Houthi rebels set fire to the Greek oil tanker Sounion in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, causing the crew to abandon ship. The Houthis have shared a video showing the explosion and fire on the Sounion.
In other news, the former Director of NIAID, Anthony Fauci, was hospitalized after being infected with the West Nile virus.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, DV, LP, McN, Reader from Chicago, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
80-Year-Old Woman Run Over, Dog Stabbed to Death in Carjacking: Police
SEATTLE (AP) — A man accused of carjacking a beloved 80-year-old Seattle dog walker, running her over and later stabbing her dog to death has been charged with murder and animal cruelty.
Jahmed Kamal Haynes, 48, was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree assault and first-degree animal cruelty, according to a document filed with the court. Prosecutors asked that he be held in the jail without bail and the judge agreed. Haynes is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 5.
It was not immediately known if Haynes had a lawyer or would be assigned one by the King County Public Defense office. Officials say they don’t believe Haynes knew Dalton.
Ruth Dalton was parked on the side of the road in Seattle’s Madison Valley neighborhood at about 10 a.m. Tuesday when Haynes got into the passenger side, prosecutors said. Dalton started to drive away while Haynes tried to take control of the vehicle, they said. He pushed her out and onto the road, backed into several parked cars before driving over her as he fled the scene, prosecutors said.
Several bystanders tried to intervene, one carrying a bat or stick, but Haynes threatened them with a knife, prosecutors said. After he left, the witnesses attempted life-saving measures but Dalton died at the scene.
After leaving the neighborhood, Haynes stabbed Dalton’s dog to death in a park, prosecutors said.
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Abbott Blasts Harris as California Liberal Extremist
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blasted Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee saying she is a California liberal and extremist.
Harris was officially nominated as the Democratic presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Appeals Court Rejects Rehearing on Minnesota’s Gun Permit Ban
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has refused to rehear a case regarding gun control laws in deep blue Minnesota.
The Eighth Circuit has once again made headlines by upholding a significant decision on gun laws in the state.
The court’s refusal to rehear a pivotal case preserves the ruling that Minnesota’s age-related restrictions on concealed carry permits are unconstitutional.
This legal saga began when the Eighth Circuit was presented with the case, titled Worth v. Harrington, which challenged the state’s prohibition against issuing concealed carry permits to individuals aged 18 to 20.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Beheaded During BLM Riots, Washington Monument at GWU Vandalized by Pro-Palestinian Protesters
Authored by Jennifer Kabbany via The College Fix
One bust of President George Washington inside the nation’s capitol just can’t catch a break.
The monument at George Washington University was beheaded during the height of the Black Lives Matter riots in June 2020.
The university finally had it fixed by the summer of 2022.
Now the private institution is going to have to send its custodial crew back out there.
On Wednesday the monument was hit with graffiti stating “disclose divest now” in red spray paint. It was one of several places peppered with such vandalism, according to images posted by pro-Palestinian social media accounts.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Behind the Curtain: New Twitter Files Reveal Biden-Harris Team’s Global Censorship Web
More revelations about the previously secret world of “coordination” between the Biden administration and major social media companies have come out with a new set of Twitter Files documents.
Released by journalist Paul D. Thacker, they show that what political opponents consider to be collusion rather than coordination did not concern only the US — and that the entire scheme was playing out through what were effectively middlemen.
The White House denies these accusations, including before Senate commissions investigating the damning claims, and fights them in courts.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A federal judge has ruled that the death of Breonna Taylor was caused by her boyfriend, who first shot at police officers the day she died, and threw out the core felony charges against former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany, who were accused of producing a false arrest warrant.
US District Judge Charles Simpson’s ruling wrote that the actions of Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were to blame instead in the resulting death, per the New York Post. The Biden-Harris Department of Justice sought federal charges against the officers in 2022 after the high-profile 2020 case that many activists took up as a cause during the BLM protests and riots.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Chicago Schools Slammed for Delayed Calendar, Encouraging Student Attendance at DNC
Chicago’s school district is facing criticism for delaying the academic year start by a week — with detractors arguing that it’s a politically motivated move. Students were regularly scheduled to return to school on Monday.
The School Year 2025 (SY25) calendar published by the district depicted 176 full-student-attendance days, beginning Monday and ending June 12, 2025. In its reasoning for the delay, the district cited the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and its estimated 75,000 visitors drawn to the city.
The school district said that the respite will allow students the time to “attend, volunteer, and participate in the civic process of hosting the convention.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Dangerous’ Suspected Antifa Sympathizer Pleads Guilty to Detonating Nail-Filled Explosive Device
A man with suspected Antifa sympathies pleaded guilty on Friday to detonating an explosive device filled with nails outside the Alabama Attorney General’s Office earlier this year, according to the Department of Justice.
Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 26, of Irondale, Alabama, pleaded guilty in federal court to the malicious use of an explosive device he set off during the early morning hours of Feb. 24 outside the Alabama Attorney General’s Office in downtown Montgomery. No injuries were reported.
Calvert admitted during the plea hearing to manufacturing the device himself, using items such as nails and screws to act as shrapnel along with accelerants to cause an explosion. The DOJ has said Calvert filled the device with nails to maximize its destructive capability.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats’ Snub of Pro-Hamas Speakers at DNC Creates Voter Backlash for Harris
The Democrats snubbed pro-Hamas speakers at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this week, provoking a backlash from the party’s anti-Israel base.
The omission of anti-Israel speakers sparked outrage in the Uncommitted National Movement, the Washington Examiner reported.
Uncommitted is a group of Islamic and pro-Hamas Democrat voters who threaten to withhold support for the party’s candidates.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Democratic Chicago Alderman Blasts DNC, Says He Can’t Commit to Supporting Kamala Harris
Vice President Harris is a do-nothing presidential candidate who is a “failure” as border czar, according to a Chicago Democrat who told The Post he wasn’t sure he could vote for her in November.
Hours before Harris gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, Alderman Raymond Lopez struggled to list any of the veep’s achievements so far at the White House.
