Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest bank in the United States, collapsed into insolvency in the space of three days. After major depositors rushed to withdraw their funds, regulators from the FDIC intervened and blocked further withdrawals.
In other news, according to a recent report, weapons sent to Ukraine by the United States have ended up in Iranian hands.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Daniel Greenfield, Dean, Fjordman, JW, 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.
Brazil Rallies Towards Central Digital Currency
The central bank of Brazil has announced the beginning of a digital currency pilot project. The central bank hopes that a digital currency will be as successful as its instant payments system Pix.
Fabio Araujo, the coordinator of the digital currency at the central bank, said a full rollout of the “digital real” should begin in 2024, after the end and evaluation of the trial phase.
The CBDC will be executed through distributed ledger technology (DLT), to support the settlement of financial services through tokenized deposits.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Canada’s Jobs Engine Slows Its Growth in Feb, But Wages Reaccelerate
Canada’s labour market held steady in February with employers adding 22,000 jobs, Statistics Canada reported Friday, showing continued resilience despite the Bank of Canada’s efforts to engineer a slowdown.
Consensus expectations from economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for an increase of 10,000 jobs.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Egg Becomes Symbol of EU Inflation as Cost Soars 30 Per Cent
BRUSSELS (AP) — The humble egg has become a star performer for all the wrong reasons as inflation has hit households across the European Union extremely hard over the year.
The EU’s statistical agency Eurostat announced Friday that the average price of an egg — that important staple for poor families and gourmet cooks alike — had risen by 30 per cent over the year to January 2023, becoming a symbol of how the cost of living has hit everyone in the 27-nation bloc.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Payrolls Rose 311,000 in February, More Than Expected, Showing Solid Growth
Job creation decelerated in February but was still stronger than expected despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to slow the economy and bring down inflation.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 311,000 for the month, the Labor Department reported Friday. That was above the 225,000 Dow Jones estimate and a sign that the employment market is still hot.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.6%, above the expectation for 3.4%, amid a tick higher in the labor force participation rate to 62.5%, its highest level since March 2020.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Record Number of Middle-Aged Women Working as Canadians Grapple With Economic Pressure
As grocery prices set records and as Canadians report less than two months of savings, women between the ages of 55 and 64 are entering the workforce at record levels.
Statistics Canada released its Labour Force Survey on Friday, showing six-in-ten Canadian women aged 55 to 64 were employed in February — breaking a Canadian record, which was broken the month before.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Marks Worst Bank Failure Since Great Recession
The closure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was announced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on Friday, marking the worst U.S. financial institution failure in nearly 15 years.
SVB was the 16th largest bank in the United States until Friday afternoon. It failed after anxious depositors rushed to withdraw money over concern for the bank’s health.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Silicon Valley Bank Calls NYPD on Customers Trying to Withdraw Cash Following Institution’s Collapse
On Friday, the New York Police Department were called by a branch of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) as nearly a dozen investors showed up at the bank to withdraw money as federal regulators seized the institution following a run on deposits at the bank.
According to the Daily Mail, SVB called the cops on “about a dozen” financiers, including Dor Levi, a former Lyft executive, who arrived at the Park Avenue branch location, only to be blocked from entering and then having two police units arrive to secure the SVB building.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Another Norfolk Southern Train Derails in Alabama
Another train operated by embattled railroad company Norfolk Southern has derailed, this time in Alabama.
The train derailed just hours before the CEO of Norfolk Southern testified this week before Congress about his railway’s apparent difficulty staying on the tracks.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Biden’s Labor Secretary Nominee Wants to Ban Freelance Workers
by Daniel Greenfield
“Freelance journalists in California will either be out of work or face limitations on how much content they can produce,” CNN warned. Independent truckers shut down the Los Angeles-Long Beach port to protest the same disastrous law and are leaving California.
The bill known as AB5 which restricts freelance employment so severely that it’s practically a ban on freelance workers has been blamed for contributing to the mass exodus with California unprecedentedly losing population every year that the law has been in effect.
But California’s bad ideas rarely stay inside its borders…
| — Hat tip: Daniel Greenfield | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Elon Musk Calls for the Release of Jacob Chansley After New Jan 6 Footage Emerges
On Friday evening, Twitter owner Elon Musk called for Jacob Chansley, also known as the QAnon Shaman, to be freed from prison, where he’s serving a four-year sentence in relation to actions on January 6, 2021.
“Free Jacob Chansley,” Musk wrote.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Wells Fargo Customers Report Missing Direct Deposits Amid ‘Technical Issue’
On Friday morning, Wells Fargo customers reported missing direct deposits in their accounts.
According to ABC 8, Wells Fargo said in a statement that the company is aware that “some customers’ direct deposit transactions are not showing on their accounts, however funds in accounts are accurate and available.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
California Landlords Furious as COVID Eviction Bans Drag on: ‘I’m Owed $120k’ in Rent Payments
Landlords in the San Francisco Bay Area are pushing back against a proposal that would expand a COVID-era eviction ban as they struggle financially without rent payments.
Dean Preston, who is a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist that sits on the San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, announced on Twitter this week he would propose an ordinance to extend the COVID-era eviction ban that is supposed to expire in the coming months.
“I am getting ready to introduce an extension of our eviction ban here in San Francisco,” he said. “I wanted you to be the first to know. We got to make sure that we are not going off an eviction cliff when the local state of emergency ends. That’s why we’re introducing this ordinance.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Colin Kaepernick Accuses His White, Adoptive Parents of Being Racist
In a new interview, former NFL quarterback and full-time activist Colin Kaepernick accused his white adoptive parents of perpetuating racism.
The former NFL player told CBS Chicago that he grew up in a “problematic” household, which he describes in a soon-to-be-released graphic novel, “Change the Game.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Cornell Won’t Say if Students Punished for Disrupting Ann Coulter Speech
There is no clear progress on possible sanctions against students who disrupted a speech by conservative commentator Ann Coulter, a full four months since the initial incident.
Cornell University’s media team has not responded to multiple inquiries in the past months on possible punishments for the student activists. The College Fix also emailed communications director Rebecca Valli on March 6 and asked for an update on investigations into the students involved and what Cornell planned to do in the future to prevent similar problems.
The silence comes despite an initial strong statement from university leadership that criticized the Nov. 9 disruption.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DeSantis Knocks Obama Off the Top Spot With New Book Sales
Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis dealt a huge blow to former President Barack Obama’s ego with the release of his new book.
DeSantis’s book knocked Obama out of first place in pre-presidential book sales.
The governor sold more copies of his new memoir in the first week than those released by Obama and President Donald Trump before their bids for office.
In the seven days after its publishing on February 28, DeSantis sold 94,284 copies of “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival,” according to BookScan.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DuckDuckGo Introduces AI Feature That Uses Wikipedia as a Source
DuckDuckGo has joined the growing list of browsers to integrate artificial intelligence in search. The company has introduced DuckAssist, an AI-powered tool that will automatically pull and summarize information from Wikipedia in response to certain search queries.
