Bombs Away

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The southern Israeli city of Sderot has come under attack again from Gaza. Our Israeli correspondent MC just sent this note:

17:00 (UTC +2)

Baron,

We are now under attack: five detonations in the last five minutes; I even heard the whistle of one.

Of course Mr Cameron, UK Prime Minister has just finished talking to the Knesset about the importance of the “Peace Process”, which to us here in Sderot is a sick joke. The more land we give away, the more incoming there will be.

I do not know if there are casualties yet, the first detonation happened just as the code red sounded which makes me wonder if these were mortars rather than Kassams.

The “Religion of Peace” seems more like a religion of shrapnel pieces from where I am sitting…

MC

Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/11/2014

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Today is the tenth anniversary of the Islamic terror bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people and wounded upwards of 2,000 more. The occasion was marked with solemn remembrances throughout Spain. Meanwhile, Spanish authorities judge that the threat of another terror attack remains very high.

In other news, the Malaysian military is seriously considering the possibility that the missing Flight 370 jetliner changed course and was able to land somewhere in the west of the country.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KP, 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.

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Vladimir Putin, the European Union, and the New World Order

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Essays that discuss Russia, even tangentially, are guaranteed to cause controversy and invite numerous comments when they appear here at Gates of Vienna. Sunday’s post about recent events in Ukraine and the Crimea was no exception.

Refusing to jump on the Putin-is-an-evil-Russian-imperialist bandwagon is guaranteed not to win one any friends. However, a cold-eyed look at the reality of what’s happening in Ukraine requires abandoning the laser-like focus on Tsar Vlad and the Russian Bug-Bear.

A British reader wrote to us this afternoon to express his bemusement over being forced to agree with some of Vladimir Putin’s positions:

The latest thing in Ukraine has been a bit surreal as well. I’m watching Putin, a man whom I dislike intensely for obvious reasons, thinking “wouldn’t it be good if our leaders looked after our own interests like this”. This to me really sums up how bad things are in Europe, when you end up agreeing with a man like Putin more than our own hopeless leaders.

A discussion has been raging intermittently on skype about all this, with only a handful of dissenters willing to diverge from a persistent preoccupation with the dangers that Russia poses to the West. As a follow-up to my earlier post, I’d like to address some of the issues they raise — which are not trivial, and deserve thoughtful consideration.

1. Russia is currently a strategic adversary of the United States. Russia’s long-term plans run contrary to the interests of both the US and the EU.

Yes, this is definitely true. Unfortunately for us, the long-range plans of the United States and the European Union also run contrary to the interests of the American and European peoples.

To stimulate thought on the topic, consider the following questions:

  • Who resists Islamization more vigorously, Angela Merkel or Vladimir Putin?
  • Who imports millions of Muslim immigrants into his country, David Cameron or Vladimir Putin?
  • Who allows the Muslim Brotherhood to influence — and even control — his nation’s domestic, military, and foreign policy, Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin?

To ask these questions, and them answer them honestly, is to expose the hollowness of the obsession with what Russia does.

This is not about Vladimir Putin. Mr. Putin is a distraction.

It is not in America’s best interest to have Barack Obama and his picked cronies running our government. They are traitors, or incompetents, or both. They subsidize Al Qaeda in Syria and neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine (wearing Waffen SS uniforms, for goodness’ sake).

That is the problem. Those who focus on Russia miss the elephant in the room: our own leaders have become their people’s enemies.

The new Ukrainian Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was formerly a senior official at the central bank. He advocates “austerity” policies that are congenial to the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Yatsenyuk’s job is presumably to grease the skids as Ukraine is yanked from the grip of the Russian Bug-Bear and enfeoffed to the New World Order via the EU.

2. There are other choices for Ukraine besides Russia and the EUSSR.

No, there aren’t. At this historical moment, Ukraine can either be subordinate to Russia, or subordinate to the European Union. There are no other choices.

It would be nice if Ukraine could become a flourishing, independent democracy. But that is simply not possible, given current political constraints.

