Category Archives: Financial crisis

Migrants Come to Spain for the Helicopter Money

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The populist party Vox has alerted its supporters about a North African YouTuber who encourages people to come to Spain because with the Universal Basic Income “you earn more” than by working.

The original of the video below was in Arabic with Spanish subtitles. Many thanks to Pampasnasturtium for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:


Video link

Below is an article on the same topic, also translated by Pampasnasturtium, from Ok Diario:

Vox alerts its supporters about a Maghrebi YouTuber who encourages people to come to Spain because with the Basic Universal Income “you earn more” than working

This Tuesday Rubén Pulido, Press and Communication secretary for VOX in Andalusia, condemned the way a Maghrebi YouTuber mocks the ‘high welfare benefits of Universal Basic Income’. ‘He boasts that you earn more than working in the fields and suggests that now with Spain (economically) sunk you live better because they have access to more welfare benefits,’ explains Pulido, who asks: ‘Doesn’t this act as a mass invitation to come to Spain?’ (“efecto llamada”).

‘Newspapers say the Spanish government has finally decreed that benefits be increased to as much as 2,000 euros of Universal Basic Income. Some 1,015 maybe. God knows, let’s hope it is so, for taking care of the children. And they say it will be compatible with another benefit, for example, in the Basque Country region, if you have children, many children, three children… with the supplies for them, you can obtain from 1,200 to 1,250 euros,’ states the Maghrebi YouTuber whose content Rubén Pulido re-shared on his social media accounts, and that also the national account of VOX has re-shared.

‘It follows,’ continues the YouTuber, ‘that if you don’t work and are charged with the care of minors, you qualify for the benefit that would combine 1,015 euros for taking care of the family with 1,250 euros. A total of 2,265 euros per couple, while the person who works in agriculture, in the fields, among us in Almería, ha ha ha, works for 800 or 900 euros. When Spain was well-off and there were jobs and industriousness, if you went to ask for a benefit of 400 euros, you were told you had no right to it.’

More background

Video transcript:

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Fundraising in the Time of Corona

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This was the “sticky” post for the spring fundraiser. It was first published on May 25, and was on top throughout fundraising week. Scroll down for items posted on and after that date.

Spring Fundraiser 2020, Day Seven

Sunday’s Update: A Diversity Flashback

We’re moving into the final day of what has been a very unusual fundraising week.

Tip jarThere was no way to tell in advance how this quarter’s fundraiser might turn out, given the economic devastation that is enshrouding most of the Western world. Would anybody have spare cash to donate to a minor website?

Would anyone even be paying attention?

Well… Up until now there have been a greater than average number of donations — which is astonishing. Yet the total amount that has come in is somewhat less than average, which isn’t surprising at all, since most people have been hit hard financially for the past two months or so. It’s gratifying that so many have been willing to chip in, under the circumstances.

If you haven’t got around to it yet, the tip jar is on the sidebar, or you can use this link.

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Instead of another COVID-related update, I’ll close this fundraiser with a blast from the past. The excerpt below was written by Dymphna almost exactly eight years ago, on June 4, 2012, for the final fundraising post of that year’s spring fundraiser.

The theme for that week’s bleg was “Diversity”, and she wrapped everything up with the following remarks:

The subject of Diversity is fraught. So for this Fundraiser, I’ve deliberately kept the lid on certain subjects. They can accumulate like barnacles or smart bombs on the wall of diversity, or rather on the battlements of modern, top-down “Diversity”. As is true of any other project, some stuff has to be routinely scraped off so you can see what’s underneath, yet other junk — whilst appearing to be identical — will blow up in your face. Frankly, the explosions aren’t interesting anymore.

It is the former which draws my curiosity. .The latter, full of traps like the origins or even the existence of “global” “warming” — oops, climate change…oops, methane in the atmosphere. Whatever. Any point in “discussing” those issues is long past. Those in Charge will tell you ahead of time: “It’s settled…” “Consensus Has Been Reached”… “Everyone Knows”… “Only an Idiot Would Think Such a Thing”….and so on, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

Have you noticed that the more fervently views on such issues are clung to (bitterly), the less room there is for Reason or even the possibility of entertaining alternate ideas? Entertaining ideas? Enter that realm at your own risk.