If you enter a search query that DuckAssist can assist you with, you’ll see an option saying “I can check to see if Wikipedia has relevant info on this topic, just ask.” After clicking on “Ask,” you will get an AI-generated response using summarized information from Wikipedia.
The tool is built on models developed by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has been blasted as an eco-hypocrite after attending a green fashion awards event.
On Thursday, the 48-year-old “eco-warrior” posed alongside leaders in sustainable fashion and activism while attending the Green Carpet Fashion Awards.
However, the actor appeared at the exclusive ceremony after clocking up a staggering 12,000 miles on his private jet in just two weeks.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) tried to impugn journalist Matt Taibbi and Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s integrity in a House hearing on the Twitter Files yesterday.
However, the move backfired when Musk dragged a skeleton from the congresswoman’s closet.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Georgia Man Crushed to Death While Trying to Steal Catalytic Converter: Police
A Georgia man was crushed to death by a car while he was allegedly attempting to steal a catalytic converter from a local auto-shop, police confirmed with Fox News Digital.
According to the Chatham County Police Department, Matthew Eric Smith, 32, was found dead on Tuesday at approximately 9:15 a.m., after a catalytic converter fell and crushed him at South Bound Auto Sales.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
House Votes Unanimously to Declassify All Intel on COVID Origins
In a unanimous vote on Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the declassification of all intelligence that Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration has on the origins of COVID-19.
According to Axios, the House voted 419-0 in favor of the bipartisan measure.
Last week, the Senate voted unanimously to approve a similar measure.
The bill would require that all intelligence related to the origins of Covid, and the virus’ possible connections to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), be declassified and released to the public within 90 days of receiving the president’s signature.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
House GOP Seeks Testimony on Political Interference in Vaccine, Booster Approval
House Republican lawmakers have demanded that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration provide documents and testimony regarding alleged political interference by the Biden administration in the vaccine approval process.
House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, and Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and other Republicans wrote to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf requesting that he provide documents and communications pertinent to their investigations by March 24.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Jacob Chansley, the man who went viral for being pictured in the Capitol building on Jan. 6 in his horned costume that got him dubbed the “QAnon Shaman,” can be seen telling protestors to turn away and go home during the riot, re-emerged footage shows.
“Donald Trump has asked everybody to go home!” Chansley could be seen announcing into a megaphone to the crowd at the doors to the building. “We made our point, Donald Trump asked us to go home.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Denies Jan 6 Defendant’s Request to Delay Trial Pending Review of Surveillance Tapes
On Friday, Sara Carpenter, a retired New York Police officer, was found guilty in a Washington, DC court on seven criminal counts, including two felonies, for her actions on January 6, after US District Court Judge James Boasberg denied her request on March 3 for a delay so that her lawyer’s could review the recently released footage of that day by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Freedom News reported, “Retired NYPD Spokes person, Sara Carpenter, has been convicted on all counts on January 6 charges, after a judge denied her request to push back the start of her trial to allow time to review about 44,000 hours of Capitol riot footage from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
On Friday, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem vetoed House Bill 1193, a bill which redefined the word money to exclude digital assets and laid the groundwork for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as an official state-regulated currency, reports MSN.
According to Dakota News Now the South Dakota Freedom Caucus said in a statement they “profusely thanks Gov. Noem for vetoing HB 1193, a bill that would have created a path towards a China-style Central Bank Digital Currency.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Erie County prosecutors announced Friday that they would not file charges in the deadly stabbing last year of a Baldwin student at the University of Buffalo.
Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn issued a statement Friday that a grand jury did not return an indictment in the Oct. 14 stabbing of Tyler X. Lewis, 19, a sophomore at Buffalo State who was stabbed by an unnamed man on the University of Buffalo campus.
Lewis was a pre-business major who police said was targeted in the stabbing. Lewis’ mother and family from Long Island gathered at the Erie County Courthouse earlier this week urging prosecutors to take action in the killing.
“Since Oct. 14, 2022, our investigation into the fatal stabbing of Tyler X. Lewis has remained a top priority for my office, our partners in law enforcement and the University of Buffalo,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said in a statement. “While I understand his family has waited six months for answers, it was important that we conduct a complete and thorough investigation into the events that led to Tyler’s untimely death in order to present all of the evidence to a grand jury.”
Authorities identified a person of interest in the case in the weeks that followed the killing but no arrests were made.
| — Hat tip: MM | [Return to headlines] |
The feds’ political persecution of the Proud Boys took a wild turn after unintentionally leaked chat logs from FBI Special Agent Nicole Miller revealed she said she was ordered by her boss to “destroy” “338 items of evidence.”
The leaked chats also suggest Miller failed to reveal relevant communications to the defense, potentially spied on privileged attorney-client communications and was asked by another agent to “edit out that I was present” during a meeting with a Confidential Human Source Informant.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Retailers Sound Alarm Bell Over Huge Spike in Organized Shoplifting
Retailers in Oregon are sounding the alarm bell over huge spikes in organized shoplifting after Walmart was forced to close its final two stores in Portland.
Oregon legislators are introducing a package of bills in an attempt to fight back against the lawlessness, which according to Michael Zacher, a detective with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, is “largely driven by substance abuse.”
However, the bills aren’t related to changing the state’s increasingly permissive view of drug enforcement, but focus more on increasing penalties for criminals engaged in organized theft.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
What happened: A Washington, D.C., police officer on Wednesday narrowly thwarted an attempted carjacking at Union Station, where dozens of left-wing activists were protesting in favor of dramatically reduced penalties for carjacking and other crimes.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Things quickly went south during a speech by federal Judge Kyle Duncan to law students at Stanford University this week when the associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) slammed him to his face after hecklers interrupted his presentation.
Duncan, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, started getting heckled by student protestors who made it impossible for him to continue his speech.
According to video footage from the Thursday event, Dean Tirien Steinbach did nothing to stop the heckling and instead launched a minutes-long emotional speech during his presentation accusing him of causing “harm” through his work on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and suggesting the school needed to reconsider its policies on free speech.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Steve Forbes Assaulted by Protesters at Conservative Book Launch Party
Media mogul Steve Forbes said he was assaulted by angry protesters Wednesday night in New York City at a conservative book launch party.
Forbes, the 75-year-old CEO of Forbes Media, was in attendance at an event for the launch of a new book written by conservative authors Bethany Mandel and Karol Markowicz. He said protesters disrupted the event by throwing drinks at him and toppling a book display.
“I was talking to co-author Bethany Mandel near the counter where the books were on display. Suddenly a woman seemingly out of nowhere was angrily yelling almost incoherently about matters that weren’t related to the subject of the book,” Forbes recounted to Fox News Digital exclusively.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The US Special Operations Forces Are Considering Utilizing Deepfakes for Psy-Ops, Report Alleges
It could turn into an “arms race” of a whole new kind — deep fakes, as a weapon of war, or at least of a propaganda war, that the US is now openly speaking about deploying.