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The Cheerleaders of Jihad

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More and more “German” women are being recruited for the jihad in Syria. They travel to the battle front, encourage the mujahideen fighting the Assad regime, and sometimes marry a holy warrior. After that comes… pregnancy? Maybe a return home, accompanied by hubby and Mujahid Jr.?

The following article describing the latest trend among Islamic zealots in Germany was translated by JLH. The translator includes this note:

How similar is this “jihadist emancipation” to the combining of patriotic fervor and the sense of being liberated from the typical “role of the woman” in the “Rosie the Riveter” phenomenon during WWII? Islamic feminism — scary thought.

The translated article from Die Welt:

German Girls’ Dream of “Jihad Marriage”

Out of high school and into jihad! The number of girls traveling from Germany to Syria to marry Islamists is rising. That is what a 16 year-old from Baden-Württemberg did.

by Florian Fade

Sonya (name changed) disappeared during Autumn vacation in Baden-Württemberg. The 16-year-old high school student, daughter of an Algerian father and German mother, left her parental home in Konstanz on Lake Constance and never returned.

Sonya’s parents alerted the police. They feared the worst. Had their daughter been kidnapped? Could she have been the victim of some crime? Neither. She had left Konstanz to realize her dream: to be the wife of an Islamist warrior of God.

The young Muslim had packed her bag and traveled to Stuttgart. At the airport, she presented a forged authorization from her parents which purported to allow the minor to travel alone. Then she boarded an airplane that took her to Turkey. From there her path was presumably to Syria.

The Dream: to be the Widow of a Martyr

Out of high school and into jihad against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The teenager was in contact by Facebook with German Islamists in Syria. Their propaganda apparently radicalized her to such an extent that she decided to emigrate to the war zone. Leaving behind baffled parents who are in fear for their daughter’s life.

The case of the 16-year-old from Konstanz confirms a trend now being observed by security authorities. More and more frequently, Muslim women and girls are traveling from Germany to Syria, gripped by the desire to go to the “holy war,” to marry a jihadist and to become the widow of a martyr.

To the knowledge of security authorities, so far about 300 Islamist have gone to Syria. Among them are at least 20 women who have gone to the civil war out of “their own jihadist motivation.”

Women are Becoming Increasingly Important for Fanatics

At first glance, this may be surprising. Jihad, after all, is a masculine domain. But as Islamism experts and security authorities confirm, this has for some time not been the case. Inside the radical Islamic scene, women are taking on increasingly important tasks, especially in the areas of propaganda, collection of donations, logistics and networking. Not infrequently when doing this, they are oriented to feminine models of pre-Islamic times.

Thus, for example, Aisha, the youngest wife of the Prophet Mohammed is said to have accompanied the warriors into battle on a camel in 656 A.D in present-day Iraq. According to legend, Aisha sat on her camel’s back, drumming the warriors to battle. Today, many female Islamists regard this as a worthy example of the war-like “mujahida” (female warrior of God).

“Islamic women see themselves in the role of the supporter,” explains a security agent. “They support the men’s battle morally and with propaganda. They often egg them on and even have a radicalizing influence. They are sort of the cheerleaders of jihad.”

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/10/2014

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Four “Frenchmen” have been sentenced to up to seven years in prison for attempting to travel abroad to wage jihad. Meanwhile, German authorities are becoming increasingly concerned about the recruitment of young “Germans” for jihad.

In other news, cell phones for some of the passengers on the missing Malaysian jetliner are still active and apparently ring when dialed by their relatives. Given that the oil slicks in the South China Sea have been ruled out as having originated with Flight 370, it is now thought that the plane may have been hijacked and has landed in some unknown location.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.

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The Eye of the Beholder

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I returned from the retinal specialist’s office a little while ago, having undergone the latest installment of my bimonthly treatments for macular degeneration in my left eye. As you all know, each treatment involves an injection through the sclera into the vitreous humor of the eye.

It’s not a fun process, to say the least. Nevertheless, it’s surprising how much it has become a matter of routine. I drive to the doctor’s office and wait a few minutes. Then the technician checks my eyes and puts drops into both of them. After that I wait a while as they dilate, and then each eye is scanned using a sophisticated electronic device. Another wait, more drops (disinfectant this time), and then a few brief agonizing moments while the needle goes in.

