This morning man named Richard Rojas drove his car at high speed the wrong way down the street and across the sidewalk into a crowd of people in Times Square in Manhattan. One person was killed and at least 22 were wounded. Mr. Rojas is a Navy veteran with a history of alcohol-related traffic offenses; however, he was reportedly not under the influence during his rampage today. Based on his words to police after he was apprehended, he was expecting to be shot to death by the cops.
In other news, the Italian government is planning to tighten the restrictions governing NGO ships that travel to Libya and bring “refugees” back to Italy.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dean, Insubria, JD, LP, Nick, 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. We 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.
Italy: Inflation Up to 1.9% in April — ISTAT
Highest level in four years
(ANSA) — Rome, May 15 — Italy’s annual inflation rate rose to 1.9% in April, up from 1.4% in March, according to ISTAT’s flash estimate released on Monday. It is necessary to go back to January 2013, when the inflation rate was 2.2%, to find a higher figure. The national statistic agency added that its consumer price index was up 0.4% in month-on-month terms. The inflation leap was due to a 5.4% rise in electrical power prices and natural gas (+5.9%), as well as transport services (+5.5%).
Codacons consumer group said a 1.9% inflation rate would translate into higher spending of 570 euros a year for he average household. The national consumers’ union (UNC) put the figure for a family with two children at 772 euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Didn’t Cause Stock Market Decline
According to nearly every major news outlet, Wednesday’s 372-point decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average was Trump’s fault. CNN Money said “Trump drama rattles market” while CNBC blamed the selloff “on Trump fears.” NPR said the decline was because “Trump remains embroiled in controversy” with CBC News saying it was due to “uncertainty around Trump.”
Precious few deviated from their mission to blame everything on Trump to look at the real reason behind Wednesday’s modest selloff: earnings of the companies whose shares are listed on the major exchanges compared to their stock prices. That, coupled with remarkably high complacency among investors, set the stage for a correction.
Putting things into perspective, the selloff was hardly earth-shaking. Most stock indices have jumped nearly 15 percent since Trump’s election. Monday’s decline in the Dow was 1.8 percent. The Nasdaq, representing the stocks of companies in the tech sector, which had been setting new highs, was off 2.6 percent. These kinds of declines do not make it into the history books.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave Fame Dead at the Age of 52
Soundgarden and Audioslave rocker Chris Cornell has died at the age of 52, it was announced today.
His rep Brian Bumbery called the death “sudden and unexpected” and said his wife and family were shocked.
A statement said the family would be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause and asked for privacy.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Chris Cornell, Soundgarden Frontman, Dead at 52
Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman and singer Chris Cornell died late Wednesday (May 17), Variety has confirmed. He was 52. The circumstances of his death were not immediately known, but the musician is believed to have died in Detroit, where Soundgarden performed on May 17.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Elite Prep for Doomsday as They Plot Trump Assassination
Globalists openly prepare for the worst while claiming nothing to fear
As the global elite push for Trump’s impeachment, their intentions are made clear by extravagant construction projects on their private homes, outfitting them for civil unrest and possible nuclear war.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Globalist Mag Claims American Revolution “Was a Mistake”
Anti-Trump mag says America should have been more like Canada
The New Yorker, a globalist-oriented magazine that advocates the overthrow of President Trump, suggests the American Revolution “was a mistake.”
An article by long-time staff writer Adam Gopnik says America might have been better off as a “social-democratic commonwealth” much like Canada, which is still technically a constitutional monarchy under Queen Elizabeth II…
In other words, Gopnik suggests we ignore all the good aspects of American history, including individual drive and innovation, to instead focus entirely on the bad because “muh globalism.”
You see, the globalists claim the idea of nation-states based on a shared culture is “obsolete,” despite the fact the technocratic system they propose is simply repackaged feudalism in which a handful of central banks control everything.
So of course they’re going to attack historical symbols of freedom which serve as a rallying point for resistance against globalism; that’s been one of their strategies since the days of empires when nationalists rebelled against their trans-continental rulers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IRS Pleads to Judge: People Would Kill us if We Testify
Once again, the IRS is up to something fishy
Why is the man who covered for Lois Lerner still IRS Commissioner?