After years of repeated warnings about the abuse of deep fakes and how seriously that can interfere in elections, and produce other reprehensible results to society and democracy — the current US authorities are preparing to start using deepfakes as a tool of disseminating disinformation and/or propaganda campaigns.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Teams With Jan. 6 Prisoners to Release Charity Single ‘Justice for All’
Former President Donald Trump joined with imprisoned Jan. 6 defendants on Thursday night to release a charity single entitled “Justice for All,” designed to raise money for some of the defendants’ families and call attention to concerns about equal application of the law.
The officially released track debuted as a digital single and a vintage vinyl record on several streaming services.
Both Trump and a group of incarcerated demonstrators, dubbed the J6 Prison Choir, contribute vocals to the track. The prisoners recorded their contributions through a jailhouse phone.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump: ‘I Am an Election Denier,’ and Half of the County is Too
Former President Trump says he’s an “election denier” and so are 50% of Americans.
“If you look at the polls, a lot of people think that that election was rigged and stolen,” Trump said Thursday.
“I happen to be one of them. … I’m an election denier, and so are, substantially, I would say substantially more than 50% of this country. And I think it’s a much higher number than that. You get a lot of election deniers in this country, and they’re not happy about what happened.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Twitter Files Journalist Michael Shellenberger Warns of ‘Censorship-Industrial Complex’
Journalist Michael Shellenberger, who testified Thursday before the House regarding his involvement with the Twitter Files, has warned of a “very disturbing” movement toward a “Censorship-industrial complex” being implemented by the government.
Speaking about his testimony and attempts by Democrats to get him to reveal his journalistic sources, as well as just having plain insults thrown at him and being called a threat to Democracy, Shellenberger told Tucker Carlson that the hearing “was a very disturbing event.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Kamala Harris Worries About “Climate Mental Health”
During a climate change event in Florida Kamala Harris explained how she is worried about young Americans suffering “climate mental health” problems, specifically that they have to get jobs when they should be spending their time being climate change activists.
“One of the young leaders was talking to me about climate mental health,” Harris stated while speaking at the “Aspen Ideas: Climate Conference” in Miami Beach, adding “I said ‘Tell me what’s going on with your peers.’“
She continued, “I said ‘I think I understand that, but unpack it for me. She talked about how her peers are thinking about it, and one example is whether when they’re ready, could they start a family. Worried about what that would mean. And the stress of it.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Fauci DEFENDS Gain of Function, Mocks Lab Leak Censorship
In a remarkable interview Thursday, Anthony Fauci had the gall to defend dangerous gain of function research, which in all likelihood was the direct cause of the COVID pandemic, and mocked the idea that a lab leak is being covered up.
Appearing on Fox News, Fauci told anchor Neil Cavuto “If you shut off all gain of function research. Did you get the flu shot this year, Neil? If you did, and you got it from an influenza vaccine, that was gain-of-function that made that influenza vaccine. That’s what people don’t understand.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
During Friday’s White House press conference, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declaring that “Florida is where woke goes to die” in a speech earlier that day, he was “attacking young kids and parents.”
“Here’s what I have to say. When Republicans, extreme Republicans, these MAGA Republicans don’t agree with an issue or with policy, they don’t bring forth something that’s going to either have a good faith conversation, they go to this conversation of woke,” said Jean-Pierre.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Youngkin Does Not Rule Out 2024 Run, Emphasizes Virginia
When asked directly Thursday night whether he is considering running for higher office, Gov. Glenn Youngkin did not officially rule out a presidential run in 2024, but said he is focused on Virginia.
“I have a big job, I love my job,” Youngkin said during a CNN Town Hall. “Thank you for hiring me, thank you for letting me come to work every day and go to work for 8.7 million Virginians. That’s what my focus is right now, and I believe there is an enormous amount of work yet to do in Virginia.”
The Republican governor, who is just over a year into his first term as governor, has raised speculation in recent months that he could be gearing up for a presidential run in 2024. After the legislative session adjourned, Youngkin traveled to New York last week to meet with GOP donors, as reported by the Washington Post.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Judge Declares Giving Middle-Finger ‘God-Given Right’ After Man Was Arrested for Gesture
A judge in Canada expressed outrage after a man was arrested on the grounds of “criminal harassment” for making a rude gesture in public.
A feud between neighboring families became an internationally known court case when a Canadian man was arrested for making a pair of middle finger gestures toward his neighbor.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Investigates Alleged Chinese Police Posts in Quebec
MONTREAL (AP) — Canadian police are investigating allegations that China is secretly operating two overseas police stations in Quebec, police officials said Thursday.
Canadians of Chinese origin have been victims of activities carried out by the stations, Sgt. Charles Poirier of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said, adding that any type of intimidation, harassment or targeting of diaspora communities will not be tolerated.
The RCMP’s Integrated National Security Team has opened investigations into the suspected police stations in Montreal and Brossard, a suburb just south of the city, he said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Communist Party Infiltrated Doug Ford Conservatives, Trudeau Liberals: Sources
A covert Chinese Communist Party network allegedly directed by China’s Toronto consulate during the 2019 federal election reportedly directed a member of the Ontario legislature, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Vincent Ke, a Progressive Conservative member of Premier Doug Ford’s government since 2018, allegedly acted as a financial intermediary for the CCP, according to two separate intelligence reports by the Privy Council Office. Ke is alleged to have received around $50,000, part of a larger disbursement of approximately $250,000 channeled through several intermediaries. Ke has denied the allegations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Independent MP Grills Liberals on “Sketchy Donations” From China
Independent MP Kevin Vuong went after the Liberal government in Question Period on Thursday over Chinese interference allegations.
Vuong, who ran as a Liberal candidate in the last election, was elected as an Independent MP after the party axed his candidacy over past sexual assault allegations that were later withdrawn.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Leaked Intelligence Memos Suggest Trudeau Knew of Chinese Election Interference
Two leaked intelligence reports suggest that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may have known about allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian elections, despite insisting he did not.
Prime Minister Trudeau has claimed that he was not briefed on allegations of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interference in federal elections but two memos from 2019 and last year suggest that senior government officials may have known of the allegations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ontario Bans TikTok From Government Devices
The Ontario government has banned the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from all government devices, following the Government of Canada’s ban last week.
On Thursday, Ontario treasury board president Prabmeet Sarkaria announced TikTok was banned from government devices effective immediately.
“The Ontario government has started the removal of the social media application,” he wrote.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Senator Says Bill C-11 Will Create “Public Relations Nightmare” For Liberals
A senator behind amendments to Bill C-11, which aimed to protect user-generated content, says if the internet censorship law passes, it would lead to a “public relations nightmare” for the federal government.
Senators Paula Simons and Julie Miville-Dechêne introduced an amendment in December which would in effect exempt ordinary users from the regulatory scope of the law. Earlier this week, the Liberal government rejected those amendments.