Yes, it blinds me in one eye for a minute or two, and then leaves my vision blurred for a few hours. And tomorrow my eye will be sore, and the next day, too, to a lesser extent.

But I’ve gotten used to it. It’s not really that bad. And rest assured, it beats the heck out of the alternative — full-blown macular degeneration. It’s been a year now, and I’m still euphoric about how much my eye has improved. It will never be quite as good as it was — there is residual scarring — but it’s close. I’m pleased to return to simply being extremely far-sighted. Severe hyperopia is something I’m quite used to.

One of the occasional side-effects of the treatment is a temporary floater in my left eye, which is created when the needle leaves a tiny air bubble behind in the vitreous humor. I’ve got one of those tonight, a dark amoeboid blob about 20° off-center to the south-southwest in my field of vision. It jumps around and twitches as my eye instinctively moves in an attempt to focus on it — just another little entertainment to liven up an otherwise dull evening.

But, hey — at least I get to use both eyes while sitting at the screen! Last spring I didn’t have that privilege; I had to use an eye patch.

There weren’t any effective treatments for macular degeneration as recently as a decade ago. I’m a lucky guy.

Tu Huan, an 8th century Chinese Islamophobe

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VaeVictis returns with a brief essay on Tu Huan (or Du Huan), a Chinese travel writer who lived in the 8th century. When consulting fragments of Tu Huan’s accounts about his travels among the Arabs, it’s interesting to note that although Islam is mentioned, Mohammed seems to be absent. This supports the thesis put forward by Norbert Pressburg (see two separate reviews) and Robert Spencer that Mohammed and the full Islamic religion were not invented until after the Arab conquests were largely complete.

Tu Huan, an 8th century Chinese Islamophobe
by VaeVictis

The book Seeing Islam as Others Saw It, by Robert Hoyland, is a massive compendium of sources and commentary on early Islam from the perspectives of non-Muslims of the time. The author does a commendable job gathering wide ranging sources from Latin, Persian, Greek, Arabic, Armenian and Hebrew tradition, consolidating them within a single volume. From this bounty of sources the reader routinely encounters descriptions of the violence and devastation that accompanied the early Muslim conquests and the suffering imposed on the conquered.

Considering how overwhelming the evidence from these diverse and culturally ‘rich’ sources are, it should be apparent to even the most jaded modern academic that Islam’s origins were unabashedly built on a foundation of violence. The sources are unanimous whether they be Christian, Jew or ‘fire worshipping’ Zoroastrians.[1] Yet I suspect this rather obvious conclusion will not soon be taught in the hallowed halls of Uppsala University.

Perhaps most interesting are a number of Chinese writings including entries from imperial court histories such as the Chiu T’ang shu (Old T’ang History) and the Hsin T’ang shu (New T’ang History). These histories in turn borrow passages from the writings of Tu Huan, a Chinese prisoner of war imprisoned for over a decade in Iraq after his capture in the Battle of Talas, which was fought between the Abbasid Caliphate and the T’ang Dynasty.[2] Tu Huan’s writings, like those of his fellow Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, reveal in uncensored terms the nature of Islam:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/9/2014

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According to Interpol, as many as four suspect passports — including two that had been reported stolen in Thailand a year or more ago — may have been used by passengers traveling on the missing Malaysian jetliner. No wreckage of the plane has yet been recovered. Some reports say that both military and civilian radars seem to indicate that the plane may have turned around before it disappeared.

In other news, more than a third of Scottish businesses say they will relocate out of Scotland if SNP leader Alex Salmond’s referendum is successful and Scotland gains its independence.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Egghead, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, 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.

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The Devils You Know

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The widespread knee-jerk reaction to recent events in Ukraine has been dismaying, to say the least.

It’s no surprise to see liberals and progressives parroting the Obama/Kerry party line on the Great Satan Russia, but the me-too response of many conservatives is another matter. Don’t they realize they are being led around by the nose with this “Putin is evil” meme the media have ginned up?