Why hasn’t Trump’s DOJ prosecuted Lois Lerner for her crimes?
Why is the IRS pleading with the judge presiding over the Judicial Watch lawsuit to not have them testify because their lives would be in danger?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Maine Marxists Are Working With Chellie Pingree and Taking Over the State Democratic Party
Maine Democratic Socialists of America: There is nothing “democratic” about Democratic Socialists of America
Marxists are working overtime to take over the Maine Democratic Party, from the congressional to the local level.
Since its founding in June 2016, Maine Democratic Socialists of America, the Portland-based local of this country’s largest crypto-communist organization, has become a significant force in Pine Tree State politics.
Members of the Maine DSA recently met with Jesse Connolly, chief of staff for leftist Congresswoman Chellie Pingree: “Topics ranged from health care to crafting progressive messages and programs.”
[Comment: Democratic Socialists of America = Hard core communists.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Officials: One Dead: 22 Injured in Times Square Crash
One person is dead and at least 22 others injured after a car was driven the wrong way through Times Square early Thursday afternoon.
The New York City Police Department says the driver of the red Honda, 26-year-old Richard Rojas of the Bronx, is in custody.
Police say it all began around 11:55 a.m. when the car started moving at a high rate of speed and mounted the sidewalk along Seventh Avenue from 42nd to 45th Street, striking pedestrians along the heavily congested stretch.
The car finally came to rest after slamming into a barrier on West 45th Street…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump has millions upon millions of supporters all across this land, and we are closely watching these developments as they take place.
We are taking the names of every Republican member of Congress that is suggesting that Trump could be impeached, and every single one of them should anticipate a vigorous challenge whenever they are up next for reelection.
And if Trump survives this crisis, how in the world do any of them possibly expect to have any political future without the support of the president?
During the mid-term elections in 2018, pro-Trump candidates are going to challenge the status quo in races all over America. This week has shown that we desperately need to get Trump some friends in Congress, and that is precisely what we are going to do.
So it may end up being a good thing that so many Republican politicians have shown their true colors in recent days, because that will just make the coming conservative revolution that much easier.
No matter how they may feel personally about Trump, there is absolutely no excuse for betraying a president from your own party in this manner, and now those that have done so will pay a great political price.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Times Square Maniac Was Allegedly Attempting Suicide-by-Cop
Here is the raging man who cops said barreled along…
He was out for blood — and looking for a suicide-by-cop.
The Bronx man who plowed his car into a Times Square crowd, killing a teen tourist and injuring 22 others, wanted to commit murder, and then wanted cops to kill him, police sources said.
“You were supposed to shoot me! I wanted to kill them,” Richard Rojas, 26, told police, according to sources.
The killer, who’s been arrested twice for DWI, wasn’t drunk when he went on the rampage in the heart of the Big Apple, a high-ranking police official said. Rojas is currently being tested for drugs, as he appeared to be high, according to sources.
He served in the US Navy from 2011 to 2015, and was not honorably discharged, sources said.
A friend said Rojas was never the same after he returned from his military service, and took up drinking to cope with the stress…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Under Siege: More Than 60 Percent of NSC Employees Placed by Obama
The source said there are “whole departments” at the NSC with only one Trump appointee
Calls are growing for President Trump to “clean house” at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, after a series of leaks aimed at embarrassing and undermining the president sprung from the White House this week.
A White House source estimates more than 60 percent of employees at the National Security Council are not Trump administration appointees, but career officials who were appointed to the White House from other agencies under the Obama administration.
The source said there are “whole departments” at the NSC with only one Trump appointee.
“I think the lesson here is that these things are going to continue to happen until the Trump White House does a serious housecleaning,” said Fred Fleitz, a former CIA and Bush administration official.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why the Mainstream Media Must Stop Citing ‘Anti-Hate’ Crusader Southern Poverty Law Center
Last week, my organization, an immigration-control advocate, publicly released a 2016 disciplinary opinion from the Obama-era U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officially reprimanding a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) attorney for unprofessional and frivolous behavior in immigration court proceedings.