“What about the last three and a half years when we had 10 million people manipulate our asylum process in order to gain access to this country?” said Lopez, 46, who represents the crime-scarred South Side.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Elon’s SpaceX to Rescue Stranded Astronauts After NASA Dumps Boeing
NASA said it has selected Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring home the US astronauts who were forced to extend their stay at the International Space Station because of the latest debacle plaguing the woke DEI disaster that is Boeing, whose space capsule suffered major technical issues.
Boeing’s spacecraft will return without people on board, the US space agency said during a Saturday news conference announcing its decision, in which it said that it was too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Fauci Hospitalized With West Nile Virus
Former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)Anthony Fauci was hospitalized after getting infected with the potentially deadly West Nile virus. He has left the hospital and is now getting home treatment.
Fauci, 83, who was the longtime appointed director for NIAID and perhaps the best-known medical figure for spearheading the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is expected to make a full recovery from the virus.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
FDA Admits There’s ‘Zero Scientific Evidence’ That ‘Monkeypox Virus’ Exists
Newly unsealed documents have revealed an explosive confession from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about the so-called “monkeypox virus.”
The documents were obtained by investigative reporter Christine Massey from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
According to one document published by Massey, the FDA admits that there is “zero scientific evidence” to prove that the “monkeypox virus” even exists.
The FDA has no records authored by anyone, anywhere to support claims of the virus’s existence.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Gat Summer: 22 Shot, 6 Dead in Chicago During First 3 Days of DNC
While Democrats prance around the DNC in Chicago with manufactured enthusiasm for Kamala Harris, a deadly week unfolded outside in the Democrat-run city.
According to the Washington Times, 6 people were murdered amid 22 shootings in the first three days of the Democratic National Convention, while a member of the Texas delegation was robbed at gunpoint while walking in downtown Chicago Wednesday morning.
The weekend before, there were 26 shootings and five deaths, according to police.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
California Governor Gavin Newsom joked about the the Democratic Party’s transition from President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris, calling it “bottom-up” and then adding, “That’s what I’ve been told to say.”
Newsom’s comments were made during an appearance on the podcast Pod Save America and when he was asked about the “switch” from Biden to Harris. He began his response by stating that the party “went through a very open process,” before breaking into laughter along with the hosts. He added, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, that he was “told to say” the process was “bottom-up.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Government Report Links High Fluoride Exposure With Low IQ Among Children
Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)
Exposing children to high levels of fluoride is “consistently associated” with lower IQ, and potentially other neurodevelopmental issues, according to a report by the National Toxicology Program (NTP).
In 2016, NTP started a systematic review of scientific literature to ascertain links between fluoride and cognition. On Aug. 21, it published a report detailing its findings. A total of 72 studies reviewed in the report examined how fluoride exposure affected children’s IQ. Sixty-four of these studies found an “inverse association between estimated fluoride exposure and IQ in children,” meaning higher exposure was linked to lower IQ and vice versa.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A 30-year-old man was fatally stabbed during a Saturday afternoon brawl on a subway train in the Bronx, police and sources told The Post.
The victim and a 36-year-old career criminal got into a squabble on a northbound 2 train around 3:20 p.m. near the 3rd Avenue-E. 149th Street subway station in the South Bronx, cops said.
During the altercation, the 36-year-old man stabbed the 30-year-old man in the chest with a knife.
The victim was rushed to Lincoln Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police sources.
His name is being withheld pending family notification, police said.
The 36-year-old man was taken into custody at the subway station.
The suspect has nine previous arrests including an attempted rape in Brooklyn in 2009, police sources said. Armed with a knife, he kicked in a woman’s door and punched her in the face before sexually assaulting her, sources said.
In 2017, the alleged stabber flashed a knife during a verbal dispute in Brooklyn and pursued the victim for several blocks, according to sources.
Saturday’s deadly incident is the latest in a string of subway stabbings across the Big Apple.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Several towns in Massachusetts have instituted voluntary evening lockdowns in an effort to prevent the spread of Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a mosquito-borne disease that can be deadly to humans.
The Oxford Board of Health voted on Wednesday to recommend that residents remain indoors after 6 pm until the end of September, following reports from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health of the first human case of EEE in the state since 2020. Beginning October 1, the advisory will recommend that residents stay inside after 5 pm until the first hard frost of winter, as these times are considered “peak mosquito hours.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Two NASA astronauts that have been stranded in space will be returned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX instead of on the Boeing vehicle that brought them there. Boeing’s Starliner faced issues when it was parked at the International Space Station (ISS).
According to the Wall Street Journal, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced the decision to reporters on Saturday. Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will remain in orbit, parked at the ISS until next February, when the SpaceX craft is set to return with them on board.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
North Carolina is Challenged on Its Ballot Box Selfie Ban
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has announced it is helping sue North Carolina’s State Board of Elections over a ban, which the group considers unconstitutional, of what are known as “ballot selfies.”
FIRE is supporting a lawsuit filed by Susan Hogarth against members of the North Carolina board.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
RFK Jr. Says Children in US Are Sickest in the World, Takes Shot at ‘Big Food’ Causing Illness
Former Democrat-turned-independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday took a shot at “big food,” arguing it was making American children sick.
“Our children are now the unhealthiest, sickest children in the world,” Kennedy Jr. said during GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s rally in Arizona. “Don’t you want healthy children? Don’t you want the chemicals out of our food? Don’t you want the regulatory agencies to be free from corporate corruption?”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Appear on Fox News Sunday Following Trump Endorsement
Former Democrat-turned-independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is scheduled to appear on Fox News for an exclusive interview following his endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
He will appear on Fox News Sunday on Aug. 25 at 2 p.m. ET according to the outlet.
On Friday, Kennedy Jr. announced he was suspending his presidential campaign and endorsing Trump.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Some NYC Schools Spending Massive Amounts on Per-Pupil Budgets — But Show Dismal Results
Some New York City public schools spend up to three times as much per student than the citywide average — but show dismal results, The Post has found.
The average per-pupil budget at NYC public schools was $21,112 in fiscal year 2023-24, according tonew reports posted by the city Department of Education, but dozens spend much more — up to $60,000-plus — while producing math and reading scores well below the citywide average, records show.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Student Government at UC Berkeley Gave Anti-Israel Student Groups Over $8,000: Report
The University of California, Berkeley’s student government reportedly gave anti-Israel student groups more than $8,000 to support their activities.