“We still think it offered the government an elegant escape from what is going to be, I think, a public relations nightmare and a policy blunder,” Simons told the Toronto Star.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A Gold Coin That Changes History: Oldest Known Reference to the Norse God Odin Found in Denmark
Norwegian and Danish researchers have found the god Odin’s name on a gold coin from the beginning of the 5th century. Norse mythology must therefore be dated 150 years earlier than before.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Berlin to Allow Women to Bathe Topless in Public Pools
Officials in the German capital of Berlin have introduced new rules for public swimming pools and bathing facilities, allowing women to use them topless. The measure was introduced after a successful anti-discrimination complaint was hailed as a step towards creating “equal rights” for all of the city’s residents by a local anti-discrimination ombudsperson.
“Berlin bathing establishments will apply their bathing regulations in a gender-neutral manner,” the city’s government said in a statement on Thursday, adding that “topless swimming” should now be possible in the city’s public indoor and outdoor swimming pools for “all females or people with breasts perceived as feminine.”
A spokeswoman for the city’s bathing association confirmed that the policy had been updated by telling RBB radio broadcaster that “topless swimming is equally allowed to everyone.” The new rules do not mean that women in Berlin are obligated to swim topless, however, as they can still cover their breasts if they want to.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Quad9 DNS Resolver Loses Anti-Blocking Case Against Sony
A regional court in Leipzig, Germany, has ordered DNS resolver Quad9 to block music piracy site Canna.to globally. The DNS resolver called the decision “absurdly extreme” and plans to appeal at the Dresden Court of Appeal.
Sony Music obtained an injunction from the District Court of Hamburg, ordering Quad9 to block Canna.to in 2021. The order required Quad9 to block users from accessing the site to prevent the download of pirated copies of Evanescence’s album “The Bitter Truth.”
The DNS resolver opposed the injunction at the Regional Court of Hamburg, TorrentFreak reported. It argued that it does not support piracy but insisted that blocking measures through an intermediary that does not host content is extreme.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Young Socialists Call for Male Ban at This Year’s Easter Folk Festivals
The youth wing of Germany’s governing SPD party in the city of Bremen has called for male-free days at upcoming Easter festival events due to an increasing number of sexual assaults on women taking place in the region.
The Young Socialists (Jusos) want some days to be women-only at the large local fairs of Osterwiese and Freimarkt so female attendees can enjoy themselves without the threat of sexual assault.
Last year, the number of sexual assaults in the region rose to a record high, according to crime statistics published on Thursday. The liberal coalition state government does not distinguish between German and foreign nationals; however, there have been multiple reports at these events in recent years of women suffering harassment by migrants.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Gunman Kills Six, Unborn Child, At Jehovah’s Witness Hall: Police
A gunman in Germany shot dead six people before killing himself at a Jehovah’s Witness worship hall in Hamburg, authorities said on Friday, in an attack that is bound to renew calls for stricter gun controls.
Eight other people were wounded, including a seven-months pregnant woman who lost her unborn daughter, police and prosecutors said at a news conference.
Officials said they had been tipped off about the perpetrator but had not taken away his legally-owned gun before the shooting at an event on Thursday night.
The killer’s motive remained unknown but a political reason had been ruled out, the officials said.
Authorities identified the gunmman only as Philipp F. The 35-year-old, a German citizen and former Jehovah’s Witness, began shooting through a window at the hall, where dozens of people were gathered, before entering.
He shot himself on the first floor when police arrived minutes after the shooting started shortly after 9:00 p.m. (2000 GMT), the police said.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Hamburg Shooting: Police Were Warned About Suspect, Unborn Baby Among Victims
Police in Germany were warned about the suspect in a mass shooting at a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall in Hamburg but failed to act, reports suggest.
Thomas Radszuweit, the head of state security for the city in northern Germany, described the suspect, named only as Philipp F, as “a former member of Jehovah’s Witnesses who left the community voluntarily about a year and a half ago, but apparently not on good terms.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
How Pfizer’s Trials Were Fraudulent
Details continue to emerge about coverups and fraud that took place during Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot trials. Die Welt, a mainstream media outlet in Germany, revealed that numerous subjects who suffered adverse events, including deaths, were removed from the trial data.
Meanwhile, trial data were manipulated “to create the illusion” the shot is 90% effective, for instance by excluding participants who got injected and developed COVID-19 within the next 14 days. Taken together, it leaves little doubt that COVID-19 shots cannot be trusted.
Deaths Occurred Within Days of Shots
The Die Welt report described several deaths that occurred shortly after the injections, but were excluded from the trial data. Among them was a person known as “Pfizer subject C4591001 1162 11621327.” The person, a 60-year-old man, died three days after receiving the second dose of Pfizer’s COVID shot, reportedly due to stroke and arteriosclerosis.
Independent journalist Igor Chudov detailed the case on Substack, noting that the man was discovered via a welfare check, and may have died within two days of the shot.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Archbishop Defends Pope John Paul II Against Left-Liberal Media Attacks
Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, the president of the Polish Episcopal Conference, appealed for protection of the “common good” and the legacy of Pope John Paul II in the wake of abuse allegations against the pope.
Recently, liberal-left media launched another attack on St. John Paul II, with the pope being accused of allegedly covering up cases of sexual abuse of minors in the Church, both as a Holy Father and as the metropolitan Bishop of Kraków. In addition, he is accused of being lenient toward “pedophiles in cassocks.” The accusations were made in a report broadcasted on liberal news channel TVN 24.
Poland’s parliament has adopted a resolution to condemn a “disgraceful media smear campaign against St. John Paul II,” and called the late pope “the greatest Pole in history.”
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Polish University Professor Calls for Public Media Journalists to be Jailed
A Polish university professor has called for criminal charges to be brought against several public media journalists in Poland after the suicide of a teenager. The teen’s death may be linked to a pedophile scandal involving a boy who was presumably a victim of an activist from the liberal Civic Platform (PO) opposition party.
Prof. Maciej Górecki of Warsaw University took to social media to demand jail time for a number of journalists who covered the story.
The posts relate to the storm that has unfolded in Polish media and politics since opposition MP Magdalena Filiks announced the death of her son, Mikolaj, who committed suicide. Media reports linked the death with the pedophile scandal that shook Polish politics.
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Spain: ‘Polish Narcos’ Gang Taken Down by Police
A Polish gang involved in drug and weapons trafficking has been busted in Spain thanks to information provided by the Central Bureau of Investigation of the Polish National Police (CBSP).
The gang shipped drugs, including marijuana, from Spain, while weapons were exported from Poland to the Iberian Peninsula. The gang leader and one of his trusted associates were arrested in the province of Valencia where police seized 200 kg of marijuana and five firearms, including three submachine guns.
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Sweden’s Street Gangs Are Gaining Power
Barely a day goes by in Stockholm without a shooting or a bombing. In one part of the city, housing estate residents have been informed about what to do if their building is a bombing target. For all too many Swedes, this is the new normal.
