those expropriated are diminished.
Starting with the image that is circulating on social networks, this one is authentic and corresponds to Law Proposal No. 52 / XIV, of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, that is, of the government, which was approved by the Assembly of the Republic on the 18th of September. The deputies of the PS, BE, PCP, PEV and the non-affiliated deputy Joacine Katar Moreira voted in favor of the diploma. They voted against PSD, CDS-PP, PAN, IL and Chega MPs.
Now, as is made clear in the legal document, the measure arises in connection with the Economic and Social Stabilization Program, which, in the context of the pandemic crisis, provides for a set of “lasting and necessary investments, with tangible benefits for the population and that constitute a way of maintaining or creating jobs across the national territory.” In furtherance of the more rapid implementation of such investments, and considering the “constraints […] in the procedures of expropriation and constitution of administrative easements,” a special regime was created to facilitate them. For this very reason, it is important to understand what changes with the new rules.
A policewoman in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis, shot a young black man named Daunte Wright to death during a traffic stop. Based on bodycam footage and the assessment of the police chief, the officer discharged her service weapon by mistake, having intended to use her taser. Last night demonstrators took to the streets in Minneapolis, New York and other cities to protest the death of Daunte Wright. Protests in Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis turned into looting, and several stores were destroyed.
In other news, demonstrations in Montreal against the coronavirus lockdown turned into riots as protesters lit fires and broke store windows.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, DV, LP, 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.
Hellequin GB has translated three items of COVID news from PolitikStube. And not all of them are in fact madness — the third story about the decision in Weimar is refreshingly sane.
Merkel doesn’t give a damn: aerosol researchers are calling for the government to change course — there is no danger lurking outside
Aerosol researchers from Germany are calling for a change of course in the government’s corona policy. The SARS-CoV2 pathogens are transmitted almost without exception indoors; this is extremely rare outdoors, so the danger lurks inside instead of outside.
Leading aerosol researchers from Germany demand in an open letter from politicians a change of course in the measures to contain the corona pandemic.
“If we want to get the pandemic under control, we have to make people aware that the danger is lurking INSIDE,” said a letter to the federal and state governments. It is considered certain that the Coronavirus spreads mainly through the air.
Unfortunately, Merkel and her Berlin Politburo are not interested in scientific facts from undesirable experts. After all, the Uckermark Pearl is pursuing a political agenda; the staged pandemic or pandemic fight should only ensure implementation and ultimately turn off democracy.
The mask requirement and curfews do not serve to protect health and against the risk of infection, but to suppress demos, freedom of expression and contacts/meetings with friends and family and to harass citizens by imposing fines for refusal and disregard. The propaganda of the “dangerous” virus must also be further stoked and the fear level must be kept high; only a fearful population can be controlled and patronized and will accept any change.
Brandner: Basic rights apply to everyone (AfD)
Once again the calls, this time from the Federal Minister of Justice Lambrecht, are loudly demanding an end to the massive restrictions on fundamental rights, but only for those who have been vaccinated.
The AfD member of the Bundestag and former chairman of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection, Stephan Brandner, makes it clear that fundamental rights are not privileges for certain groups, but apply universally and equally to everyone. An individual vaccination decision cannot be used as a yardstick for granting basic rights.
Quote from Brandner on this:
“Fundamental Rights also and especially apply to everyone in times of crisis. It is not the State, it is not the Rulers who provide or grant basic rights to certain groups and exclude others from them, it is our Constitution. Everyone must be free to choose whether or not to get vaccinated. The fact that the federal government should increase the willingness to vaccinate by means of this blackmail with the granting of basic rights, especially in view of the serious health consequences of using the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has made headlines again and again, is shabby and irresponsible.”
Most readers will be aware that I suffer from choroidal neovascularization — wet macular degeneration — in my left eye. Like the current U.S. government, the disease is progressive. Which mean that it gets worse over time — also like the U.S. government.
I was first diagnosed with the condition a little more than eight years ago. Last year it flared up again just after the “pandemic” began. The retinal specialist’s office closed down for a couple of weeks. Since we were asked not to visit healthcare facilities unless absolutely necessary, I put off going in for treatment until a month after the new symptoms appeared. That was a mistake, of course: it allowed the new growth of blood vessels to do more damage than it might have if I had had the injection promptly. If I had it to do over again, I’d say, “Screw the CDC — I’m going in.”
I’ve written the following account for my own benefit. When I describe something as distressing as this in a detailed, detached, clinical fashion, I find it helps me cope with the awfulness of it. Putting it into words seems to allow my psyche to contain it better.
This essay has nothing to do with the mission of this blog, and may be safely skipped. However, anyone who is curious about macular degeneration, or who suffers from it himself, may be interested in my descriptions.
The image at the top of this post is a simulation of what I might see in the visual field of my left eye as I begin to ascend the stairs to the Eyrie here at Schloss Bodissey. I’ve exaggerated the effect a little so that you can see it clearly, but this is basically what it looks like at night after my eye has had a bad day. The blob in the center is the scar left by the growth of a “frond” of new blood vessels in the choroid behind the retina. When that happens, fluid leaks from the blood vessels into the macula, damaging it. It can also push the dark pigment from the choroid into the retina, which darkens the field of vision at that location. That happened to me in March of 2013, and it took more than five years for the pigment to migrate to the periphery of my vision and be consumed by macrophages.