According to an exclusive report based on records obtained by Campus Reform through a public records request, a group called Bears for Palestine received $6,500 in August of last year. Campus Reform is a conservative watchdog group that is part of the Leadership Institute.
Records obtained by the outlet also show that Graduate Students for Palestine received $1,631.22 in April of this year. The total amount of money by the student government given to these groups adds up to $8,131.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Three Quarters of Democrat Voters Don’t Know What Any of Kamala Harris’ Policies Are
A new poll has found that around three quarters of Democrat voters have no clue what Kamala Harris’ positions on key political issues are.
The survey, conducted by the Media Research Center, found that over 70 percent of “registered Democrats” as well as Independents said they “either had not heard of Harris’s position or were unsure” on ten different issues.
The poll found that 78% of voters surveyed were unaware that Harris promoted a fund that aided violent BLM agitators to be bailed out of jail during the 2020 unrest.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Washington Post: Biden’s Inner Circle Kept Cognitive Decline Hidden From American People
The left-wing Washington Post admitted that lame-duck President Joe Biden’s inner circle conspired to hide his cognitive decline from the American people.
The admission is a striking reversal after the Democrats’ allies in the corporate media spent years downplaying concerns about Biden’s fitness.
The Washington Post also indirectly implicated Vice President Kamla Harris in the cover-up.
However, the newspaper stopped short of naming the Democrat presidential nominee.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“Canadians Are Getting a Raw Deal.” Rising Healthcare Costs Outpace Income Growth 2024: Study
Most Canadian families don’t realize a large chunk of their salaries is going towards paying for public healthcare due to the hidden costs and complicated bureaucracy that handles transfer payments.
According to a new study by the Fraser Institute, the average Canadian family of all types will pay 240% more for public health care insurance this year than in 1997, outpacing the 141.1% cash income increase the average family received in the same period. Healthcare costs are rising 1.7 times faster than the average income.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Arrested in France
Pavel Durov, the billionaire co-founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram was arrested at the Bourget airport outside of Paris Saturday evening, according to TF1 TV, citing an unnamed source.
According to the report, Durov, 39, was traveling aboard his private jet after arriving from Azerbaijan, which triggered a French search warrant issued by the OFMIN of the French judicial police due to his inclusion in a wanted persons file (FPR).
Telegram offers end-to-end encrypted messaging — and allows users to set up “channels” to disseminate information quickly to followers.
“He made a blunder this evening. We don’t know why … Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he’s in custody!” a source close to the investigation told the news outlet (translated by Google).
Durav was detained by the National Anti-Fraud Office (ONAF), over the alleged facilitation of various crimes including terrorism, narcotics trafficking, and fraud.
“On his platform, he allowed an incalculable number of offences and crimes to be committed, for which he did nothing to moderate or cooperate,” a source told TF1 TV.
The arrest was characterized by Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom as part of the “crackdown against free speech.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A major manhunt is underway after a Friday night mass stabbing attack killed three people and wounded eight more at a “Festival of Diversity” in Germany. Living up to the event’s billing, witnesses to the bloodshed in the western German city of Solingen say the attacker was Arab in appearance — a detail every major US news outlet is omitting from its coverage as our report is written.
“This evening we are all in shock, horror and great sadness in Solingen. We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now we have dead and injured people to mourn,” said Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach. “I pray for all those who are still fighting for their lives.” While the festival was indeed being held on the occasion of the city’s 650th anniversary, rather than emphasizing German heritage and history, the organizers were apparently determined to put “diversity” front and center.
Their goal was accomplished in way they didn’t intend, with the attacker himself reportedly infusing his own strain of “diversity.” According to the German newspaper Bild, witnesses say the knife-wielding murderer looked like a young Arab man. At around 9:45 pm, he lashed out at an apparently random assortment of victims at the Fronhof, a market square that was being used as a venue for live musical performances. Local news outlet Solinger Tageblatt provided spectator Lars Breitzke’s account of what he saw:
Suprafon was playing on stage. Suddenly [Breitzke] realized from the expression on the singer Suzan Köcher’s face that something was wrong. “And then a person fell over just a meter away from me,” says Breitzke. At first he thought it was a drunk. But when he turned around, he saw other people lying on the floor. And several pools of blood.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
PARIS (AP) — France’s acting interior minister ordered police reinforcements to protect Jewish places of worship after a suspected arson attack Saturday on a synagogue in a southwestern Mediterranean town.
Two cars parked at the Beth Yaacov synagogue in the seaside resort town of La Grande Motte near Montpellier were set ablaze on Saturday morning, injuring a police officer, according to French media reports. It was not immediately clear how many people were inside the synagogue at the time. There are no reports of other injuries.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The DJ who was performing at a ‘Festival of Diversity’ event in Solingen, Germany where three people were stabbed to death says he was told by “security personnel” to keep playing music in order to “avoid causing a mass panic.”
Eight other people received serious injuries during the incident when the killer began knifing random people, aiming directly for their throats, before subsequently escaping.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Greta Thunberg, Activists Block Parts of Norwegian Gas Processing Plant
OSLO, Aug 24 (Reuters) — Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and campaigners from the environmental group Extinction Rebellion blocked a small oil terminal that is part of Norway’s gas processing plant Kaarstoe on Saturday.
Gas exports from Kaarstoe to Europe were not affected, the plant’s technical service provider Equinor (EQNR.OL), opens new tab told Reuters.
“There are activists trying to block off our oil terminal by sea and some onshore entrances,” said a company spokesperson.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Knife Attack in Germany’s Solingen
Aug 24 (Reuters) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a knife attack in the western German city of Solingen that killed three people on Friday.
The militant group said in a statement on its Telegram account that the attack was carried out by one of its members “in revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”.
It did not immediately provide any evidence for its assertion and it was not clear how close any relationship between the attacker and Islamic State was.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Claims Responsibility in German Festival Attack as Second Suspect Arrested
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the deadly stabbing spree at a festival in Germany on Friday that left three people dead and eight others injured.
The group said the attacker targeted Christians and was a “soldier of the Islamic State” who carried out the attack “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
German police previously said that there was no other obvious motive other than terror and that the attacker appeared to be unknown to the victims.