For decades, DOJ’s asked us to contribute briefs in difficult and complex immigration cases and in one such case the SPLC, a tax-exempt “anti-hate” organization, took it upon itself to file an unsolicited brief with the immigration court attacking us as “white supremacist,” “anti-Semitic,” and “anti-Catholic.” It was an odd bit of name-calling considering my small team happens to include Catholics, Jews, and non-whites. Even the Obama DOJ saw the move as a shameful and discreditable attack
Thankfully, even the Obama DOJ saw the move as a shameful and discreditable attack. DOJ’s disciplinary counsel fulsomely reprimanded the SPLC attorney, as well as attorneys from its partner-organizations, sending them a letter calling their attacks “frivolous behavior,” “derogatory name-calling,” and generally showing “a lack of professionalism.” DOJ also stated that the involved attorneys abused the briefing process and failed to aid the administration of justice.
DOJ’s reprimand actually builds on an existing trend for the SPLC. Over the last few years, the group’s “shoot-first, debate-never” approach has been skewered by a number of outlets, including Philanthropy Roundtable, Harpers, Counterpunch, Weekly Standard, Huffington Post, Reason, Washington Times, and Foreign Policy.
The criticism seems to be correlated with the group’s ever-evolving and increasingly incoherent “hate-group” standard, a problematic feature inherent in the group’s business-model. Like the proverbial shark that has to keep swimming, the SPLC must keep fear-mongering and expanding its “hate-group” narrative lest its donors begin to stray…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why We’re Fragmenting: The Status Quo is Disintegrating
The system is disintegrating, and slapping a “reformist” coat of paint over the dryrot cannot renew the structural timbers that have rotted to their very core.
I confess to being amused by the mainstream media’s implicit view that everything would be peachy if only Trump wasn’t president. Memo to MSM: the nation is fragmenting for reasons that have nothing to do with who’s president, or indeed, which party is the majority in Congress, who sits on the Supreme Court, or any other facet of governance.
The nation is fracturing and fragmenting because the Status Quo is failing the majority of the citizenry. The protected few are reaping all the benefits of the Status Quo, at the expense of the unprotected many.
As I have outlined many times, this unsustainable asymmetry is the only possible outcome of our socio-economic system, which is dominated by these forces:
1. Globalization — free flow of capital, labor arbitrage
2. Nearly free money from central banks for financiers and corporations
3. Pay-to-play “democracy”
4. State protected cartels that privatize gains and socialize losses
5. A system stripped of self-correcting feedback and accountability
Once you understand the inputs and structure, you realize there is no other possible output other than unsustainably expanding debt and wealth/income inequality. Policy tweaks cannot change the output; all they do is provide an illusion of reform that serves the need of those at the top to obscure the systemic injustices and unsustainability of the extractive, exploitive, predatory, parasitic system that’s enriching them.
What do people do when centralized systems fail to deliver what was promised? They fragment into smaller “tribes” and find fewer reasons to cooperate in centralized systems. As historian-economist Peter Turchin explained in his 2016 book Ages of Discord, human history manifests cycles of social disintegration and integration in which the impulse to cooperate in large social structures waxes and wanes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Historically Long Health-Care Wait Times Cost Canadians $1.7 Billion Last Year
VANCOUVER-Long waits for surgery and medical treatment cost Canadians $1.7 billion-or $1,759 per patient-in lost wages and time last year, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“Long wait times have real consequences for many Canadians who, in addition to experiencing increased pain and suffering, may lose income from not working and may also be unable to fully enjoy time spent with family and friends,” said Bacchus Barua, senior economist in the Fraser Institute’s Centre for Health Policy Studies and co-author of The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care, 2017.
The study calculates the average personal cost of time lost during the work week in Canada last year for the estimated 973,505 patients waiting for treatments across 12 medical specialties including general surgery, orthopedic surgery, and neurosurgery.
When calculations are extended to include the value of time outside the traditional work week-evenings and weekends-the estimated cost of waiting jumps from $1.7 billion to $5.2 billion, or from $1,759 per patient to about $5,360 per patient.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Burqa Ban Passed Into Law
Austria has passed into law a ban on wearing full-face Islamic veils, such as the burqa and the niqab, in public. Violators face fines when the legislation comes into effect in October.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Teen Convicted of Attempted Terrorism Gets 6 Years
A Danish court has sentenced a teenage girl to six years in jail, two days after she was found guilty of attempted terrorism by planning bomb attacks against two schools when she was 15.