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US Ambassador Summoned by Polish Foreign Ministry After Media Attack on John Paul II
Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the U.S. Ambassador to Warsaw Mark Brzezinski on Thursday to discuss the activities of the U.S.-funded television station TVN after it broadcast a hostile documentary about former Polish Pope Saint John Paul II.
The broadcast on TVN24, a channel which is owned by Discovery, accused Pope John Paul II of having covered up cases of sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church during his time as a bishop in Kraków, and of being lenient with regard to the activities of pedophile priests.
TVN is also a station renowned for its backing of the liberal opposition and hostility towards the ruling conservatives.
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Hundreds of German police in full riot gear stopped a train carrying Hungarian football supporters to a match in Germany and conducted extensive and invasive searches.
The fans had left Budapest on Wednesday evening and were on their way to the Bayer Leverkusen-Ferencvaros Europa League match.
“They ransacked our bags. We didn’t show our bags to them, but they started rummaging through them, and then we had to take off our hats, coats, sweaters; that’s how they searched us,” said a fan that spoke with Hungarian news portal Mandiner. “We were humiliated, that’s what the charade was about.”
The fan said there were hundreds of German police were waiting for them at the Czech-German border when the train arrived.
“They looked like stormtroopers in Star Wars,” he said.
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Caroline Glick: What the Rioting Left Fails to See
On Sunday, a group of Israeli Air Force reserve F-15I pilots announced that due to their opposition to the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform bills, they would not participate in their squadron’s training mission this week.
It’s hard to know what the pilots thought would happen in response to their declaration, but if they believed the IDF would compel the government to shelve its judicial reform efforts, they received a rude awakening. The very notion that their stunt could succeed is a testament to the Israeli elite’s isolation from the rest of the country. Things look quite different outside their exclusive echo chamber.
The government stood firm. The public was enraged. The pilots’ colleagues were incensed. Thousands of reserve officers, including Air Force pilots, signed petitions demanding that the IDF be left out of the public dispute over judicial reform and pledging to serve under all governments and in all circumstances.
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi initially angered the public by refusing to publicly condemn the pilots. But on Tuesday, Halevi broke his silence. Halevi read the pilots refusing to serve the riot act behind closed doors, making it clear that if they failed to show up to reserve duty on Wednesday, they would be thrown out of the IAF. On Wednesday, they all showed up. On Thursday, Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar threw the group’s leader, Col. Gilad Peled, out of the squadron.
One of the justifications that leftist retired generals and leftist defenders of Israel’s legal oligarchy more generally give for their refusal to countenance the government’s efforts to place minimal limits on the power of the Supreme Court is that the Court, and the unchecked legal system as a whole, is their shield against international tribunals. With the Palestinians and their international supporters threatening to put IDF warriors—including IAF pilots—in the dock at The Hague, talk of placing checks and balances on the Supreme Court, they insist, is dangerous…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Some U.S. Weapons Sent to Ukraine Ended Up in Iranian Hands
Some of the billions of dollars of weapons the United States sent to Ukraine has fallen into Iranian hands, a report Friday details.
As Republican lawmakers have stepped up their oversight on U.S. aid to Ukraine, four anonymous sources revealed to CNN some of the weapons provided to Ukraine have been captured by Russian forces and sent to Iran for reverse-engineering.
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Olga Skabeyeva, host of talk show 60 minutes, said restaurants in Britain were ‘serving squirrels’ because of a ‘food shortage’ and said Britons were happy to eat them despite supplying ‘howitzers’ to Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Russian soldiers killed per month in the first year of the war was 25 times higher than in Chechnya and 35 times higher than in the Soviet Union’s ten-year war in Afghanistan, a US think-tank said.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Saboteurs Damage Railways, Russian Aircraft in Belarus
(AP) — After Russia invaded Ukraine, guerrillas from Belarus began carrying out acts of sabotage on their country’s railways, including blowing up track equipment to paralyze the rails that Russian forces used to get troops and weapons into Ukraine.
In the most recent sabotage to make international headlines, they attacked a Russian warplane parked just outside the Belarusian capital.
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Ukraine War: Russia Fires Hypersonic Missiles in New Barrage
At least nine people have died in a new wave of strikes across Ukraine in which Russia used powerful weapons, including rare hypersonic missiles.
Russia had reportedly not fired Kinzhal hypersonic missiles — which can evade air defences — since the early months of the conflict.
The latest barrage was the most severe to hit Ukraine for weeks.
It cut power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant — Europe’s biggest — although it was later restored.
On Thursday Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said: “High-precision long-range air, sea and land-based weapons, including the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, hit key elements of Ukraine’s military infrastructure.”
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China Accuses Canada of Smearing Over Secret Police Stations
BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday accused Canada of smearing its reputation over allegations China is secretly operating two overseas police stations in Quebec.
Canada should “stop sensationalizing and hyping the matter and stop attacks and smears on China,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing.
“China has been … strictly abiding by international law and respecting all countries’ judicial sovereignty,” Mao said.
The spokesperson did not comment on the existence of the police stations or whether they were operated by Chinese government authorities.
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Xi Jinping Begins Historic Third Term as China’s President
China’s leader Xi Jinping has secured a historic third term as president from the country’s rubber-stamp parliament.
It follows a consolidation of power that has made Mr Xi, 69, China’s most dominant leader in generations.
In the Chinese system of governance, the functions of the president are largely ceremonial.
Mr Xi’s power comes from him being General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC).
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China was the largest source of investment in Australian residential real estate, with $1.6 billion invested, according to official figures.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico’s Leftist President Threatens to Meddle in America’s Elections to Help Democrats
Mexico’s leftist President Andre’s Manuel López Obrador has threatened to meddle in America’s election to help Democrats win.
Obrador, also known as ALMO, made the threat while attacking Republicans during a Thursday press conference.
ALMO was responding to Republican lawmakers who suggested suing the U.S. military to destroy Mexico’s powerful multi-billion dollar drug cartels.
Obrador’s remarks come as Republican lawmakers and top officials, like former Attorney General William Barr, have called for using the U.S. military in recent weeks to stamp out the cartels.
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The British government has agreed to pay Emmanuel Macron’s France nearly half a billion pounds over the next three years to tackle the boat migrant crisis, despite the fact all previous payments have failed to reduce numbers and no deal being struck on turning the boats back.
At the first Anglo-French summit in years, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who hailed an “entente renewed” with France, has agreed to send £478 million (€541 million) in British taxpayers’ money over the next three years to Paris to fund more patrols of French beaches and other migrant set-off points.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU Bigwig Lashes Out at UK Over Planned Illegal Migrant Crackdown
A senior official within the European Union has lashed out at the British government over its planned illegal migrant crackdown.
Ylva Johansson, the EU’s Home Affairs Commissioner, has attacked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plan to crack down on illegal migrants as allegedly breaking international law, a claim which the British government has rejected.