I’m not saying that we have to embrace Vladimir Putin like a big warm fuzzy Russian teddy bear. Mr. Putin is the ruler of Russia, after all. He rules in the time-hallowed Russian tradition. He is shrewd, ruthless, and autocratic. He is also very intelligent — more intelligent than any of the prep-school boys the West puts up against him — and is adept at playing a long-range game of geopolitical chess against opponents who can’t even manage to put up a checkerboard.

Just because some of us choose to see what is happening in Ukraine with a clear-eyed realism doesn’t mean that we have to think Mr. Putin is a wonderful, shining example of political heroism, flowing with the milk of human kindness. We can understand the current train of events and follow each move in the game without having to root for the Kremlin.

There seems to be a widespread tendency (especially in the USA) to be unable to reassess a grotesquely negative political view of someone without turning that person into a glorious saint. As if there were no other choice than a Manichaean Good/Evil pair.

Reality doesn’t generally fit into that schema. Understanding what Vladimir Putin is doing doesn’t require converting a media Beelzebub into a media St. Francis. It does, however, demand that we spit out the simple-minded gruel peddled by the MSM and the well-coiffed spokesbeings for the Washington-Brussels Axis of Putty.

Take, for example, the “seizure” of the Crimea by Russia. As I attempted to convey in a light-hearted way the other day, the Crimea has been fully Russian for well over two hundred years. If Nikita Khrushchev had realized in 1954 that Russia and Ukraine would come to a parting of the ways in less than four decades, he would never have assigned the Crimean oblast to the fictional oversight of Ukraine.

The treaty that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union was a formal acknowledgement that the Crimea was Russian, populated by Russians, garrisoned by the Russian military, and served the vital strategic interests of Russia. The document provided a polite fiction designed to keep the region under Russian control without having to redraw Khrushchev’s borders of Ukraine. To wave that piece of paper as “proof” that the Crimea is Ukrainian is either an example of stunning historical illiteracy or a deliberate act of cynical dishonesty.

The confrontation in Kiev was an obvious set-up, financed and orchestrated by Soros and the EU with the connivance of the Obama administration. We knew that even before we found out who hired the snipers to kill the protesters and police. Obviously, the major political factions in Ukraine studied their techniques under the tutelage of the KGB, and learned their lessons well.

The EU and the USA are attempting to leverage the conversion of Ukraine from a vassal state of Russia to a vassal state of the EU, and thus of the New World Order. Such vassalage is more comfortable and prosperous in the EU than under Russian suzerainty, but it is still vassalage. The fortunate citizens of the New Multicultural Ukraine will be allowed to have Xboxes, “Ukraine’s Got Talent”, gay pride parades, government-issued condoms, and total control by Brussels over the chemical makeup of their vodka and borscht. Plus they get to be enslaved to the banksters of the IMF and the ECB. Big improvement.

To a cold-eyed realist, this is a Thug 1 vs. Thug 2 situation. You can have the EU-picked thug oligarchy, or you can have the Russian-picked thug oligarchy. But you can’t not be ruled by thugs. “Democracy”, my fundament.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/8/2014

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A Malaysian jetliner en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing radioed no distress signals before it disappeared over the sea in Vietnamese airspace. Two long oil slicks were later discovered in the ocean. Terrorism has not been ruled out, and two of the passengers traveling on the missing plane were using stolen passports.

In other news, a false priest from Bosnia was arrested in downtown Rome after repeatedly offering to bless people for €30 a head while dressed in priestly robes and wearing a wooden cross.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, 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.

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Standing up Against the Dogmas of the Brussels Nomenklatura

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The email below was sent out by an Austrian academic in response to the controversy over the recent Swiss referendum on immigration from the EU. A copy was forwarded to Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, and has been kindly translated by JLH.

ESW includes this note:

Prompted by the Swiss referendum a few weeks ago and an interview conducted with the candidates for the European Parliament elections, Christian Zeitz, a member of the Wiener Akademikerbund, felt the need to vent his feelings.

The translated email (which is really two emails — an introduction from Christian Zeitz, followed by an enclosed email from Herbert Vytiska).