Late Saturday, authorities said that they had arrested a second person, along with a 15-year-old boy, in connection to the attack.
The second suspect was arrested at a home for refugees in Solingen, which is located near Cologne and Duesseldorf in the west of the country. Authorities have not identified the suspects name, age or if they are the main perpetrator of the attack.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Macron Meets French Party Leaders to Try to Name a Prime Minister
France’s left-wing parties told Emmanuel Macron on Friday (23 August) that they want to form the next government, as the French President kicked off consultations on who could be prime minister nearly seven weeks after inconclusive parliamentary elections.
Macron, who did not speak publicly after his meeting with the left, has so far ignored their demands, pointing out that despite coming first in the early July ballot, the left’s New Popular Front alliance was far from an absolute majority.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Information Board About Anne Frank Defaced in Gouda
An information board about Anne Frank was defaced this week in a park in Gouda. A photo taken by the local news site ZoGouds.nl shows that the sign has been painted or sprayed with the Palestinian flag so that the text is no longer legible. The National Coordinator for Anti-Semitism (NCAB) spoke of a reprehensible action on X on Saturday. “By defacing this place, you are stepping on the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.”
It is not clear when the information board was defaced. According to ZoGouds.nl, a passerby discovered the graffiti on Thursday. The Gouda resident then filed a complaint with the local municipality and the police.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The suspect in the mass stabbing attack at a German “festival of diversity” reportedly shouted out “Allahu Akbar” and is said to have been a “visitor to a local mosque”.
UPDATE 2100: Bild reports that an affiliate of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack as revenge for “Muslims in Palestine”. Meanwhile, elite police officers from the Special Operations Command (SEK) have stormed a migrant shelter in Solingen, some 300 meters from the scene of the mass stabbing. A suspect of suspected Syrian origin has been arrested, however, it is currently unclear if the man arrested is believed to be the attacker.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A terrified crowd were told by organisers to keep calm as ‘unfortunately’ the perpetrator has not been caught — after three people were stabbed to death at a diversity festival in Germany .
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Asylum Seeker Arrested Over Mass Stabbing Attack at German ‘Festival of Diversity’
An asylum seeker from Syria has been arrested after a mass stabbing at a “festival of diversity” in Germany on Friday evening.
At around 11 pm local time on Saturday, over 24 hours after the attack in Solingen, 26-year-old “Issa al H.” surrendered to police.
According to German tabloid Bild, he came up to a patrol car and said: “I am the one you are looking for.” He reportedly hid in a backyard to evade detection while the day-long police manhunt was underway.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK to Expand Its Censorship Department as the Government Increases Online Speech Control
In the UK, as the nation faces a surge of arrests for online speech, the communications regulator Ofcom’s decision to expand its team by 20% to enforce the Online Safety Act raises significant concerns about the further potential suppression of free speech. This move, reported by the Financial Times, aims to increase the regulator’s workforce from 460 to over 550 by next March, representing a third of its total staff.
This development follows riots sparked by a mass stabbing of children in Southport, England on July 29, where social media’s role in spreading misinformation was accused of exacerbating the chaos, resulting of citizens being arrested for their social media posts.
However, this rapid expansion in regulatory oversight occurs amid a controversial online discourse with accusations of censorship being highlighted by figures like Elon Musk and more.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Doctor Who Cared for Wounded IDF Soldiers Pledges Allegiance to ISIS
A doctor at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba who pledged allegiance to ISIS has been arrested, and an indictment was filed against him, the Israel Police reported Thursday.
In a joint operation, the Israel Police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) arrested Beersheba resident Muhammad Azzam, 34, originally from Nazareth, the police said in a statement.
The Shin Bet detained Azzam, an Israeli citizen, for questioning in July on suspicion of engaging in activities inspired by ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Oil Tanker Set on Fire by the Houthis in the Red Sea
Houthi rebels set fire to a Greek oil tanker in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, footage shows.
The video shows the tanker, called the Sounion, burning as the Iran-backed terrorists chanted, and mocked America.
“God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam,” they chanted, according to the New York Post.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Houthi Rebels Release Footage of Explosion on Red Sea Tanker
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have shared a video showing an explosion and fire on a vessel in the Red Sea, after an attack on a Greek-flagged oil tanker earlier in the week.
The Sounion tanker was abandoned by its crew on Thursday and reportedly anchored in place, but now appears to be adrift, authorities said.
Fires broke out on Friday, according to the Associated Press news agency, but it is not immediately clear what happened on the vessel beforehand.
Yemen ‘s Houthis released their video later on Friday, but claimed it was filmed the day before.
| — Hat tip: McN | [Return to headlines] |
Major Study: 3% of COVID Vaxxed Have Died Suddenly
An alarming new study has confirmed that millions of Americans who received Covid mRNA shots have died suddenly as a “side effect” of the injections.
The study, conducted by two researchers from German Jordanian University, SEEIT, Computer Engineering Department as well as the University of Petra, Faculty of Information Systems in the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan, found that almost 3 percent of Covid-vaccinated people died after receiving the shots.
The researchers sought to compile an extensive list of all known side effects from the Covid mRNA injections.
The study, published in Informatics in Medicine Unlocked, found that 2.9% of people who received the shots were killed by the “vaccine.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Courts Oversee Surge in Executions for Drug Offenses
Via Middle East Eye
Dozens of prisoners in Saudi Arabia are facing the death penalty for drug offences, as rights groups warn of a surge in executions despite authorities’ pledges to stop the punishment.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) said on Thursday that there has been a sharp increase in the use of the death penalty between May and August, with executions reaching 30 by August 22.
In Tabuk General Prison alone, at least 50 people are facing execution. According to ESOHR, 34 Egyptians are among those sentenced to death in the prison, along with other foreigners, including Jordanians and Syrians.