Holbaek District Court judge Peder Christensen said Thursday that Natascha Colding-Olsen, now 17, had converted to Islam in 2015, intended to carry out attacks including on a Jewish school, and possessed chemicals.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Merkel Renounced e-Car 2020 Target, Harsh Criticism
Spd and Greens, sustainability policies should be revived
(ANSA) — BERLIN — Angela Merkel renounced the goal of having one million electric cars in Germany by 2020. And right in the middle of general election campaign, this is enough to spark row and provoke criticism. The Economy Minister (Social Democrats) reacted, asking to revive sustainability policies, so that Germany can play a lead role in this sector.
Tuesday, at a session of her parliamentary group, German chancellor said: “As far as I can see today, we will not achieve that goal”. Despite incentives for those who buy them, electric cars circulating in the country are in fact well below 100,000. However, Merkel did not close the door to hope: just like smartphones, it may still happen that new vehicles are urgently and suddenly needed. “One cannot give up”, Minister Brigitte Zypries replied, “we need to rethink how Germany can become a leading market”.
The Greens are very critical of the fact that the expansion of the necessary infrastructure has been “overlooked” and the incentive management (up to 4,000 for e-car buyers) were “miserable”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: More Than Half of Wolves Killed by Cars — WWF
Only 6% die of natural causes
(ANSA) — Rome, May 17 — More than half of Italy’s wolf deaths, 53%, are caused by road accidents, the Italian branch of the Worldwide Fund for Nature said on Wolf Day Wednesday.
Poachers kill 32% while only 6% die of natural causes, it said.
Some 54 wolves were found dead on roadsides in the last six months, the WWF said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ghizzoni Will ‘Tell Parliament Everything’ On Etruria
PD leader Renzi wants ‘truth’ about banks
(ANSA) — Rome, May 15 — Former UniCredit CEO Federico Ghizzoni has said he will tell parliament everything if summoned by a commission of inquiry on the woes of Italy’s banking sector about reports Cabinet Secretary Maria Elena Boschi asked him to buy a troubled Tuscan bank her father was briefly a vice president of.
“If I am called, I will speak to the commission of inquiry — in parliament, not to newspapers,” Ghizzoni told Monday’s edition of La Repubblica. “Obviously, I will respond to all the questions I am asked”. There have been opposition calls for Boschi to quit after former Corriere della Sera editor Ferruccio de Bortoli reported in a new book that then-reform minister Boschi spoke to Ghizzoni about the possibility of buying Banca Etruria in 2015.
Boschi has denied this.
Ex-premier Matteo Renzi, the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said Sunday that Boschi had shown no favouritism. “De Bortoli did a wonderful marketing operation to launch his book,” Renzi said.
“Let’s have the commission of inquiry. I want the truth”. The Tuscan bank was one of four lenders that went to the wall in 2015, leaving many savers with worthless bonds.
One Etruria former bond holder, Luigino D’Angelo, killed himself after losing his life savings.
The other banks were Banca Marche, CariChieti and CariFe.