On February 16, 2014, Christian Zeitz wrote:

Dear Friends,

We owe Herbert Vytiska profound thanks for the care taken in the conducting of the interview and the notable and enlightening synopsis of the mode of thinking of the system’s force-fed, synchronized puppets on the subject of the “Swiss Plebiscite on the Immigration Question.” This presentation of political opinion is a teachable moment on the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the ruling class, whose members no longer have even the suggestion of a feeling for the problems and concerns of the people they pretend to represent.

The statements of Blümel, Leichtfried and Mlinar demonstrate the following indisputably:

1.   The statements of those concerned are completely and randomly interchangeable. Not one of these functionaries is able to express an independent or original thought. Instead, they offer nothing more than (slightly) diverse variations of a unified EU superstate ideology, for which they act as ventriloquist’s dummies, incapable of reflection or criticism. Circumstance dictates that members of SPÖVP [combination of the acronyms for the Social Democratic Party of Austria and the Austrian People’s Party], the Greens and the Pinks [the Neos — “party of the young,” pink is their color] are all a part of the same nomenklatura network whose only concern is maintaining the domination of the political caste.
2.   The almost cabaret-like surrender to the regulation and control of language leaves out none of the 24-hour mantras of EU propagandists and multiculti ideologues. The SVP (Swiss People’s Party) is “populist” and has succeeded in “causing diffuse fears in the populace” (Leichtfried). This was a “populist agitation by the right wing” (Mlinar). “Fearmongering and populism” (Blümel). “Seclusion and xenophobia” (Leichtfried).
3.   The customary, unquestioning, mystified talking points in service of the rudderless EU project being unavoidable and without alternative are zealously applied. “It is not possible to cherry-pick…” (Blümel) Why not? Precisely that should be the task of a pro-active foreign policy. The Americans express it that something is for or against “the interests of the USA.” “It is well-known that we need incoming foreigners to counteract a lack of personnel in different branches.” (Leichtfried) Who has ever supported this claim with anything except the constant demands of industry for cheaper labor than is available here and now? And why is this myth — preserved over the years — not met with the contempt of the educational policy wonks who have provided this “lack” for such a long time? “Without free movement of people, there is no freedom of capital and goods trade.” (Lunkcek) In what primer of national economics or social science is this enlightened legal insight? At any rate, numerous states and/or economies have maintained foreign trade relations for centuries without also exchanging or exporting their populations.
4.   Without being even slightly versed in economics, intellectually lightweight apparatchiks presume to make incontrovertible claims about fundamental economic causal relationships. “Certainly since EU membership 14,000 new jobs have been created and an additional annual growth stimulus of .6% in the GDP generated.” (Leichtfried) Offering an absolute number for workplace openings while simultaneously ignoring the far greater growth of the population (ultimately determined by immigration, not fewer than 40,000/year in the same time span) which certainly led to the highest unemployment rates since WWII, is no more than cheap propaganda. And the claim of an EU-induced economic growth of a certain magnitude lacks any scientific basis. No serious study on the basis of recognized economic theorems, utilizing valid data and in the context of verifiable model calculations would envision such relationships. The most important decision-makers in Europe — finance ministers, federal reserve chiefs, and commission members — have been weighing us down for many months with information and prognoses (whose half-life rarely exceeds fourteen days) on the preparation of aid packages for ailing EU states and banks as well as the implementation of the “EU bailout funds.” They have either been lying to us or have no clue. How can it be that we have allowed ourselves to be beaten over the head in the face of claims by these economic illiterates that they are knowledgeable in the most complicated transmission mechanisms?
5.   And nowhere among all the propagandistic sayings, gobbledygook and drop-dead statements is a single clause or phrase to indicate that the representatives of the system presented here have an inkling of understanding for the criticism and rejection of a regime of immigration that at last count was bringing as many as 80,000 per year into the country. This immigration regime does not merely evoke “diffuse fears,” but has a number of serious and specific consequences. The direction and dimension of these consequences have not been the subject of political discussion, let alone a democratic decision process in one single European country. The incompatibility of Islam with our extant culture, the step-by-step decline of our cultural capital and educational standards, the rising crime rate, increase of spiritual and psychic illnesses, the overloading of social systems and the spread of poverty are real and thoroughly documented facts. Where in all this is a single word of regret or concern? Instead, we get the totalitarian attitude, the concept of mass immigration and all the means and the intent to push through the related model of the multicultural society. Ominously, the decision of an absolute majority of the Swiss — perceived as the product of a confederacy of good hearts and dull populism — has come to pass against the wishes of the entire establishment of the (media-facilitated) consciousness-raising industry, which has nimbly thrown a net of disinformation over the populace. This is an expression of a shocking narrow-mindedness and aloofness in the nomenklatura functionaries who have over time lost all contact with reality and the needs of human beings. The system they support has long since lost any claim to legitimacy.
6.   The recitations of the apparatchiks quoted here are representative of the morbid condition of partisan democracy, overgrown by the continental transformations wrought by the EU superstate. This system is characterized by the utter avoidance of discourse, by the imposition of speech bans and regulations and thought controls and by the enforcement of large, societal projects against the definitive wishes of the majority population (de-Christianization; multiculturalization, genderization and homosexualization of society; establishment of trans-continental mechanisms for redistribution; decoupling of capital value and asset value by means of a failed European monetary regime; territorial expansion and competence-optional deepening of “European integration”). So what justifies our calling this system democracy or a nation of laws?
 