Two Egyptian nationals, Walid al-Baqi and Youssef Khudair, were executed on August 13 on charges of smuggling marijuana and amphetamines, the rights group said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow and Kyiv Swap Hundreds of Prisoners of War on Ukrainian Independence Day
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine exchanged over 100 prisoners of war each on Saturday as Kyiv marked its third Independence Day since Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
Ukraine said the 115 Ukrainian servicemen who were freed were conscripts, many of whom were taken prisoner in the first months of Russia’s invasion. Among them are nearly 50 soldiers captured by Russian forces from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the 115 Russian soldiers had been captured in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched their surprise offensive into Russia two weeks ago. The ministry said the soldiers were currently in Belarus, but would be taken to Russia for medical treatment and rehabilitation.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
On Ukrainian Independence Day, Over 100 POWs Swapped With Russia
Ukraine exchanged over 100 individuals with Russia this week as the country celebrated its third Independence Day since the invasion began.
The two nations swapped an even number of prisoners — 115 soldiers for 115 soldiers — on Saturday, the 55th such exchange of the ongoing conflict.
“Another 115 of our defenders have returned home today. These are warriors of the National Guard, the Armed Forces, the Navy, and the State Border Guard Service,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on the exchange. “We remember everyone. We are searching for them and making every effort to bring them all back.”
The agreement was struck via negotiations facilitated by the United Arab Emirates.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
WWIII Watch: Ukraine Confirms U.S. Bombs Being Used to Strike Inside Russia Amid Kursk Incursion
Ukraine has admitted that it is actively using American-made bombs to strike within Russia’s Kursk region as it embarks on a counter-invasion.
U.S. GBU-39 glide bombs are being used to hit targets within the Russian mainland, Ukraine Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk revealed this week, state media outlet Ukrinform reports.
A video published on Thursday by the general purportedly showed his forces using the high-precision American weapons to strike a drone control hub, an electronic warfare unit, military equipment, weaponry, and around 40 “personnel” within Russia, meaning members of the Russian military may have been killed with U.S. bombs in Kursk.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
India: Marriage and Deception in Love Jihad: Muslim Man Held for Faking Religious Conversion
The woman’s mother in her complaint alleged that the accused, a Dr. Abdur Rahman had befriended her daughter as part of ‘love jihad’…
Sunita Yadav | HENB | Ghaziabad | Aug 23, 2024:: On Thursday, August 22, 2024, the Ghaziabad Police arrested a Muslim doctor who had married a colleague at an Arya Samaj temple six years ago. The arrest came after the woman’s family alleged that the doctor had falsely converted to Hinduism with the intention of deceiving their daughter.
The police have charged Dr. Abdur Rahman, 42, under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, which prohibits religious conversion through force, coercion, or deception. The charges against Dr. Rahman alleged that he violated this law by allegedly converting to Hinduism under false pretenses to marry his colleague.
Notably, the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, has typically been invoked in cases where Muslim men are accused of attempting to convert women to Islam under the guise of marriage. However, in this instance, the law has been applied to a Muslim man accused of allegedly converting to Hinduism to marry a woman, marking a departure from its usual application.
Additionally, Mr. Rahman faces allegations of causing burn injuries to Harsha Sarangi. However, he has denied these accusations, claiming that she sustained the injuries accidentally while preparing tea. The conflicting accounts highlight the need for a thorough investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding the alleged incident.
The couple, who tied the knot in 2018, have a son together, according to officials. The First Information Report (FIR) was filed at the Kotwali police station on August 13, based on a complaint lodged by the woman’s mother, Harsha Sarangi’s family member
According to sources, Abdur Rahman continued to practice and teach Islamic customs to his son, including offering Namaz and consuming beef, despite converting to Arya Samaj to marry Harsha. Harsha allegedly discovered Abdur’s persistence in Islamic practices and felt deceived, leading her to protest and attempt to distance herself from her husband. Sources suggest that Harsha saw Abdur’s actions as a form of Taqiyya, or Islamic deception, which further strained their relationship.
In her complaint, Harsha’s mother alleged that Abdur Rahman befriended her daughter as part of a ‘love jihad’, a term often used by right-wing Hindu activists to describe an alleged conspiracy to convert Hindu women to Islam through romantic relationships or marriages. The police have taken note of this allegation, which suggests that Harsha’s family believes Abdur’s intentions were not genuine and that he aimed to convert Harsha to Islam in a tactful way.
In Islam,Taqiyya (deception for religion) has no limit. Hence, Dr Abdur Rehman changed her Islam religion in a sinister way to adopt Hindu faith only to marry Harsha fraudulently. After marriage Abdur rejected his robes of religion and abused Harsha in every possible way. This is another version of Islam.
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
Majority of Americans Expect Large Numbers of Illegal Aliens to Unlawfully Vote This Election: Poll
The majority of respondents in a poll published Friday said they believe a large amount of people who are in the country illegally will actually vote in November’s general election.
The poll, conducted by the Napolitan News Service, found that 54% of respondents said they believe illegal immigrants will vote in November, and 75% of respondents said they do not support allowing illegal immigrants to vote in federal elections.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A survey of UK Labour Party voters found that a majority think that the government should work to reduce immigration into Britain, putting further pressure on fledgling Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The JL Partners polling firm asked over 1,000 voters of the left-wing Labour Party to put themselves on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 representing a desire for significant reduction of migration and 100 for more migration into the country.
The survey found that 57 per cent put themselves below 50, meaning that they favoured cutting immigration, compared to just 27 per cent who supported more foreigners entering the country, The Sun reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Over 100 Students Without Bus Service as Massachusetts Funds Buses for Migrants
Parents and students of a school district outside of Boston were informed last week that they would be without school bus service, citing a lack of funding and a shortage of buses.
The 150 students at Stoughton Public Schools will have to find a new way to get to school ahead of the academic year’s September 4 start date, the Boston Herald first reported. The news comes at the same time that the state has started paying for buses for the migrant students of the more than 200 migrant families that recently moved into their community.
“Unfortunately, for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year, 150 secondary students who signed up to ride a bus were not able to be placed on a bus,” a letter sent to parents from Superintendent of Schools Joseph Baeta read. “Those families not receiving bus transportation were notified this week. Those receiving bus transportation will receive their bus postcards the week of August 19.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Claims “Invasion” of Illegal Immigrants Crossing Into the US From Canada
Former president Donald Trump made the claim that the United States is suffering from a flood of illegal immigration not just from Mexico, but from Canada as well.
Trump called into Fox News’ coverage of Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention to offer his thoughts on the vice president’s speech.