Here’s a partial list of Don’t-Go-There-Unless-You-Want-a-Fight hot buttons. No particular order here, simply a reflection of what I’ve been reading and thinking about. These are only contentions; I have no solutions. The mysteries of life usually don’t come with quick remedies:

  • Abortion. Or not. When does life begin to have value? No, it’s not “settled”. Look up the numbers of those who believe religiously in #1 vs. those who think the prize is behind Door #2. Just don’t put these folks in the same room.
  • Gender. What could be simpler: This is a girl; see that little cleft where her penis should be? This is a boy, see his penis hanging there? Gender-bending is occurring at younger and younger ages, much to the horrified sorrow of parents caught in a five year-old’s intense identity crisis. It may well be that the crisis is real enough, but it could turn out to be just one manifestation of a larger, more complex reality than the one we can see. Human beings are quite malleable, but they are also fragile. The times in which we live, where sexual identity is up for grabs — literally — are reflected in many issues, and one of them is seen in these canary children. In different times most of them would’ve been spared this assault from the zeitgeist, an assault which begins during the dark floaty existence in utero. Were there no assaults from the residues of psychotropic drugs left in the drinking water (just to name one possible influence), or the constant low-level cultural exposure to increasingly depraved pornography, these children could have lived within the boundaries of their respective anatomy without a blip. When times simplify again — and they surely will — outlier cases will recede again. That’s not much comfort now to these kids or their parents as they stumble through the nightmare.
  • Religion is a crutch vs. Spirituality is a part of human experience. The former has become the more intellectually acceptable attitude of late, though one wonders what insecurity keeps the more aggressively devout unbelievers at their megaphones, proselytizing like hard-shell Mississippi Baptists. You begin to ask if there is some fervent need on their part to save the unwashed from arrant foolishness. Perhaps a good dose of American history about the cycles of the Great Awakenings in the 18th and 19th centuries would at least help the ardent atheists this side of the Atlantic to gain some perspective.

    My guess regarding the foundation of this popular orthodoxy among the media gatekeepers? It’s high school redux: they want to be with the cool kids and they don’t want to have to actually study anything. Aping your betters is so much easier, especially if your “educated” betters are being all edgy and you know it will irritate those boring duds in Flyover Country… As is the case for other media belief blankets, if you want to hear another side (and there is more than one) you’ll have to hunt for it on your own. What surprises me is the number of people who do — want to hear another point of view, I mean.

  • Sex among adults. Interestingly, as the results from the Boomer generation become apparent, and the laws of unintended consequences begin to take their toll, their children are turning away from their parents’ youthful decisions to let it all hang out. They see the results and politely decline. Or at least the ones who catch on early enough do so. They know the health risks for both sexes of too many sexual partners. They understand the complexities of bonding better than their naïve parents did. Except for the one percent — those befuddled “Occupy” useful tools — for the most part middle-class kids have turned back the clock. Of course many of them face rigors their parents did not: huge education debt, a poor job market, and increasing balkanization by class. Their lives will be tougher in many ways, but then so will they. At least the ones who aren’t forced to move back home, much the same way their great grandparents had to do to get by.
  • Sex with children as the new norm. Nope, that’s not worth our time. The downward deviancy of our culture was seen two generations ago and I’m sure it’s not hit bottom yet. But it will. In the meantime, let’s not contribute to the pollution.
  • Death. Like the beginnings of life, its endings are becoming more fungible. The Right to Die vs. the Responsibility to Die. Our old are becoming the Ice Floe Generation. And who gets to decide whose life has meaning or value? Recently, a couple sued for Wrongful Birth when their child was born with congenital anomalies the parents believed they should have been told about ahead of time. Among the nettles were questions like financial responsibility for this life no one wants. This question lies floundering side-by-side with the reality of aborted, breathing fetuses who are killed on the operating table without a qualm. Are we confused or what?
  • Trash. There are lots more thorns and contention here, but let’s end with garbage, with refuse, with detritus. Like global warming, there are folks on both sides of the Religion of Recycling, which is a smaller denomination of the colossal Environmental Cathedral — and that place makes Vatican City look like a high-rise tenement. Again, this subject has sectarian overtones in the higher reaches (or screeches) of the True Believers. For the dissidents there is often no choice: just because you can ‘prove’ your locality saves nothing by recycling doesn’t mean you can opt out. There are handy garbage technologies in your wheelie bin that will see you fined or put in jail if you don’t conform.