If the evidence noted is not in error, our national-political direction is toward a very dangerous situation. When the extensively eroded legitimacy of the community combines with the aggressive results of economic decline one or the other truly threatening scenario can be realized. Are we ready for that?

Salutations,
Christian Zeitz

On February 14, 2014, Herbert Vytiska wrote:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/7/2014

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Christians in Turkey are concerned over persistent rumors that Hagia Sophia — which was an Orthodox basilica until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople turned it into a mosque in 1453 — will become a mosque once again. Political scuttlebutt in Istanbul has it that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will turn Hagia Sophia from a museum back into a mosque in order to revive his flagging political fortunes.

In other news, the fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has requested asylum in the European Union.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, 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.

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After the Enabling Act: Overcoming Socialism

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Our Canadian correspondent Rembrandt Clancy has translated an essay and two videos about the rise of the multicultural-fascist European superstate. The translator also includes an introduction that provides additional context for the texts and videos.

After the Enabling Act: Overcoming Socialism

Introduction by Rembrandt Clancy

The original German of Roland Woldag’s essay “After the Enabling Act: Overcoming Socialism” was posted for the first time in May of 2013. It has now appeared again for a second time on the Internet portal eigentümlich frei on 21 February 2014. Although the piece stands on its own, it was given a surprise media context which, although limited to Germany, is yet pathognomonic of a malady prevalent in the West as a whole, hence worth including here as an introduction.

The essay’s reappearance was triggered by an unpleasant altercation which took place on “Studio Friedman”, a talk show hosted by Michel Friedman on Germany’s private N24 news channel. It was supposed to be a discussion between Manuel Sarrazin of the Green Party and Bernd Lucke, Chairman of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a Eurosceptic party which is participating in the European elections scheduled for May. The stakes were therefore high, and Lucke had to be discredited. After repeatedly refusing to allow Lucke to finish speaking, and after attempting to associate him with “the extreme Right scene” and pummel him with what Lucke finally called the “right wing populism cudgel”, Friedman insisted on reading the following “racist” quotation, for the second time, while falsely attributing it to Lucke’s AfD candidate, Beatrix von Storch, although it was later found to come from Roland Woldag’s essay:

“Multiculti”… has the task of homogenising the people … and in this way to extinguish them religiously and culturally.”

Friedman then attempted to force Lucke to either stand behind the “racist” quotation or discredit his own candidate. The following 1:27 minute subtitled video shows the climax of the situation, as Bernd Lucke leaves the studio after Friedman drowns him out, refusing to allow him a chance to finish speaking to the quotation. The full video is available in German on YouTube.

The full “racist” quotation reads:

“Multiculti”, as mendacious term for mass-“culture”, has the task of homogenising the people through mutually imposed pressure to adjust and in this way to extinguish them religiously and culturally. The result is the same as for the Nazis: a population brei which binds nothing more than the dependence on a custodial dictatorial regime. Out of National Socialists emerge supra-National Socialists with a Maoist by the name of Barroso as Führer.