They have all since been turned into ‘good banks’ and taken over big bigger lenders.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Soccer: Agnelli Admits Meetings With Alleged ‘Ndrangheta Rep
Denies mafia pressure
(ANSA) — Turin, May 15 — Juventus Chairman Andrea Agnelli on Monday told a trial over alleged activity by the Calabria-based ‘Ndrangheta mafia in Piedmont that neither Juventus not any of its 700 employees had ever suffered any pressure from the Calrbarian Mob, sources said. The Juve chief said he had met one of the defendants, Rocco Dominello, and other ultra heads four or five times to talk about routine ticketing issues, they said. According to the prosecution, Dominello sought to present himself as a fan representative, allegedly in order to do ticket touting on behalf of ‘Ndrangheta. Agnelli reportedly said he knew nothing about this, merely describing Dominello as a very well-mannered fan representative. Agnelli had previously denied having any direct relations with Dominello.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Alitalia Cost Cutting to Start With Fuel — Gubitosi
Commissioner says 20% higher than market price
(ANSA) — Rome, May 15 — Luigi Gubitosi, one of the commissioners placed in charge of Alitalia after the airline was put into extraordinary administration last month, has said that a cost-cutting drive will start with fuel. “We are touching the whole company on costs, starting with fuel costs as there are coverage contracts above the market rate, about 20% more, and we are trying to dissolve these contracts with the powers of the extraordinary administration,” Gubitosi told State broadcaster RAI’s Report show.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Le Pen French Election Victory Would Have Triggered ‘Emergency Crisis Plan’ — Report
France was ready to deploy a secret crisis plan to “protect the republic” if far-right politician Marine Le Pen had won the election, a French magazine has reported, citing sources. The plan included flooding the streets with police to maintain order.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: 4 Men Arrested in London, Accused of Plotting Terrorist Attack — Police
Four young men have been arrested in London on suspicion of plotting terrorist acts in the UK. The arrests came as a part of an ongoing investigation by the Metropolitan Police and the MI5 intelligence agency.
The men, aged between 18 and 27, were arrested at their homes in east London on Wednesday on suspicion of “the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
The identities of the suspects have not been disclosed. The four men remained in custody at a south London police station.
[Comment: The article doesn’t give the religious or ethnic background of the suspects. Somebody should come up with a clever phrase to describe the phenomenon of the authorities or media not disclosing the background of criminal suspects.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
What if the European Union Did Not Exist? Brussels Diplomat Warns of “Nightmare” Scenario
A BRUSSELS diplomat has warned of an impending “nightmare” after asking the question “what if the European Union did not exist?”
Arnoldas Pranckevicius, the head of European Commission representation in Lithuania, made his predictions for the world if the trade bloc was to imminently disappear.
Addressing an audience in his Tedx Talks speech, he said Scotland would become independent, the migrant crisis would worsen and wars would break out in Eastern Europe.
He also predicted America would eventually become embroiled in a “big confrontation” with China before Kim Jong-un sends a missile to South Korea.
[Comment: I consider the disappearance of the European Union to be a utopian outcome.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
ENI-Rosneft Agreement Signed During Gentiloni-Putin Visit
Deal extends upstream, technology, petrochemicals coop
(ANSA) — Sochi, May 17 — A new agreement extending the strategic collaboration between Eni and Russian energy giant Rosneft was signed in Sochi during Premier Paolo Gentiloni’s visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. The agreement features greater bilateral cooperation in the upstream, technology, petrochemicals and marketing sectors. It was signed by Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hindu Retaliation Against Barkati for His ‘Jihad Call Against India’
Sacked ‘Fatwa Fanatic Imam’ Barkati gets attacked in mosque, claims ‘RSS hand’.
Arshad Ali | DNA News Bureau | Kolkata | Thu, 18 May 2017:: A day after his official termination from the post of imam of Tipu Sultan Masjid on Esplanade in central Kolkata, Syed Md Nurur Rahman Barkati was injured after he was allegedly attacked by one of the protestors who demanded that Barkati vacate the masjid premises.
“I was leading the namaz of ‘asar’ (the prayer said at around 4.30 pm), and after the namaz someone hit me from behind, on my head. I suspect it is the handiwork of RSS who is taking the advantage of the situation created by the masjid committee,” claimed Barkati
Adding pressure to Barkati, members of Tahaffuz- E- Masjid Committee conducted a press conference on Thursday saying that the committee which had removed Barkati had rightly done so and Barkati should accept the decision.
“If he doesn’t budge, then legal action would be taken against the renegade imam. He had faltered in his duties as a religious leader and had been more inclined towards politics. If he accepts his mistake and mends his ways he might be appointed as the imam of one of the 494 masjids under our association,” said Maulana Sharafat Abrar, convenor of the committee…
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
Australia’s largest Islamic school was used as a ‘milking cow that never runs dry’ for a powerful Muslim group behind halal certification. Malek Fahd Islamic School in Sydney has gone to court.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. To Sanction Venezuela Supreme Court Judges
The Trump administration sanctioned eight Venezuelan Supreme Court judges Thursday, freezing their assets and banning them from travel to the U.S. as punishment for stripping the Venezuelan Congress of all powers earlier this year, a decision the court later reversed amid widespread international outcry.