    One of the dystopian uncharms of living in an urban landscape is unending trash. But city-slicker trash has become another source of revenue for cash-poor rural areas. While the downside is that the nearby urban poor often find it cheaper to skulk out here to the country and leave their bags of unidentifiable refuse because they can’t afford the trash stickers the city makes them buy, there’s an upside to this. Big cities up North will pay good money to poor rural areas if they’ll take the garbage out. Thus many county boards of supervisors do just that, and this venture keeps the real estate tax rate down for the bumpkins.

    Don’t you wonder where this will lead as consumers are unable to continue consuming? Will trash reduce itself to an endangered species? In order to continue the justification of its existence, will the EPA have to step in with emergency rulings?

Diverse contentions. They’re endless and they get more polarized all the time. As resources get thin on the ground, look for the rigidities to worsen. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of living in interesting times. I’m ready for a good long spell of boredom — kind of like those endless amber waves of grain we don’t have anymore because they hybridized all the wheat. Modern varieties are now too short to wave at anyone.

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The photo below was taken in the late 1990s. It shows Dymphna on her 58th birthday:

It’s probably the last image of her that I’ll scan and post, unless I happen upon another trove of lost photos. She gave her permission for me to post just one, the photo of her holding a puppy that I included with my eulogy for her last June.

However, I figure that her attitude about such things is probably more relaxed now that she is incorporeal. The photos of her that I’ve posted here over the past twelve months are excellent ones, in my opinion. She is exactly herself in them, and I cherish them more than words can say. I think she’s OK with my including them here.

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Saturday’s gifts came in from:

Stateside: California, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Texas

Far Abroad: Australia and the UK

Canada: Ontario

I’ll be back in a few days to post a wrap-up with the final tally of locations.

The next fundraiser will begin sometime in the hot, hot summer. Who knows what the coronacrisis will have morphed into by then?

Many thanks to everyone for their generosity.

Saturday’s Update: Who is That Masked Man?

We’re moving into the penultimate day of Gates of Vienna’s quarterly fundraiser.

Readers who are sheltering in place at home and have nothing better to do are invited to send a modest donation by way of the tip cup on the sidebar (or by using this link).

Those small individual gifts are the way I keep this blog going. If a significant number of readers give a little bit each, it adds up to enough to pay for the site and keep me in cheese and crackers for another quarter.

Full disclosure: This website is not corona-compliant. Its proprietor is a coronadissident who refuses to wear a mask.

Since yesterday morning’s update I became aware of an article published by the The New England Journal of Medicinethat bolsters my dissident stance. It concerns the ineffectiveness of wearing a mask as a means of preventing the spread of COVID-19. One of our commenters mentioned it, but I also ran across it on Twitter.

This was actually published in April, but for some reason is only now drawing attention:

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Signs and Portents Everywhere… But of What? (Interlude IB)

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Here’s another interlude post in Seneca III’s latest treatise. See the archives link at the bottom of this post for previous installments in this series.