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France: Major Manhunt After Smuggler Blows Checkpoint in Van Full of Illegal Migrants
Dozens of French officers were deployed to track down escapees after a human smuggler blew through a checkpoint in a van full of illegal migrants this week, according to reports.
The incident unfolded on Wednesday in the department of Seine-et-Marne in the north of France.
Authorities attempted to inspect a vehicle on the A6 motorway near the commune of Saint-Sauveur-sur-Ecole when the driver plowed through and sped away.
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The Italian government has decided to introduce prison sentences ranging from 20 to 30 years for traffickers who cause the deaths of migrants as a part of new regulations aimed at tackling illegal immigration.
The new law was announced at a special meeting on Thursday in Cutro, which was the scene of the Feb. 26 boat disaster in Calabria.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced the new regulations at a press conference after the cabinet meeting in the town of just over 10,000 inhabitants.
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MP Warns Parts of Milan, Italy Are ‘Out of Control’ After Mass Stabbing by Migrant
Alessandro Cattaneo, a member of the Italian parliament for the centre-right Forza Italia, has warned parts of Milan are “out of control” following a mass stabbing by a Moroccan migrant.
Cattaneo, who leads Forza Italia in the Chamber of Deputies, stated that the area around the central railway station, where a Moroccan stabbed six people with a box cutter on Monday, has become lawless.
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The member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, 88, joined more than a hundred protestors who demonstrated against a controversial segment that aired on The Project last month.
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During a Detransition Awareness Day rally in Sacramento, California on Friday, Antifa members attacked a journalist as well as an unidentified man, leaving him with a bloody face.
A group of around 100 Antifa extremists was seen wearing dark clothing and masks and marching with pride flags, signs, and shields, with Frontlines reporter Kalen D’Almeida getting hit in the face with a long object wielded by one of the Antifa members.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Ontario school board that banned a Grade 11 student from attending his high school for the remainder of the year over his views on gender identity has released a statement defending its decision.
The Renfrew County Catholic District School Board (RCCDSB) published an open letter to the Renfrew community justifying its decision to exclude Josh Alexander from St. Joseph’s High School, explaining that the board respects human rights and draws on the guidance from policies issued by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Supporters of the Arizona school board member who went viral for voicing her opposition to hiring teachers from a Christian university in order to “stand with” the LGBTQ community while wearing fake cat ears are making headlines again for a vulgar display put on in front of Christian demonstrators and children.
Tamillia Valenzuela, who identifies as a “bilingual, disabled, neurodivergent Queer Black Latina” according to the Daily Mail, sits on the board of the Washington Elementary School District, which has been the subject of protests since the board began lobbying to stop their student-teacher program with Arizona Christian University.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has reached her limit with Jane Fonda after the Hollywood star suggested murdering pro-lifers during an appearance on “The View” today.
Greene said: “Jane Fonda (and many Democrats) want you and me ‘murdered’ for fighting to protect the most innocent in the womb.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Trans Irish Govt Looking to Erase Word ‘Woman’ From Constitution: Claim
Ireland’s pro-transgenderism government is now looking to erase the word “woman” from the country’s constitution, the leader of a populist party in the country has claimed.
Hermann Kelly, the leader of the Irish Freedom Party, has told Breitbart Europe that the pro-transgenderism Irish government is now aiming to have the word “woman” stripped from the Irish constitution in pursuit of its progressive aims.
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Rhode Island School District Faces Lawsuit Over Blocking Christian Student Groups
A Rhode Island school district is facing a lawsuit for alleged discrimination over its decision to allow secular student groups to meet on its campuses while barring certain evangelical Christian organizations.
Dr. Javier Montanez, the Providence Public School District superintendent has allegedly refused to allow Child Evangelism Fellowship’s (CEF) Good News Clubs to meet at his district’s facilities. Liberty Counsel filed the suit with the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island on behalf of CEF.
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An OnlyFans girl wasn’t happy when she was told that getting her bits out on camera is severely damaging her future chances of finding a husband.
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Sweden’s ‘Conservative’ Govt to Make Abortion a Constitutional Right
Sweden’s allegedly “conservative” centre-right coalition government, led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, has expressed a desire to change the country’s constitution to enshrine the right to abort babies.
Prime Minister Kristersson, along with Minister of Health Acko Ankarberg Johansson, Minister for Gender Equality Paulina Brandberg, and populist Social Democrat (SD) social policy spokeswoman Linda Lindberg have co-authored an opinion article outlining their support for making abortion a constitutional right.
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Transgender Student Challenges Glenn Youngkin on Virginia’s Bathroom, Sports Policy: ‘Look at Me’
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin defended the state’s policies on school bathrooms and sports on Thursday following a question from a transgender student.
Youngkin’s administration rewrote the state’s policies on transgender youths at public schools in September, requiring students to use bathrooms, locker rooms and join sports teams based on their sex at birth, not their gender identity.
The policy updates also include forbidding students from changing their names and preferred pronouns at public schools without the consent of their parents.
During the audience Q&A section of Thursday’s CNN town hall, a 17-year-old transgender student, who went only by the name “Nico,” asked Youngkin about these policies.
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UK: Review of Sex Education Ordered After Children Taught About Anal Sex, Masturbation in Schools
Britain is to launch a review of its sex education guidelines after it was found that some schools have been teaching children about anal sex and masturbation.
A report this week has claimed that schools in Britain have been teaching children as young as 12 years old about masturbation, as well as oral and anal sex — something that has now prompted the country’s government to launch a legal review of the country’s sex ed guidelines.
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West Virginia Asks SCOTUS to Allow Enforcement of Transgender Sports Ban
The State of West Virginia has petitioned the Supreme Court to allow its statewide law requiring students to participate in school sports programs aligned with their biological sex after an appeals court halted its implementation in February.
West Virginia GOP Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office filed an application with the High Court on Thursday, a spokesman said, according to The Hill. The state enacted the ban in 2021
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“Swedes first people in history to commit collective suicide”
Published March 9, 2023 in Fria Tider
part 1 of 3
Hungarian Ponthus Zsolt Várkonyi spent seven years as an immigrant in Sweden in the 1970s and 1980s, but then moved back home.
In this essay, he analyzes the Swedish national character from a Hungarian perspective and tries to explain how phenomena such as mass immigration and the scrapping of Swedish neutrality have come about.
For years, Swedish politicians and media have been sharply critical of Hungary, Hungarian politicians, Hungarian society and the Hungarian people in general.
They have not spared the most pejorative – and insulting – descriptions, such as “undemocratic”, “dictatorial”, “autocratic”, “patriarchal”, “misogynistic”, “homophobic”, “Nazi”, “racist” and “anti-Semitic”.
Hungary is an unfree society with an unfree and one-sided media, it has been claimed.