The smaller, lighter spot in the center of the oblong blob is the location where the original eruption of blood vessels first appeared, causing a bump that severely distorted my vision just to the right and below the fovea (from my perspective — since the brain inverts the retinal image, the bump was actually above and to the left). Fortunately, the Avastin injections that dried up those new vessels also made the bump shrink, so that I no longer see any topological distortion to speak of.
Because the damage to the macula did not quite overlap the fovea, I didn’t experience severe problems with focusing in that eye. However, last year’s flare-up expanded the trouble zone upwards and to the left. The top left edge of the blob in my simulation is right on the fovea, which means that my left eye now has a great deal of trouble resolving the focus in the central area of the macula.
The past year has also brought new symptoms, ones that I hadn’t seen before. The pattern of larger blood vessels in the eye gradually became visible under certain circumstances. To get a snapshot like the one at the top of this post, I would have to close my eyes for a half-second or so and then open them again. The layout of the vascular network in my left eye then appears briefly before fading out again. The central blob is initially quite bright, then fades after a moment, but never disappears entirely.
That’s on a bad day. On a good day I hardly notice any of that at all.
I also tend to see a wavy, irregular reticulated pattern throughout the visual field in that eye. It may be the interweaving of the smallest blood vessels in the retina, but it’s hard to tell.
The upshot of all this is that the visual acuity in my left eye has been significantly reduced. On a bad day, I can’t really resolve a clear, focused image at the fovea, and the area surrounding it is now also compromised.
Eight years ago, when the bump was causing such agonizing distortion, I contrived a patch for my left eye that could be fitted over the outside of my glasses. I made it from thick brown paper cut from the bottom of a Whole Foods grocery bag. Wearing it while at the screen allowed me to continue working. Late that summer, when the bump had mostly subsided, I was able to take it off.
A few months ago, when my new symptoms were at their worst, I got out that old patch and reattached it to my glasses. It was already in fairly bad shape from having been used for several months in 2013, and it didn’t hold up very well. Last week I used the same pattern to make a new patch from thicker, more rigid dark grey paper cut from a document folder:
All across Europe, especially in the UK, partygoers continued to defy coronavirus lockdown restrictions and gathered for festivities that were raided by police. Meanwhile, a young man in Antwerp died when he fell from a hotel window while attempting to escape a police raid on an illegal party.
In other news, former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner accused Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) of being “political terrorists”.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, DV, JD, Reader from Chicago, 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.
Last night I posted about Thorsten Weiß, a politician for the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany). Mr. Weiß has petitioned the German tax authorities to withdraw the tax-exempt status of Sea-Watch due to its proclaimed affiliation with a terrorist organization.
Thorsten Weiß made the video below to explain his case against Sea-Watch. Many thanks to Hellequin GB for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
Philippe de Villiers is a French author, historian, and former MEP. He is a public intellectual, but a very unusual one by French standards: he is also a conservative Catholic.
Mr. de Villiers has been featured here a number of times in the past, most recently last November.
Back in 2016, in one of our subtitled videos, he said, “We are faced with a demographic conquest.” In the following video from a French talk show he says the same thing, but takes it a step further.
Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
A Portuguese reader named “Orwell” took this photo and sent it to me:
He said:
I just saw this huge billboard today! In the town of Loulé in the Algarve [southern coast of Portugal].
Just look at that! Hammer and sickle, and a pool of blood. This is openly going on in Portugal in 2021. No one bats an eye.
I guess the splash of red is the blood of some of the 200+ million people they have already murdered.
In Portugal just a few weeks ago, they sneaked in a new law, passed without any democratic assessment, a law on the expropriation of private property. Now without rhyme or reason, at the whim of some state commie bureaucrat or commissar, your private property, house, land, apartment can simply be confiscated from you!
They are moving quickly towards outlawing private ownership of property in Portugal.
Where else in the world has communism reached the venerable age of 100 while still being celebrated? Russia observed the centennial of the Revolution in 2017, but I’m not sure the celebration was universally enthusiastic. China and North Korea haven’t reached a century yet…
A politician for the Liberal Party in Quebec said that online speech that is hurtful to politicians should be banned. Meanwhile, women’s rights activists in Pakistan are facing renewed allegations of blasphemy.
In other news, an Italian prosecutor told a court in Sicily that Matteo Salvini should not be charged with “kidnapping” for closing ports to migrant-rescue ferries when he was Minister of the Interior.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, JD, Reader from Chicago, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Last Wednesday I reported on the migrant-rescue vessel Sea-Watch 4, which flew an Antifa flag from its bow while in a Spanish port.
Thorsten Weiß, a politician for the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany), has petitioned the taxation authorities to withdraw the tax-exempt status of Sea-Watch because of its proclaimed affiliation with a terrorist organization.
Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this brief article from PolitikStube:
After Antifa flagging: Application to withdraw the non-profit status of Sea-Watch
Thorsten Weiß: After the flagging of the Sea-Watch 4 with a flag of the left-wing terrorist group Antifa, I submitted an application today to the responsible tax office to withdraw the non-profit status of the NGO tug organization “Sea-Watch eV”, as it entertains clear connections to an extremist organization.
I have also applied to the Berlin Senate Department for Finance to inspect the files and will take a very close look at the financing of the association with tax money and its connections to the Berlin Senate.
Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Epoch Times:
“Reorganization case” Germany: Wolfgang Reitzle dreams of an “ideology-free new beginning”
Does Germany still have a chance to rise from the rubble of the pandemic like a phoenix from the ashes? Economic manager Wolfgang Reitzle says: “The potential in Germany is huge.” But there are many obstacles, after sixteen years of Angela Merkel. In an interview with Welt am Sonntag, Wolfgang Reitzle, long-time chairman of the supervisory board of the automotive supplier Continental and former CEO of Linde AG, spoke of his dream of the way Germany could be and develop in the future — and of the sad reality in which we currently live.
A new beginning — without ideology, “Let me just dream” — of a bipartisan consensus for an “ideology-free new beginning”. One thing is extremely important to him personally, according to the business manager: “We need a new, ideology-free energy and mobility policy.” The bureaucracy would have to be cut and the administration systematically digitized.
We need to trust in market forces again; we would have to reduce the state quota to under fifty percent and create a binding “ten-year plan for investments in sustainable infrastructure” — and the insight that should guide all of our actions should be “that prosperity also involves effort, and means performance.”
If you want to get the economy going again quickly after the pandemic, you will also have to give companies tax relief.
“The potential in Germany is huge,” says Wolfgang Reitzle. But a bitter reality stands in the way of his dream.
Appearance and reality
In Germany there is a discrepancy between appearance and reality: a defense budget of 47 billion euros, rifles that don’t fire, tanks that don’t run, and airplanes that don’t fly.
The problem can be seen particularly clearly in the federal capital. Reitzle calls it a dysfunctional city, a “failed state” — one of the worst-governed capitals of Europe.
When it comes to crime, they look the other way, allow squatting and the spread of Arab clan criminality. Berlin is not even able to “build an airport for our capital”. Michael Müller, the mayor, is responsible for the failure. He has been in the media for months, explaining to everyone how Corona management works, says the economist.
Germany’s Merkel years
The following article from the Swedish town of Norrköping reports on puppets left hanging outside a synagogue at the beginning of Passover. A written message accompanied the puppets, but at the time of translation there were no reports on exactly what it said.
For the last twenty years or so the majority of incidents of Jew-hatred in Western Europe have been perpetrated by Muslim immigrants or their descendants. In the case of Norrköping, however, it appears that actual native Scandinavian neo-Nazis may have been involved — unless, of course, the incident was a false flag.
Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this article from the Swedish Christian daily newspaper Dagen:
Puppets hanged at synagogue in Norrköping
Police investigate agitation against groups — appeal for tips
[Photo caption: On Sunday, puppets were found hanging in a position outside the synagogue of Norrköping]
by Johannes Ottestig
March 28, 2021On Sunday morning, police answered an alert from the synagogue in Norrköping after the public at large saw puppets hanging in position. In connection with this, a written message was also found.
Police in Östergötland state that the police patrol that proceeded to the synagogue carried out a photo-documentation and the objects were seized. A preliminary investigation into agitation against an [ethnic] group [hets mot folkgrupp] has been initiated.
At present there are no suspects, but police have received tips and also urge people who were in the vicinity of the synagogue on Sunday morning to come forward with additional information.
The Jewish Passover, Pesach, began on Saturday evening and goes into next week. Police in Östergötland state that they are conscious of the holiday and that patrols will be conducted around Jewish locations in the city to the extent possible.
Recurring anti-Semitism
Norrköping, together with Stockholm and Gothenburg, is one of the three cities where Jews at the end of the 1700s were given the right to conduct business and settle. But in spite of the Jewish presence in the city— and the city’s synagogue, which was inaugurated in 1858 — anti-Semitic acts have become recurrent in Norrköping in recent years.
For example, in the summer of 2014, rocks were thrown into the synagogue. In April of 2019, flags and banners with swastikas were hung in several places in the city, and also in April of last year the same thing happened again. Nazi graffiti was also discovered, and in September of last year, in connection with the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) demonstrated outside the synagogue, and posters were put up in several places in the city.
Afterward, members of the Jewish congregation, who for sake of security wished to be anonymous, told Norrköpings Tidningar that they were living in constant fear.
Police in Ontario raided illegal lockdown-violating parties and handed out thousands of dollars in fines. Meanwhile, demonstrators once again took to the streets of Italy to protest the lockdown.
In other news, Prince Philip, the consort of Queen Elizabeth II, has died. The Duke of Edinburgh was just a few weeks short of his 100th birthday.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, DV, MC, MM, 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.