Signs and Portents Everywhere…But of What?

by Seneca III

Interlude IB

Preamble

Mass alien immigration from the Third World into the First and the social and cultural decomposition that followed is now a fait accompli. This same aggressive war on our way of life is also being fought on another front by other means and by members of the same cabal. They plan to control the ways and means that determine the state of human health on a global scale — aided and abetted by the UN and the WHO, naturally — and through that monopoly to eventually control the world itself. They are the wealthy, politically well-connected and anointed disciples of Mammon who are shaping an autocratic global future controlled exclusively by them and for their benefit alone, not for ours.

If by the time you have finished reading this article and, most important of all, watching the video, you are not frightened by thoughts of what the future holds then so be it. If, however, you can see and understand how the globalist plan is unfolding and it is not what you wish for the future of your children and grandchildren then it is time for some serious preparation and then action.

But before preparation, first must come a full understanding of who the enemy is, his methodology and how he operates as an international distributed network with tentacles stretching into every corner of our lives, and finances and thus what his ultimate destination is.

“The social atmosphere is that of a besieged city. And at the same time the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival.”

— George Orwell, 1984

A short review of the revelatory video…

…by Amazing Polly.

The video is 38 fascinating minutes in length. Below are seven snapshots of some of the graphics found therein. In the video there are many more accompanied by full explanations of the lineages and interconnections between the principal players.

This ‘Pledging Event’ lasted two and half hours. Always follow the money — as the video does.

The web of conspiracy starts to develop.

More players arrive…

…and more…

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Panic in the World

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I might as well out myself: I’m a COVID-19 skeptic, a.k.a. a Coronaskeptic.

I have to be careful when I talk about the ChiCom flu with my friends and acquaintances. The vast majority of them, both liberals and conservatives, have succumbed to the general hysteria that has been propagated by the television and greatly amplified by social media. Conservatives are slightly less likely than liberals to have joined the mad rush of panic, but most of them have been infected by it to at least some degree.

I don’t think Corona 2019-nCoV, a.k.a. COVID-19, a.k.a. the Chinese Crud, is “the most deadly epidemic in human history”, or whatever hyperbolic designation that is currently being peddled by the media. Rather, it is a pandemic of mass hysteria.

That doesn’t mean that I think that the Wuhan Coronavirus doesn’t exist, or that it isn’t killing people. I’ve simply come to the conclusion that it is no more dangerous than the seasonal flu, and possibly less so.

If I posted the above on social media, it would immediately be taken down, and my account with Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/YouTube would most likely be closed. The major social sites have joined hands with the legacy media and governmental agencies to suppress any opinions that contradict the coronavirus narrative.

I’ve waited this long to post about it because I’ve been patiently collecting data on the disease since long before the hysteria began. The first thing I can tell you is that ALL the models that predicted the trajectory of the pandemic are useless. None of them seems to have remotely reflected the reality of the spread of the disease. As a result I won’t be referring to any of them; there’s no point.

Before I outline my general conclusions about what’s happening, I’ll go over some of the data points here.

The single most valuable resource I’ve encountered thus far is a Swiss site called Swiss Propaganda Research. Yes, they are avowed Coronaskeptics, but they have compiled their data carefully and thoroughly, and they source everything they assert. My favorite quote from them is this one:

Danish researcher Peter Gøtzsche, founder of the renowned Cochrane Medical Collaboration, writes that Corona is “an epidemic of mass panic” and “logic was one of the first victims.”

I recommend their page as a useful source for links to detailed, sober scientific data on the spread and virulence of COVID-19. It is updated frequently.

Peter Robinson’s interview with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, is lucid and informative (hat tip Power Line):

Scott Jensen is a physician and — horrors! — Republican state senator in Minnesota. In the following video he reveals to an astonished interviewer that the state government had given doctors instructions on how to tweak death certificates to overstate the incidence of COVID-19 as the cause of death (thanks to Vlad for uploading this video):


Video link

For some interesting analysis of the WuFlu data, see Vlad’s two interviews with former CIA station chief Brad Johnson.

Video #1:


Video link

Video #2:


Video link

We are far enough into the pandemic now to have ample data on its lethality. At this point it seems to roughly comparable with the seasonal flu — maybe slightly worse, maybe not quite as bad.