Trump slammed the Biden-Harris administration for allowing what he describes as an “invasion” of illegal immigrants into the country crossing the southern border but also knocked the administration for an uptick in illegal crossings from Canada.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
— and Tories say it could cost taxpayer £18bn
Labour’s ‘amnesty’ for illegal migrants will add up to 44,000 people to Britain’s welfare bill, a government assessment reveals.
Of 63,053 people previously earmarked for deportation, as many as 70 per cent will now be allowed to stay in Britain with ‘full access’ to the welfare system. This could hit taxpayers with a £17.8billion in extra costs over the migrants’ lifetimes, critics have warned.
The previous Conservative government passed a law banning arrivals on small boats from claiming asylum. It introduced a Duty to Remove, marking them for deportation either to Rwanda or their home country.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of ‘dodgy employers’ face heavy fines of up to £60,000 after at least 75 suspected illegal immigrants were detained during a week-long crackdown.
Immigration Enforcement officers visited more than 225 businesses in the past week, including car washes and nail bars.
The Home Office subsequently issued 122 civil penalties for employing illegal workers.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Arkansas Supreme Court Blocks Ballot Initiative Enshrining Abortion Rights in State Constitution
The Arkansas Supreme Court has struck down a pro-abortion ballot initiative in the state, according to reports.
The state’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision to toss the ballot initiative over administrative failures by the organizers, Just The News reported.
Arkansans for Limited Government was attempting to enshrine abortion rights through an amendment to the state’s constitution.
The decision means this issue will not appear on the ballot in November’s general election.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Biden-Harris administration has been conditioning funding at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to advance research in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medicine (STEMM) on “diversity statements” and equity requirements in what academics are calling a “politicized litmus test.”
From day one, the Biden-Harris administration announced it would overhaul every single agency with the ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). It ensured there were DEI bureaucracies in place to impose its agendas regularly.
Not only did the DEI mission affect training, internal policies and hiring, but how federal agencies selectively funded and advanced scientific research, according to academics who spoke to Fox News Digital. They added that the DEI mandates are a risk to national security as it depletes America’s competitive edge against adversaries.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Judge Bans Letitia James ‘Ministry of Truth’ From Censoring NY Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers
The First Amendment does not allow the United States to adopt “Oceania’s Ministry of Truth.”
That line from George Orwell’s dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four“ opens U.S. District Judge John Sinatra’s order Thursday imposing a preliminary injunction on New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is threatening pro-life pregnancy centers for telling women about so-called abortion pill reversal, as their lawsuit proceeds.
Her office may not enforce state consumer fraud laws against the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), Gianna’s House and Options Care Center, which sued in May, for referring to APR, calling it safe and effective or directing people to the APR Hotline and website in their ads, social media and promotional materials.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Indiana Issues Cease and Desist Order Against BlackRock, Alleging Misleading ESG Statements
Indiana’s state securities regulator issued a cease and desist order against BlackRock Thursday, accusing the investment giant of fraudulent actions related to its ESG products and offerings. The company denies the allegations.
According to the Indiana Securities Division, BlackRock has repeatedly made false and misleading statements to Indiana investors with regards to the company’s ESG products. Indiana accuses BlackRock of pushing ESG factors on portfolio companies and informing clients they would see better long-term returns on their investments through ESG-backed funds. Though, according to the order, there was little to no evidence to substantiate the claim.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Roxanne Tickle was awarded $10,000 in compensation on Friday after the Australian Federal Court ruled she was discriminated against by the Giggle app.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Manchester police will not take part in Pride parade this year, with officers ordered not to decorate their uniforms with rainbows.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
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Karl-Olov Arnstberg is a Swedish writer, ethnologist, and retired Stockholm
University professor.
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Sunday Chronicle:
Neoliberalism
Published on August 25, 2024 by Karl-Olov Arnstberg
reading time approx. 25 minutes
(from Swedish by LN)
Imagine that the people of the Soviet Union had never heard of communism. That is where the West more or less finds itself today.
The dominant ideology of our time – the ideology that affects almost every part of our lives – has no name for most people. This ideology, neoliberalism, has caused or contributed to most of the crises we now face: rising inequality, rampant poverty, the crumbling of infrastructure, the erosion of the tax base, the deterioration of healthcare, education and other public services. Its anonymity is both a symptom of and a cause of its power.
Neoliberalism is sometimes described harmlessly as a “free market economy”, sometimes critically as “capitalism on steroids”.
A short but apt description is that the economy takes over politics. Neoliberalism treats some of capitalism’s most oppressive and destructive practices as a kind of holy scripture that must be protected from questioning, and tears down the means that can be used to limit them. Neoliberalism can also be described as the escape of the billionaires: the escape from taxes and regulations, the escape from unions, the escape from international law, the escape from social obligations, the escape from democracy.
Globalization is not only a neoliberal project, but it has been both shaped and accelerated by neoliberalism. Democracy stops at national borders, but the activities of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the bodies that regulate transnational trade, are worldwide. As they have gained ever greater power over the lives of many nations, the interests of citizens – and the democratic means by which they can be heard – have been displaced.
Neoliberalism is the tool used by the very rich to accumulate more wealth and power. It ends up with what the economist John Kenneth Galbraith described as “private abundance and public misery”. The rich are getting richer, while the social services that the rest depend on are being eroded. The rich know how to protect their assets with VAT loopholes and other tax planning and place them in tax havens and low-tax countries like Luxembourg. They pay less and less in taxes, while the poor pay more and more. Since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, the world’s ten richest men have doubled their wealth, while an additional 163 million people have fallen below the poverty line.
Neoliberalism has become so pervasive that we no longer even recognize it as an ideology. We see it as a kind of natural law, like Darwinian evolution, thermodynamics or even gravity – an immutable fact, a reality that cannot be escaped. But neoliberalism is neither inevitable nor immutable. It is an ideology whose central belief is that competition is what defines humanity. It claims that we are greedy and selfish, but also that greed and selfishness pave the way for social improvement and create the prosperity that will eventually enrich us all. It portrays us as consumers rather than citizens. It tries to convince us that our well-being is best realized not through political but through economic choices—specifically, buying and selling. It promises us that by buying and selling we can discover a natural, meritocratic hierarchy of winners and losers. If the Market is allowed to operate freely, it will determine who deserves success and who does not. The talented and hardworking will prevail, while the inept, weak and incompetent will fail. The wealth generated by the winners then trickles down and enriches us all.