An accusation that seems absurd when you consider that, according to available figures, over ninety percent of Swedish journalists consist of left-liberal writers and that in Sweden there is no television, radio or press critical of the government in the true sense. This is compared to Hungary, where the ratio is about 50-50.
What has happened? Why are Swedish politicians and journalists preoccupied with Hungary on a daily basis? As the author of this article is a Hungarian who lived in Sweden 40 years ago, and is still a proud Swedish citizen, I will try to give a balanced analysis of how the different national souls relate to each other and why.
My father has told me that in the 1930s he learned at school that Sweden had been a poor agricultural country with starvation, high unemployment and mass emigration around the turn of the century.
My then Swedish girlfriend’s father told me that they had been so poor in the 40s that they had to add birch flour to their wheat flour.
The fact that today’s Sweden is undoubtedly one of the most successful and richest countries in the world is partly due to its fortunate position on the world map, which enabled it to avoid – and make a lot of money from – two world wars.
But it is also partly due to its own achievement through the wise, hard and diligent work of the Swedish people and the wise and historic agreement between Swedish workers and employers in the 1930s. This is how the Swedish welfare state was born – and the tendency to claim moral superiority came with it.
The Swedish psyche must therefore be understood in this context, taking into account the climate and geography, in a country where there are miles between farms and between people, both physically and psychologically. Sweden is characterized by enormous distances, sparsely populated areas, cold, metre-deep snow and darkness for half the year.
Consequently, the Swede is lonely, isolated, afraid to make contact – but on the other hand, straightforward and honest, industrious, caring and tactful. Historically, Sweden was homogeneous in terms of ethnicity and religion, so the Swede has always felt a deep solidarity with his fellow man, even strangers, when they were like him. “Blonde and blue-eyed” and members of the Swedish church. If you were freezing or starving to death deep in the forest and a stranger appeared, he was a sure rescue and not a threat. So the Swedish soul was imbued with solidarity: now it’s your turn, next time it could be mine.
Hungarians, on the other hand, the last people to find their home after the great medieval migration in Europe, have always been surrounded by strangers who were not like them. For a Hungarian, a stranger usually meant a threat. A threat that wanted to kill him, conquer his country, his wife, his daughter and his son. During the 150-year-long Turkish occupation, Hungary lost at least half of its population. Young boys were kidnapped in their hundreds of thousands and raised as the most faithful Muslims and elite soldiers: Janissaries. The Turkish empire was followed by the Habsburg one, during which the Hungarian region was emptied of people and populated by peasants from neighboring countries under the auspices of the Austrian government. These minorities proved anything but grateful and Hungary was carved up into seven different countries after the First World War.
There are Hungarian minorities in all the border countries around us, so we say that Hungary is the only country in the world that is surrounded by itself. So we have had our historical experiences with both Muslims and minorities, and we have to say that these experiences have been predominantly negative.
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part 2
Thanks to its fortunate geographical and historical background, Swedish society enjoyed great success and therefore prosperity until the 1980s.
The state was solidary, like its citizens, and took care of its sick, unemployed and elderly. Since the state was good, its representatives – politicians and bureaucrats – had to be equally good, supportive, honest and scrupulous. The state, politicians and bureaucrats wanted the best for the Swedes, they were above suspicion.
People were so comfortable and experienced such a lack of inconvenience that they began to feel uncomfortable. The Swede simply had a bad conscience because he was so rich and prosperous.
I remember how the Swedish TV schedule in the 70s and 80s was full of “debate” programs where bearded, bespectacled, low-key sociologists, philosophers, authors and journalists in worn-out jackets talked about how Swedish society could be further improved.
Eventually they must have come to the conclusion that everything was so good and perfect that Swedes had a moral duty to help other people and countries.
[Translator’s note:
Of course, it all started with a woman who had felt solidarity with Tanzania and Nyere, which she thought could use some of the Swedish prosperity.
She was fortunate to have become acquainted with Erlander, then Prime Minister, during their joint time of studies in Lund, and she managed to enthuse him for the case. Thus was how SIDA was formed, under whose administration the Swedish people’s tax money has since then been shoveled out over the world’s more or less unsuccessful, smaller states, often quite pointlessly.]
So began the great social experiment: how could eight million Swedes save the whole world with eight billion inhabitants? It must be a great idea: show solidarity with the whole world, show solidarity with eight billiom people!
However, it soon became clear that foreign aid and grants of a few billion dollars were no longer enough. So Sweden started with mass immigration. It began to import the world’s problems and conflicts into its own home. With dramatic consequences for Swedish society, culture and people, as they eventually learned.
Hungary has refused to take this path, despite intense pressure from some radical liberal countries in the EU, such as Sweden and the Netherlands. As we have shown above, young people have had another, very different historical experience. Young people have experienced ‘alienation’ throughout their existence. The Magyars are a non-European people, not like the Germanic, Latin and Slavic peoples that surround Hungary. We have always been treated with suspicion, hostility, jealousy (when things went well for us) and hatred (when things went badly), ever since we arrived in the Carpathian Basin. For us, a stranger mostly means threat and not help. We think that our differences and peculiarities have a value in themselves – it is enriching to have different languages, culture and customs, which we want to cherish and preserve for our children and grandchildren. We have had our historical experience with other cultures, peoples and religions to a point where it is enough and left over. After 150 years under Islamic rule, we know how incompatible this religion and Christianity are. Something that the Swedes have only begun to learn and experience.
So the Swedes have chosen a different path, and now they are beginning to see the disadvantages that no one warned them about. Advantageous characteristics on which the Swedish welfare state was built – solidarity, collectivism, good faith, peacefulness, honesty and diligence – have suddenly become disadvantages. The Swedes, in their naivety, had believed that the Swedish model offers such a beautiful model for the “new arrivals” that they would compete with each other to transform themselves into proper Swedes, culture, customs and all. But the opposite has happened. Hair color, eyes and skin cannot be changed. Immigrant children, born in Sweden and fluent in Swedish, are the ones who feel complexes and hatred towards the blonde and white-skinned Swede. So instead, it is the immigrants who pressure the Swedes to change and adapt, to accept the immigrants’ religion, habits, values, view of women and society – including violence as a means of resolving conflicts. The cabbage has eaten the goat.
Sweden now leads the world in rape, shootings, bombings, car burnings and general insecurity. Conflicts between ethnic Swedes and immigrants are experienced in all areas of society. And no one has asked Mrs. Svensson if she wanted to be part of this. There has never been a referendum on mass immigration.
We can safely say that Sweden is replacing ethnic Swedes with other kinds of people. According to all available demographic projections, Swedes will become a minority in their own country within a generation. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that Sweden will be the first people in human history to voluntarily commit collective suicide.
The Swedish state has lied to the Swedes. The state has failed them.
The state is bad. The politicians have also lied. The politicians are bad. Swedes have been deceived. And the Swedish people are just beginning to realize it. But it may be too late.