The sanctions are the first unrelated to drug trafficking imposed by the Trump administration against high-ranking members of the Venezuelan government. They are intended to continue to isolate the embattled administration of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, which has been besieged by weeks of escalating protests following an economic collapse that has left Venezuelans tired, poor and hungry.
“The United States is not going to allow those who impede democracy or violate human rights to go unpunished,” Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who pushed for the sanctions, told the Miami Herald. He decried some of the judges by name Wednesday on the Senate floor, calling them “puppets who do [Maduro’s] bidding.”
Read more here: #storylink=cpy
[Comment: Excellent move by the Trump Administration. ]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: 15-Year-Old Girl Raped by Afghan and Somali Asylum Seekers
For weeks the rumour did the rounds that something awful had happened to a girl in the Austrian town of Tulln. No information was forthcoming, but the rumour was real enough for the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) to announce it was preparing to ask questions in parliament. Since yesterday, however, the police have started giving out more information on the case — it claims this is because the police investigation now allows it.
The rumours were true.
Police have now confirmed that a fifteen-year-old girl, while on her way home, was dragged into the bushes and raped twice. Twice, because she managed to escape, but the suspects pursued her and raped her again. The girl reports that two men held her down, with one closing her mouth. It was only the next day she was able to tell a family member what had happened, and was subsequently taken to the hospital. According to the regional police force, the perpetrators are asylum seekers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary Stands Defiant in Face of EU Pressure: Orban Hits Back Amid Bitter Brussels Battle
In a bitter battle with the bloc Viktor Obran’s country has repeatedly refused to answer calls from the European Parliament to repeal laws tightening rules on asylum-seekers.
In 2015 the country was the first to erect a razor wire fence along its border with Serbia.
A year later, in 2016, Hungary held a referendum and voted overwhelmingly to refuse involvement in the migrants “quota” system being considered in Brussels.
Under the programme all 28 member states would taken all allocated number of refugees.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Identitarians Block Pro-Migrant NGO Ship in Sicily
Several members of the hipster-right, anti-mass migration Identitarian youth movement blocked one of the ships of a pro-migrant NGO which was setting sail for Libya to pick up migrants and ferry them to Europe.
The activists blocked the passage of the ship Aquarius from the pro-migrant NGO SOS Mediterranee as it was leaving the port in the Sicilian city of Catania, reports the Salzburger Nachrichten.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal-Alien Arrests Up Nearly 40 Percent Under Trump
Statistics released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on May 17 indicated that during the 100 days since President Trump signed multiple executive orders regarding immigration enforcement priorities, ICE agents have arrested more than 41,000 individuals who are either known or suspected of being in the country illegally. This represents an increase of 37.6 percent over the same period in 2016.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Government Wants Stricter Rules for Controversial Pro-Migrant Vessels
The Italian government is looking to create a stricter environment for pro-migrant NGO rescue ships operating out of the country which would include being deployed only under Italian coast guard discretion.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Trapani Prosecutor Announces Inquiry Into Sea Rescue NGOs
Possible charges of aiding clandestine migration
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 18 — Trapani prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, who is investiganting against some NGOs working in the Mediterranean on possible charges of aiding and abetting clandestine migration, spoke to Italian MPs on Wednesday. The recently announced inquiry has led to polemics between Italian institutions and NGOs and is “against specific individuals”, he said. Cartosio said that some of the people onboard the NGO vessels had been aware beforehand of where and when the migrant boats would have been. The prosecutor reiterated that no names of NGOs or details would be given until the investigation was over. Cartosio told the MPs that there was a need to clarify especially the “state of need”, a mechanism according to which the crime is justified and not punishable if the action saves a life. “If by state of need we indicate the fact that people are drowning at sea, this is one thing, if instead we mean even cases of individuals detained in Libya, tortured and receiving death threats in Libya, then this is a different sphere that would make the crime unpunishable,” he said. On the issue of the NGOs’ collaboration with police authorities, Cartosio said that the “organizations have their own ethical code” with “an imperative of saving human lives”, and this “inevitably leads to NGOs needing to not collaborate very willingly with police”.