The data from Germany have proved particularly useful. According to this article from Reason:

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The Coming Elections in the Netherlands

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Our Dutch correspondent H. Numan has the latest on the convoluted political situation in his homeland.

The coming elections

by H. Numan

In the UK the Labour party lost massively. Their biggest loss in nearly a century. In America the Democrat party is going to lose even more. The signs are all there. The most important candidate is Bernie Sanders who isn’t even fit to sit in a clown car. Much less to drive it. The man has absolutely no authority whatsoever. I’ve seen clips where his radical supporters grab the microphone out of his hands and totally humiliate themselves. With comrade clown standing next to it. Seething, and not able to do a darn thing about it.

Don’t be mistaken: The other clowns are almost as bad as he is. That’s pretty good news, I think. Even Bloomberg isn’t going anywhere. He can’t help it, he simply has the wrong credentials. Just like a child abuser has to live with his past, so must he. He was not only a strict Republican, he’s also a billionaire. Apart from the fact that he is simply bribing his way to nomination, and gloating that he can do it. Voting fraud is now completely legal in at least California. You can collect all the ballots in a retirement home or a town, fill them in as desired and present them as valid votes.

Even so, Trump is going to win. He doesn’t have to do a thing himself. The clowns do all the hard work for him. I hope the Milwaukee police department is planning for some huge riots. Antifa is not going to accept anyone else but comrade Sanders. They’re going to be very angry, as Sanders will not be elected.

Now, in Holland we’re also heading for elections. Officially we aren’t. Elections are due in March of 2021. That’s a full year in the future. The government is basically finished governing. Their goals have been achieved, or need a different coalition. I have no idea what will cause the resignation of the cabinet, but all parties are gearing up in election mode. The conservatives (VVD) and Christian Democrats (CDA) especially are making very bold statements about fewer migrants, stronger borders and — don’t laugh — less money to the EU. That’s a sure sign elections are coming.

It’ll be a very interesting election. In the recent past, first the Christian Democrats got trashed, followed by the labor party PvdA. In both cases after a long period of governing and a string of broken promises. This election will be the same, only now it’s the VVD’s turn to get trashed. Like their Christian and Labor compatriots earlier, the VVD has governed for a very long time, nearly 12 years continuously. The broken promises of Mark Rutte are legendary. As before people had high hopes during the first Rutte cabinet, which over time lessened. Currently the government is a minority government. The cabinet had a one-seat majority at the start in parliament. They lost that seat last year. In the senate it’s already a minority cabinet.

We’ve seen a massive shift to the left in nearly all parties. We used to have three large parties: a big conservative party (VVD), an even larger center party of Christian Democrats, and a large labor party. All of them moved far to the left. They want to woo young, hip and progressive voters. Nothing wrong with that, but there is a price to pay. There are lots of young people who are not progressive. Most of the not-so-young voters are anything but progressive. The price the formerly big parties have to pay is far fewer voters. They all shrank from their position of the big three to middle of the road. Or in case of the PvdA: that’s now a small party. In Dutch politics anything under 10 seats is small fry, 10-25 is middle of the road and anything above is a big party.

Progressive parties want to create a united left front. That won’t fly, because the PvdA party knows very well that will cost their party whatever seats they have left. Of course GL (former communists) and the SP (former Maoists) are in favor. They would gain the seats lost by the PvdA. Two birds with one stone!

That big gap on the right is being filled by two parties: The PVV party and the new Forum for Democracy (FvD). The PVV currently holds 19 seats, and FvD 2. It’s highly likely both will gain a lot in the coming elections. I expect both to grow to about 30 seats each. However, that is not enough for a majority. They will need 76 seats. That’ll be a problem as both the PVV and FvD parties are boycotted by the others.

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And Yet Another Symptom…

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Once more Tucker Carlson’s people go out and about to film the homeless human wreckage on the West Coast while he adds commentary. I like the way he stays off the screen for the most part.