Beatrice von Storch and Roland Woldag are both contributors to the Internet portal eigentümlich frei. But Beatrix von Storch made it clear.

The quotation attributed to me by Michel Friedman is NOT mine. It comes from a blogger [Roland Woldag] who is personally unknown to me. Friedman has given expression to a falsehood. His methods are well-known.

It might be noted in passing that there is irony in a liberal academic like Bernd Lucke starting a Eurosceptic party downstream from socialist institutions after the “long march”, since he himself cannot “get real” (Nigel Farage); that is, he has his own “right wing extremists” with whom he must not be seen to associate if he is to avoid being discredited and defamed as some type of “-phobe” by the likes of Michel Friedman: Lucke’s extremists are Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and Nigel Farage — and the list is not exhaustive. But all that can change.

The deeper irony behind Michel Friedman’s attempt to defame Bernd Lucke with the “racist” quotation is that the essay itself points to this very requirement of Socialism to “dispose of their opponents”:

The champions of the “modern” Zeitgeist need to be on their guard by pointing the finger at the Nazis, for this finger is reflected in history and points back at them.

Roland Woldag operates the website called familienwehr.de, dedicated to the defence of the family. According to the short autobiography which he offers on Die Freie Welt, he was “active in the anti-socialist resistance against the Stalinist regime in the Eastern Zone” and “in 1988 was under Stasi detention, following which he emigrated with his wife and three children to Kiel” in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. The book which most recently impressed him is Oswald Spengler’s Jahre der Entscheidung, which is available in English translation as Hour of Decision [pdf].

Indeed we find Oswald Spengler’s influence in Mr. Woldag’s essay. The old-culture of the West has only one internal enemy, collectivism, as Woldag implies when he refers to the “European breeding ground of Jacobinism”. Spengler calls it “general equality”, but while he too derives it from Jacobinism, he prefers to call it by its contemporary variant, “Bolshevism”, which he saw, not as a foreign excrescence from Moscow, but as having already taken power in the West. Therefore Spengler must also have had National Socialism in mind as a surface variant of Bolshevism, which may well have contributed to the banning of his work. Our own contemporary collectivist mutation, or surface facade, the neo-Bolshevism of Multiculturalism, is also readily recognisable in Spengler’s description:

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Edinburg Votes to Join Texas, Accelerating Mexico Crisis

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I wrote this post yesterday (March 6) while our site was down. Vlad was kind enough to let me post it last night at his place. Readers may enjoy looking at the comments on it there.

The latest on the Mexican crisis, from Reuters:

EDINBURG, Mexico (Reuters) March 6, 2022 — Edinburg’s legislature voted to join Texas on Thursday and its Washington-backed government set a referendum within 10 days on the decision in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over Tamaulipas state in Mexico.

The Edinburg region of Texas — which was ceded to Mexico in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama to satisfy domestic political pressures — consists on the former counties of Webb, Zapata, Jim Hogg, Starr, Hidalgo, Willacy, and Cameron. The region is now part of Tamaulipas state.

The sudden acceleration of moves to bring Edinburg, which has an Anglo majority and has effectively been seized by Texan forces, formally under Austin’s rule came as UN leaders gathered for an emergency summit to find ways to pressure Texas to back down.

Russian President Vladimir Putin took steps to punish those involved in threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Mexico, ordering the freezing of their Russian assets and a ban on travel into Russia.

The Russian Navy announced a guided-missile destroyer, the Archangel, was heading to the Gulf of Mexico in what it said was a long-planned training exercise and not a show of force.

The Edinburger legislature voted unanimously “to enter into the Republic of Texas with the rights of a citizen of the Republic of Texas”.

The vice-governor of Edinburg, home to Texas’ Gulf of Mexico military base in Port Isabel, said a referendum on the status would take place on March 16. He said all state property would be “nationalized”, the U.S. dollar could be adopted and Mexican troops would be treated as occupiers and be forced to surrender or leave.

The announcement, which diplomats said could not have been made without U.S. President Rand Paul’s approval, raised the stakes in the most serious east-west confrontation since the beginning of the Great Collapse.

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