Even a migrant who “during the journey decides to steer the boat is liable to charges of aiding and abetting clandestine migration”, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison. This makes it “difficult for NGOs”, he stressed, who do not want to expose the migrants to such punishments. Migrants in Sicily “do not come only on Coast Guard or NGO boats”, he said. “They also come on dinghies, small boats and rafts, clandestinely” and are not identified, which carries the risk of their becoming victims of exploitation and prostitution.
“They could be used by the mafia,” Cartosio stressed.
“There is a need for control, otherwise we may end up giving a new ‘army’ to criminal organizations”. In any case, fighting against migration “on the judicial and police levels is an illusion”, since the plan “must be political and supranational”. (
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Borghezio Ordered to Pay Kyenge 50,000 Euros
After race jibe agst Italy’s first black minister
(ANSA) — Milan, May 18 — Anti-immigrant Northern League MEP Mario Borghezio was ordered to pay Congo-born former Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge — Italy’s first black minister — 50,000 euros in compensation for a racist slur Thursday.
“I can’t afford it, I’ll have to sell my house,” commented Borghezio, who has a history of controversial anti-immigrant remarks and actions.
Borghezio, interviewed on April 29, 2013 after Kyenge’s appointment, reportedly said among other things that “Africans are Africans and belong to an ethnic group very different from ours”.
He also complained that Kyenge, who was educated in Italy to become an ophthalmologist, had taken away a health post that he said should have been given to “some Italian doctor”.
In another remark that was not covered by Thursday’s verdict, Borghezio claimed Kyenge would impose her “tribal traditions” from the Congo on Italy.
“This is a bonga bonga government, they want to change birthright citizenship laws and Kyenge wants to impose her tribal traditions from the Congo,” said Borghezio.
Other politicians with the Northern League have faced legal action for comments against Kyenge, who hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Former Senator Ermino Boso, interviewed a few days after Borghezio on May 1, 2013, reportedly said Kyenge should have “stayed home in the Congo”.
In November 2013 Northern League Senator and former minister Roberto Calderoli was charged with defamation aggravated by racial discrimination after he compared Kyenge to an orangutan.
That remark by Calderoli was one of the first and probably the worst, but not the only such slur against Kyenge, who is now an MEP for the centre-left Democratic Party.
Earlier in 2013 Northern League Padua Councillor Dolores Valandro posted on Facebook that someone should rape Kyenge “so she knows what it feels like” in response to a report of an Italian woman who was allegedly raped by an African man.
Borghezio has a track record of anti-immigrant acts.
In 2000 he was lampooned on TV for his efforts to clean up, with dusters and spray, trains allegedly used by foreign prostitutes and immigrants.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Migrant Activists in Greece Under Investigation for Sexually Exploiting Migrants
The European Union has begun an investigation into allegations that pro-migrant volunteers in Greece are sexually exploiting migrants.
The European Commission announced there would be a formal investigation, saying that members of a so far unnamed organisation may have sexually exploiting migrants they worked with in Greece.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pauline Hanson has blasted six Iranian refugees for fooling Australia after they were caught holidaying in the Islamic theocracy they had fled. ‘They’re taking us for fools,’ she said.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
UK: May to Clamp Down on Immigration With Plans to Charge Migrants More for Using NHS
THE Conservative party manifesto will impose extra charges on businesses who employ non-EU workers and hike up charges for migrants who use the NHS, it has been reported
Theresa May is set to launch the Tory manifesto later today, and will include a series of tough new pledges to help crackdown on immigration.
With regaining control of Britain’s borders a key reason behind the country’s vote to leave the EU, the Prime Minister is set to use a series of immigration pledges in a bid to snatch support from those who previously voted for other parties.
[Comment: Wow. This is a nationalistic policy proposal. Big Business and big government might not like it, but this policy proposal is good for the middle and working classes.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Partition of India into India and Pakistan in 1947 was to neutralize the Islamic influence that was menacing India – a country that around 800 years previously had been over run by Islamic forces that murdered an estimated 20 million or more Indians over the next 800 years.