The market, what do you imagine when you hear that word? Small stalls in public squares selling cheese, fruit and vegetables, run by people of modest means? The market, it sounds like a friendly, egalitarian and democratic sphere. But when the term is used in a neoliberal context – let the market decide – it hides a multitude of power relations. The market becomes a euphemism for the power of money. When the market decides, it means that those with the most power within the economic system – in other words, those with the most money – make the decisions. Political power is taken over by economic power. Democracy is replaced by plutocracy.
part 1 of 4
2
Neoliberals argue that the welfare state rewards failure, fuels dependency and subsidizes the losers. A society without entrepreneurship, ruled by bureaucrats, which stifles innovation and discourages risk-taking, leads us all to be poorer. Any attempt to interfere with the market’s distribution of rewards—to redistribute wealth and improve the conditions of the poor through political action—impedes the emergence of the natural order in which enterprise and creativity receive their just reward. Neoliberals argue that government intervention and bureaucratic control will inevitably lead to tyranny, as the state gains ever greater power to decide how we live. The role of governments should be to eliminate the obstacles that stand in the way of the natural hierarchy. They must lower taxes, reduce regulation, privatize public services, limit protests, reduce the power of unions and abolish collective bargaining. They must shrink the state. In doing so, they will free up the market and allow entrepreneurs to create the wealth that improves life for us all.
Once the market is freed from the straitjacket of regulation, its benefits will be distributed to all through what the 19th century Scottish economist Adam Smith called “the invisible hand”. The rich, he argued, are led by an invisible hand to make almost the same distribution of the necessities of life as would have been made if the earth had been divided equally among all its inhabitants. Without wanting or even knowing it, the market thus promotes the public interest.
That may be true of capitalism, but in the last forty years, when neoliberalism has been both ideologically and politically dominant, wealth has been concentrated among those who already had it. As the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and extreme poverty and misery now afflict even the richest countries.
The rich have allowed themselves to believe that they have secured their wealth through their own enterprise, overlooking their advantages of birth, education, heritage, race, and class. The poor have also internalized this doctrine and often blame themselves for their situation: If you do not have a job, it is because you are not enterprising. If you can’t handle the impossible rent and if your credit card is overdrawn, it’s because you’re incompetent and irresponsible. If your children are overweight and only stare at their cell phones, it is because you are a bad parent. The blame for society’s systemic failure is individualized. We absorb this philosophy until we become our own persecutors. Loneliness, alienation. mental illness, self-injurious behavior and other forms of suffering have nothing to do with society but are personal failings.
The term “neoliberal” was coined at a conference in Paris in 1938. Among the delegates was the lawyer and economist Friedrich Hayek. He had fled Nazi-occupied Austria and saw the New Deal, which Franklin Roosevelt had introduced in the United States, and Britain’s emerging welfare state, as expressions of collectivism. Hayek believed that any form of collectivism—putting the interests of society ahead of the individual—would lead inexorably to the kind of totalitarianism that had swept Europe in the form of Nazism and Communism.
In 1944, Friedrich Hayek published his most famous book, The Road to Serfdom, in which he explained his theory. By reducing individual agency, social democracy would lead to the kind of absolute control exercised by Stalin and Hitler. Hayek’s book was read by many and became especially popular among very rich and powerful people. These people saw in Hayek’s ideas an opportunity to escape the taxation, regulation and labor movements that threatened their wealth. They quickly began to take an active interest in and finance the spread of this new ideology.
The Road to Serfdom found a particularly receptive audience among conservative businessmen in the United States. Not only did it seem to justify the political changes they wanted to see, but it also redefined their economic self-interest into a courageous stand against tyranny and a principled defense of liberty. They made sure that as many people as possible were exposed to Hayek’s arguments, among other things, by having Reader’s Digest – the most popular magazine in the US at the time – publish an abridged version. The book became even more widespread when Look magazine published a cartoon version, which General Motors, among others, distributed to its employees. The conservative and very European academic Hayek became a sensation, traveling around the United States speaking to local chambers of commerce and banking associations.
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3
Despite the intensive propaganda, neoliberalism remained an ideology on the political fringes for a long time. There was a fairly solid international consensus based on John Maynard Keynes’ prescription: governments should aim for full employment, taxes should be high and public services well-funded, inequality should be limited and a social safety net should prevent the poor from falling into misery.
In 1947, Hayek formed the first organization to promote neoliberalism, the Mont Pelerin Society. There he and others began to create what has been described as a “neoliberal international” – a transatlantic network of academics, journalists and businessmen who sought to develop a new way of seeing and governing the world. Over the next twenty years, money poured in as the doctrine spread. Hayek’s network was funded by some of the world’s richest people and companies. They employed political analysts, economists, academics, lawyers and public relations specialists to create a series of think tanks that would refine and promote the doctrine. These institutions, many of which are still active, were given respectable names, such as the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Center for Policy Studies, and the Adam Smith Institute. While they presented themselves as independent bodies with unbiased views on public affairs, in reality they acted more like corporate lobbyists working on behalf of their funders. The same wealthy financiers also funded the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia. These institutions also presented themselves as independent and objective, but their work was mainly to spread and reinforce the ideology. The University of Chicago in particular established itself, thanks to this generous patronage, as a laboratory for the spread of neoliberal ideas and is still today a melting pot of the doctrine.
Using the latest persuasive techniques in modern psychology and the PR industry, these skilled thinkers and strategists began crafting the language and arguments that would transform Hayek’s hymn to the elite into a viable political program. In 1960 he published another bestseller, The Constitution of Liberty, which marked the transition from an honest if extreme economic ideology to a sophisticated fraud. He began the book by advancing the narrowest possible definition of freedom: an absence of coercion.
Hayek denied that concepts such as democratic freedom and equality, universal human rights, and did not believe that a fair distribution of wealth should take precedence, because by restricting the behavior of the rich and powerful, they all infringed on absolute freedom from coercion—that is, the freedom to do what you want – as neoliberalism demanded. Democracy, he argued, “is not an ultimate or absolute value”. It is not surprising that Hayek preferred Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile to what he called “a democratic government without liberalism”.