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part 3
But not only that, Sweden is desperate to impose this failed social experiment on other countries. Since 2015 and the great wave of migration, Sweden has contributed to the EU stopping payments to Hungary. Money that Hungary is entitled to. Money for which no political conditions may be imposed. Especially not by third parties.
Swedish politicians have stood up in the EU Parliament and scolded Hungary with words that I have listed at the beginning of this article.
The Swedish – and Norwegian – state has financed NGO activities in Hungary that are hostile to the elected government. A government that rules the country with a two-thirds majority in parliament for the fourth time in a row. In general, it can be said that Sweden, Swedish politicians and the Swedish media have dealt with Hungary on a daily basis, to a hugely disproportionate extent given Hungary’s importance on the international stage. The question can be asked: why?
And now we have come to the Swedish application for NATO membership. As everyone knows, Sweden has enjoyed a neutral state for 200 years – which was one of the prerequisites for the Swedish welfare state. Despite the fact that NATO membership represents a historic shift, a referendum has not been considered this time either.
No power has seriously threatened Sweden during all these years, not even Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Union during the worst years of the Cold War. That a weakened Russia, which has been pushed back several hundred miles to the east after the dismantling of the Soviet Union, would now threaten Sweden is an absurd idea.
But it has come in very handy for the failed Swedish rulers and political elite who have steered Sweden towards a demographic abyss. Meanwhile, Swedish media reporting has been manipulated by a journalist corps where 90 percent have left-liberal sympathies.
Hungary has no interest in blocking Sweden’s application. Whether Sweden and the Swedish people have any interest in giving up their two hundred years of neutrality is another matter. But the Swedish people have not been consulted this time either.
Before Hungary joined NATO, a referendum was held on the issue. The Hungarian people had a chance to express their will. The question can be asked: which country is more democratic?
Ponthus Zsolt Várkonyi
A migrant who lived in Sweden for seven years and wanted to adapt to the Swedes instead of the other way around.
The Swedes are responsible. I have never met anyone who has their head in the sand more than the Swedes. Only a couple of years online I argued with a Swedish woman about no-go zones. She vociferously denied they exist. It boggles the mind. It’s as though they cannot make a deduction from “I do x today” and “y happens next year”.
I sometimes read Facebook (when I’m not too lazy to go there via DarkNet – FB is blocked in the Russian Federation) of a Russian Muslim woman, the ex-wife of a well-known Dagestan extremist preacher.
She constantly scolds the Swedish migration service. However, with the help of human rights activists, she managed to avoid deportation, although she was recognized as “dangerous”.
“Yes, yes,” – echoed by other Muslims who settled in Sweden – “they (the Swedish migration service) hate us.”
The funny thing is that her husband never helped her support the children, she always lived with them at the expense of social assistance and in Bosnia, where she fled from him from somewhere in Africa, and then in Sweden. Moreover, she begged even in Christian churches.
I believe the Nazis applied some pressure on the Swedes, to supply strategic materials such as iron ore (there were a lot of German troops in next-door Norway).
On the other hand, unarmed British Mosquito bombers in civilian markings were allowed to drop off agents on their way to work with the Norwegian Resistance, and collect Swedish-made ball bearings.
The World Bank is pausing talks over its future engagement with Tunisia following anti-immigrant comments made by the country’s president, Kais Saied, according to an internal message to World Bank staff seen by AFP.
https://mg.co.za/africa/2023-03-08-world-bank-halts-tunisia-partnership-programme-over-presidents-hate-speech/
In other news, according to a recent report, weapons sent to Ukraine by the United States have ended up in Iranian hands. ‘
How on earth did such a thing happen? Were these weapons intercepted if so was it by the Iranians or perhaps a weapons/arms dealer. Of course it stinks, are the US so incompetent that they can’t manage a shipment of weapons without those weapons falling into terrorist hands? No, in the first part but probably yes in the second. Incompetence abounds all over the place.
Occams Razor would be helpful in answering this.
The Ukrainians sold them to the Iranians.
America and its lapdog vassals busily shoveling weapons into Ukraine don’t particularly care about what happens with those weapons since the whole exercise is meant to deplete inventories. This requires new weapons orders, which enriches the MIC and their owned politicians.
Americans, who are by no means angels when it comes to corruption, truly don’t understand the depths and ingenuity of former communist bloc corruption. If corruption was an Olympic event, Ukraine would win the gold, silver, and bronze medals after first bribing the judges and paying off the other opponents to throw the contest.
And likely there was a fair deal of incompetence involved.
But the Ukranians were given weapons for free or with a Wimpy promise to repay sometime in the future for a hamburger today, and the Ukrainian government or those with ties to it, not particularly interested in adequately supporting its conscripts in the field if there’s money to be made, sold the weapons to the highest bidder.
Actually, according to this article, the weapons are being captured on the battlefield by the Russians and shipped to Iran.
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Nothing above and nothing beside the state
10/3-23
The unfreedom we thought we had conquered in the Soviet Union and its vassal states is about to overwhelm us from within.
By Lars Hedegaard / snaphanen.dk
Recent events have made me reflect on my journey through life. I have realized that I am eighty years old and approaching my expiration date.
The irony of my life is becoming more and more apparent. Perhaps others feel the same way.
Like many of my youthful friends and fellow students, I began as a revolutionary Marxist. I was convinced that the capitalist system would inevitably lead to fascism, dictatorships and death camps. I never became a supporter of the form of socialism practiced in the Soviet Union or China, but as a good Trotskyist I believed that political revolutions were needed in the “workers’ states” so that they could get rid of the “bureaucracy” and realize true proletarian democracy free from oppression and state control. The result would be a state of happiness never before experienced by mankind.
Unfortunately, I belatedly realized that this idea was built on rotten foundations and could not withstand the test of reality. It was the very idea of the blessings of socialism that was wrong. Replacing Stalin with Lev Trotsky would not have made much difference. In essence, their goals were identical.
Then came the fall of the Soviet empire, and for a while I thought the future was safe. Freedom had triumphed. Capitalism, with all its faults and shortcomings, which we must compensate for politically, had proved to be a better framework for the freedom and equality that the old socialists sought.
More recently, however, I have realized that the unfreedom we thought we had conquered in the Soviet Union and its vassal states is overwhelming us from within.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the United States, and this is important because the United States is still the leading power in the West, and no one has a credible suggestion as to who might replace it. Where the US goes, the rest of us will follow.
The remarkable thing about the post-Cold War era is that socialists of various kinds – some of whom call themselves bourgeois – have been able to continue their march towards unfettered state control undisturbed.
At the same time, the left has managed to maintain its grip on the media and the main institutions of society, which celebrate the left as naturally good while the ‘right’ is evil.
We see this in the revelations of the conspiracy between the US Democratic Party, the FBI, the CIA, the legacy media and Big Tech to exclude and criminalize any views and information that might threaten upper class control.
The ruling class now calls itself the left. It’s a great invention, and I don’t think even the astute analyst Karl Marx could have imagined it.
I certainly couldn’t.