[I was under the impression he was a California native, but it turns out Carlson was born and raised in the D.C. area. Back in November, his home was attacked by a bunch of speech suppressors while his wife was there, alone. The Antifa mob managed to break the front door before police arrived.]

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This time he opens with California’s boat people but then moves quickly on to Eugene, Oregon, where he finds some hope.

Eugene, a smaller city, has a college, making it a liberal bastion. But it also has a group of Vincent de Paul workers who have set up tents for the homeless. Unlike my experience with the Salvation Army – a hard-working group in Charlottesville – the Vincent de Paul workers take in the drunks and drugged out. That’s quite impressive and unusual. Like Jordan Peterson’s advice on how to take charge of your life, the workers do require that beds be made and personal gear be stored away. The large tents they use appear to be old military surplus equipment.

I wish they’d had a longer interview. When I was first placed in an orphanage, the whole routine was healing in the long run. And it included making our beds each morning. The experience made me love routine. This all-too-brief interview left me wanting to know more about the program. [For some reason, I keep thinking of an early poem of the Baron’s titled The Decay of the Social Fabric in Tidewater VA…can’t find it in my files, though.]

For those who are interested, here’s more information on St. Vinnie’s, as they call it.

Another Symptom of Our Growing Social Problem

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This is the third in a series by Tucker Carlson on homelessness. He is focusing on the west coast, but the social evil is ubiquitous. [I searched in vain for the second part of the series yesterday. If anyone finds it, please leave a link in the comments.]

In my experience with the homeless, the issues he mentions – mental illness and broken families – are all too true. The roots of those causes are deep and difficult to unravel. For those I worked with who were using only their prescribed medications, family shunning was common and long-standing.

Very often mental illnesses don’t show up until mid-or-late adolescence. When it occurs, families are not prepared to deal with the attendant out-of-control behavior; their child has become a strange monster. Send a teenager to his room? He’ll break up the house. Impulsive, destructive behavior escalates as the mental problems increase. Unprepared families have no idea how to cope. For intact families not riven with their own unresolved issues, things can be turned around but it’s a painful process.

One grassroots group, NAMI, has been particularly effective in resourcing help. This is not a government bureaucracy:

NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

What started as a small group of families gathered around a kitchen table in 1979 has blossomed into the nation’s leading voice on mental health. Today, we are an association of more than 500 local affiliates who work in your community to raise awareness and provide support and education that was not previously available to those in need.

I found our local group and wanted to attend so I could figure out how to effectively help my daughter. She died of a methadone overdose the day I’d chosen for my first visit. I never had the heart to go back.

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, there are unexpected consequences. One is
contaminated seafood:

As more and more American communities grapple with opioid addiction, the human toll of the epidemic has grown in both scope and severity. And now, scientists at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have found evidence that drug’s impact has literally flowed downstream to affect marine life, as well.

Specifically, they used mussels as a barometer of pollution in the waters off Seattle and discovered that oxycodone is now present enough in the marine environment there for shellfish to test positive.

The surge in homelessness has many causes. The hollowing out of the American family is one. And the loss of manufacturing jobs which led eventually to the opioid crisis is another. When meaning is lost, people will find substitutes.

I hope Tucker Carlson builds on what he learns about homelessness in America. And I also hope he addresses, however briefly, the surge in the “retired” population, many of whom live in their vans or cars, moving from job to job.

It’s not just a California/west coast problem.

Just a Symptom of Our Growing Social Problems

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Tucker Carlson will have an ongoing feature this week, focusing on homelessness. It would appear he’s going to concentrate on the west coast, but it’s a problem everywhere.

Charlottesville, Virginia has a problem with homelessness and drug addiction, but they won’t advertise the fact. I used to work in a drop-in center a few blocks (and a whole world) away from that mess the city cooked up and then spewed out at the unsuspecting. I mean the theater of racial “unrest”, our modern version of the Leftist Theater of the Absurd.