Hayek created a heroic tale of extreme wealth as he brought together the financial elite—who spend their money in new and creative ways—with philosophical and scientific pioneers. Just as the political philosopher should be free to think the unthinkable, the very rich should be free to do the impossible, unfettered by public interest or public opinion. The ultra-rich pave the way for the rest of society. The development of society, argued Hayek, depends on these “independent entrepreneurs” being free to earn as much money as they want and to spend it as they want. All that is good and useful arises from inequality. The very rich sing from his hymnal. That Hayek was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974 came as no surprise.
Around the same time, something else happened: the concept of neoliberalism began to fall into disrepute. Until the beginning of the 1950s, for example, the economist Milton Friedman – Hayek’s most famous disciple – was happy to call himself a neoliberal. But soon after, the concept more or less disappeared from the literature that he and others published. Even more strange was that no alternative concept appeared. Despite the success of Hayek’s books, the neoliberal program, which consisted of giving more power to the rich and letting the devil take the last, was met with an increasingly strong popular revulsion.
When Richard Nixon abandoned the system of fixed exchange rates in 1971, he opened the door to speculation and capital flight. The 1973 oil crisis in the Middle East led to a disastrous combination of high inflation, high unemployment and a decline in productivity growth. New York City was forced into bankruptcy in 1975. By then, the city was already notorious for its urban decay and all that comes with it – crime, drugs and poverty. This created a lot of fear and anxiety – something neoliberals saw as an opportunity.
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4
Neoliberal ideas began to seep into the administrations in both the United States and Great Britain. Hayek was said to be Ronald Reagan’s favorite political philosopher, and Milton Friedman became Reagan’s close adviser during Reagan’s time in office. In 1975, a few months after Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party, one of her colleagues told me that she opened her purse, took out a dog-eared book and threw it on the table. “This is what we believe in!” she said. The book was Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty. At the time, these political programs were called “Thatcherism” or “Reaganism”. But they were not ideologies per se, but merely applications of neoliberalism. The massive tax cuts for the rich, the crushing of unions, the reduction of public housing, the deregulation, privatization and outsourcing of public services had all been proposed by Hayek or his disciples. As these governments began to implement their programs, the neoliberal international machine ensured that they were popularized. The most effective of its proponents was Milton Friedman. He understood the rhetorical power of simplicity and had a talent for transforming Hayek’s complex ideas about privatization, deregulation and individual freedom into accessible and captivating concepts. Milton Friedman’s book Capitalism and Freedom sold half a million copies and in 1976 he also received the Nobel Prize in Economics. A political revolution that would sweep the world had begun. And of course a lot got better at first, not unlike the fact that it first gets warm and nice when you put your pinky on on a cold winter’s day.
Karl-Olov Arnstberg
All texts are © on this blog. It is permitted to spread the texts on the condition that you always link to the source here on the blog.
https://morklaggning.wordpress.com/2024/08/25/sondagskronika-nyliberalismen/
Die, Fauci, die. In excruciating agony, please.
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Reunion with Ibn Warraq 25/8-24
https://youtu.be/psHAiQyAeIw?si=TMcZzewfV9FWUtng
415,833 views – 7 days ago
“Muhammad is not a historical figure”
By Lars Hedegaard – snaphanen.dk
I listened with great interest to Winston Marshall’s recent interview with Ibn Warraq – not least because I translated his famous book, “Why I
Am Not a Muslim”, which was published in 2004 with the Danish title “Therefore I am not Muslim”.
I thought the book was a bit messy, but the author gave me free rein to correct the text – mostly in the form of me repositioning some pieces of text – without, of course, changing the meaning.
Ibn Warraq has not given up his uncompromisingly radical critique of Islam. In fact, he regards the Holy Scriptures, the Koran and the Hadith, as freely invented tales of a person entitled Muhamed (Muhamed is not a name, but rather means The Exalted One), who is said to have died in 632, but who never lived. The stories about Muhammad were made up hundreds of years after his alleged death, and the Koran did not originate in Mecca or Medina.
It is, says Ibn Warraq, just like with Robin Hood, about whom many books have been written and several films made, but who is also not a historical person.
Ibn Warraq considers it impossible to reform Islam. Islam has e.g. never – as the West has done – deplored and distanced itself from slavery, even though the millions of Africans captured since the 6th century and almost to this day (slavery still exists in Sudan) suffered a grimmer fate than those who was shipped across the Atlantic to the New World. Male slaves were castrated and the women were used as sex slaves. And he could have added that if the black slaves gave birth to children, these were killed immediately after birth. That is why there are almost no blacks in most Muslim countries.
In other places too, Islam advanced with extreme cruelty. The greatest genocide in world history took place in India, where Mohammedan warlords exterminated over 100 million Hindus.
As I said, Ibn Warraq does not believe that Islam can be reformed because the holy scriptures are regarded as Allah’s unchanging message that applies to all times, but still something happens, he says.
What he describes as a “tsunami” of people in the Muslim countries have left Islam, but do not dare to come forward because the penalty for apostasy is death, unless you repent and return.
Why do we see few examples of apostasy in the West? Ibn Warraq believes that this is due, among other things, to the West’s self-torture, which is particularly practiced by the left wing, who rarely miss an opportunity to hate Western culture and history.
And how many Muslims want to be integrated into a sinking ship?
“Anthony Fauci, was hospitalized after being infected with the West Nile virus.“
How could this be? Only people with weak immune systems are prone to this disease and taking the vaxxx doesn’t harm your immune system at all!!?? ///s
Pump Fauci full of remdisver and see what happens next.
South Korean drivers scramble to get rid of electric vehicles, citing safety concerns following fires https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/south-korea-electric-vehicle-fire-incheon-mercedes-benz-used-cars-4563796
Gaza: 100,000 Palestinians displaced from Deir al-Balah in two days https://www.newarab.com/news/gaza-100000-people-displaced-deir-al-balah-two-days
Pressure from Russians on Vladimir Putin to escalate? https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2024/08/24/pressure-from-russians-on-vladimir-putin-to-escalate/