1947 is only seven decades ago but already the Indians have forgotten their history lesson in not ridding themselves of the Islamic menace.
Looking back, partitioning India was the most catastrophic mistake to happen after WWII. Few, if any, lives were saved and the nightmare of Pakistan was born. Better that India had dealt harshly with its restive Muslims and been left whole.
Amen to that, NorseRadish. It was a move born of desperation, but the attempt to give Indian Muslims their own state in order to stop more than a millennium of slaughter that Islam mercilessly inflicted on India merely postponed the problem- remember the Pakistani slaughter in Mumbai a few years ago? It got buried.
When people talk about the long period of whatever genocide in history interests them, no one seems to know/care about the Islamic genocide of the various Indian peoples during those thousand-plus years. It’s another “what-if” proposition, i.e., what if Islam had never come to India?
And so much for intelligence winning in the end. The various indigenous peoples of India have proved to be far smarter than Islam (see various Nobel Science/Maths prize listings), but no one beats the latter for their mind-numbing “ability” to obliterate rather than create anything.
You contend Better that India had dealt harshly with its restive Muslims and been left whole but such action goes against the grain of battered India. In fact, we’ve seen how well the SOP of Islam invasions worked…and is still working, now in Europe.
For a brief overview, see this YouTube video about their bloody conquest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMY2YV9WucY
It’s only 20 minutes but my PTSD limit for brutality is about 5 minutes so I have to watch it in segments.
Islam = genocide.
On a brighter note, India quickly ascertained which Pakistani group was behind the Mumbai Massacre. It was Lashkar-e-Taiba – “The Army of the Good” (Marxism and Nazism didn’t create propaganda; they copied it). Of course, Pakistan denied it initially, but eventually most of the truth emerged, including the involvement of an American named, iirc, David Headley. The only reason his name sticks is because he was eventually charged with “casing out the joint” opf Jyllands-Posten. He and a fellow-terrorist were apprehended in Chicagp. I think he’s in prison now, though I’ve lost track of him.
Our local Islamic compound, a few counties from here, is run from Pakistan. The denizens of that hellhole transfer a third of their income to the Sheikh…same one who is thought to be the person responsible for the death of the US journalist, Daniel Perlman. The latter’s father has never gotten his liberal mind ’round the fool-hardy actions of his son which led to his death. Daniel was a headline hunter, hot on the trail of an exclusive.
Poor India.
“Amen to that, NorseRadish. It was a move born of desperation, but the attempt to give Indian Muslims their own state in order to stop more than a millennium of slaughter that Islam mercilessly inflicted on India merely postponed the problem- remember the Pakistani slaughter in Mumbai a few years ago?”
Thank you for the concurrence, Dymphna. As Israel necessarily had to learn on its own, “land for peace” never produces meaningful results when dealing with Muslims.
And it’s not just the Mumbai attack. I’m confident that you equally recall the 2001 Indian Parliament attack. There is no way of imagining how close New Delhi was to launching nuclear retaliation. However horrific, it certainly would have been understandable.
Privately, I wonder about the hypocrisy of America most likely urging India to exercise restraint when—had the 9-11 terrorists similarly gunned down legislators on Capitol Hill—Saudi Arabia might just-as-quickly have been turned into a self-illuminated parking lot.
PS: Although their book glosses over Lord Mountbatten’s foibles and peccadilloes, “Freedom at Midnight” (by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre) provides a detailed catalogue of events surrounding the end of colonial rule and India’s eventual partition.
A major upshot being that (West) Pakistan’s creation was intended to avert tremendous bloodshed even as the massive cross-border displacement of Muslims, Sihks, Hindus, and Christians resulted in, essentially, identical amounts of slaughter.
Not mentioned by the authors is how the emergence of terrorist Pakistan was another subtotal altogether in regard to the final butcher’s bill.
Never forget the hand of the old USSR messing in the whole situation. They lost so many men, so much materiel. But we learned nothing – played leapfrog right into the sandbox.
There’s a cctv video going around showing the Times Square freak targeting people with precision. ISIS? La Raza?