As Carlson mentions, this whole thing started in the 60s with Kennedy’s ill-advised closing of mental hospitals and turning out its denizens into their communities to be preyed upon by the criminal class.

Florian Philippot: “Take France Out of This Pernicious European Union”

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Florian Philippot, formerly the #2 leader of the Front National, is the founder and leader of the French party The Patriots. In the following television interview he discusses the Yellow Vests, President Emmanuel Macron, and the need to get France out of the European Union.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:


Video link

Video transcript:

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Who Owns Italy’s Sovereign Gold Stocks?

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Giorgia Meloni is the leader of the anti-immigration party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) and a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. In the following video she criticizes the current government’s position on the issue of Italy’s sovereign stocks of gold, which have been designated the property of Bankitalia, a private corporation.

Ms. Meloni’s criticisms are aimed at the coalition government of the Lega and the 5-Star Movement (M5S). It’s interesting to note that Matteo Salvini and Luigi di Maio have apparently discovered the same thing that Donald Trump has discovered — being elected to serve as head of government does NOT translate into immediate control over state affairs that are considered the provenance of the banksters and the globalists, a.k.a. the Deep State.

Many thanks to He Ha for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

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Beware the Collective!

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Below is another video showing recent events in Venezuela. FouseSquawk, who translated the clip for subtitles, sends this background information:

The video was taken in the town of San Felipe, state of Yaracuy. The governor, Julio Leon, is mentioned in the video by name. Colectivos are gangs of armed vigilantes who support the government.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

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From Szczecin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, a Razor-Wire Curtain Has Descended…

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Immigration-related events are moving rapidly this in Europe summer. The situation is in such flux that now would be a good time to step back and try to get an overview of the process.

Three years ago the dead baby hysteria, followed by Chancellor Merkel’s invitation to the world (“Y’all come in and set a spell, bitte!”), launched the Great European Migration Crisis. Since then I’ve read hundreds of news articles and analyses about the flow of “refugees” and the reactions to their violent and fragrant arrival in Western Europe.

After digesting all that information I created the following map, which presents my subjective evaluation of the different approaches to migration by various European countries. I’ve rated the policies of 28 different countries (the EU 27 minus Croatia, plus Switzerland) on a scale from 0 to 100, from zero (red) for the open-borders attitude of the “Welcoming Culture” to 100 (blue) for the absolute refusal of mass migration by the Visegrád Four (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic). Data from the last six months weighs more heavily in the score assigned to each country — for example, Spain and Italy recently changed governments, which has strongly affected each country’s migration policy.


Immigration policies in Europe, Summer 2018 (Click to enlarge)

The grouping of countries based on their stance on migration bears a striking resemblance to the division of Europe into East and West by the Iron Curtain. This is especially true if we roll the clock back three months — back then Italy and Bavaria would have been quite red. And the analogy becomes even more apt if we remember that Austria was occupied by Soviet troops until 1955, which gives it one foot in the Eastern camp.

The biggest change in the past three months has been the formation of a new anti-immigration government in Italy. The “xenophobia” of the East Bloc has now broken through the razor-wire curtain and gained a foothold in Western Europe. No wonder EU politics is in such turmoil! After failing to contain the “anti-European” attitudes of Poland and Hungary, Brussels now has to contend with Matteo Salvini. Italy is one of the “big four” pillars of the European Union, so its defection to the anti-migration side carries enormous significance for continental politics.

The situation is metamorphosing rapidly, but before we analyze the process of change — the “delta”, as they say in the military-industrial complex — let’s go over the snapshot of current European migration policies.

The Visegrád Four

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the first major European political leader to (1) understand the larger significance of the refugee crisis of 2015, and (2) act rapidly to counteract the nexus of globalist actions that threatened the stability of the Hungarian state. In doing so he made himself an obstacle to the no-borders coalition, especially the “American philanthropist” George Soros. The reaction to Mr. Orbán’s building of the fence helped clarify the East-West divide, and strengthened the solidarity of the Visegrád Four. Each country now supports the others’ positions, and each vows to veto any action by the EU (the European Commission requires consensus to implement a sanctions regime) that would harm the other members. Taken individually, each V4 country is no match for Germany or France, but when they act in concert the four countries become a formidable thorn in the flesh of the Brussels oligarchy.

The movement of Italy and Austria (and even Bavaria) towards the Visegrád Four position allows Hungary to — as Barack Obama has so frequently said — punch above its weight.

Austria

The most recent Austrian election resulted in a coalition government headed by Sebastian “Boy” Kurz (ÖVP) as chancellor and Heinz-Christian Strache (FPÖ) as vice chancellor. Mr. Kurz may well be a cynical opportunist who has simply trimmed his sails to the wind, all the while remaining loyal to his mentors in the Davos crowd. However, to maintain his position he has to give at least the appearance of acting decisively to deal with the migration issue — hence the recent law targeting “radicalization” in Austrian mosques (see Christian Zeitz’ analysis). Part of that appearance will of necessity include the reduction of violence and disorder brought to Austria by Muslim immigrants. Any failure to achieve discernible results will endanger his chancellorship. For that reason one may expect him to stay the course, at least for the time being.

Mr. Kurz’ alignment with Italy, Hungary, and Bavaria bodes ill for Chancellor Angela Merkel and the mandarins in Brussels. A counterweight to their power is forming on their southeastern flank, and the resulting political crisis looks to be the most turbulent since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of Germany.

Italy

The new coalition government in Italy is shaking the very foundations of Barad-dûr in Brussels. The Five-Star Movement is more or less a traditional populist party, but the Lega Nord is full-on anti-immigration. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has hit his stride early, turning back the refugee ferries and threatening to impound any NGO “rescue” vessels that make port in Italy. Unlike Chancellor Kurz, Mr. Salvini has never changed his tune — almost ten years ago, when I first started paying attention to him, he was the same anti-migrant firebrand that he is today. He shows no sign of being cowed by threats from Brussels; it’s no wonder that emergency summits are being hastily convened in reaction to him.

Since the new government was formed, the Lega has shot ahead of the Five-Star Movement to become the most popular party in Italy. If another election were to be held, Matteo Salvini would most likely end up as prime minister.

Eastern Europe

When I use the term “Eastern Europe”, I refer to the Baltic republics, Romania, and Bulgaria. (The Visegrád Four plus Austria comprise Central Europe. Strictly speaking, Moldova, Ukraine, and Belarus could also be considered Eastern Europe, but their political affairs are more closely associated with Russia, whether for or against, so I’m leaving them out of this analysis.)

Eastern Europe has the good fortune not to be attractive as a final destination for migrants — their welfare benefits are much less generous than those further west, and they are less reticent about dealing harshly with the criminal proclivities of foreigners. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have the added advantage of being largely off the route for most of the migration flowing into Western Europe.

Bulgaria and Romania have their share of migrant camps, full of angry, resentful Third-World “refugees” who are impatient to get out of those Black Sea backwaters and into the promised land of Germany or Sweden. The crime and disease the migrants bring with them spills out of the camps and into the adjacent towns. News outlets in those countries are blessedly un-PC, so the word gets out, and members of the general public who may once have been indifferent are now becoming anti-immigrant.

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László Földi: “The Majority of European Politicians are TRAITORS!”

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The following panel discussion is from Tuesday’s Hungarian TV program “Szemtől szembe” [Face to Face]. The moderator is Balázs Somorjai, and the guests are the intelligence analyst László Földi and Zoltán Lomnici, Jr., a constitutional lawyer.

The discussion among the three men concerns the Great European Migration Crisis — its origins, causes, and intended effects. Cui bono? Who stands to make a profit from all these illiterate unemployable Muslim migrants, and how?

A civil, lucid, and reasonable discussion such as this one is all but unheard of west of the Iron Curtain. Many thanks to CrossWare for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

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