Sun: “Britain to send hundreds of soldiers to Poland to ward off Russian troops, as UK looks to Warsaw as a key Brexit ally”

Prime Minister hoping to cement relations with her Polish counterpart ahead of fraught EU negotiations

BRITAIN will send 150 troops to help protect Poland from Russian aggression as Theresa May looks to secure Warsaw’s backing in Brexit talks.

A summit between the PM and her Polish counterpart Beata Szydlo [was held] in an effort to stand up to bolshie Putin and allay Polish fears about its citizens remaining in the UK after Britain leaves the EU.

               

Theresa May is trying to cement ties with Polish counterpart Beata Szydlo ahead of Brexit negotiations

The deployment of troops from the Light Dragoons will be based in the northeastern town of Orzysz, just 100km from the key Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, from April.

It is here that Russia is planning to base Nuclear-capable missiles posing a major threat to cities in northern Europe.

While the deployment is small compared to Russia’s vast military, the gesture is intended to be symbolic of the UK’s commitment to her NATO allies and Britain’s ties to Poland.

Theresa May said on Sunday: “We share a clear commitment to take our co-operation to the next level and to firmly establish the UK and Poland as resolute and strategic allies.

“We will never forget the Polish pilots who braved the skies alongside us during World War Two … nor the valuable contribution made by so many Poles in our country today.

“I am determined that Brexit will not weaken our relationship … rather it will serve as a catalyst to strengthen it.”

       
Deployment of 150 troops will be stationed near the border with Kaliningrad, a key Russian enclave

Brexit-related talks will likely rile EU leaders after Brussels banned member states from formal negotiations with Britain before Article 50 is triggered in March next year

While the British deployment will be small the symbolic gesture is intended to help secure Anglo-Polish ties

Visigrad Post, “Slovakia Prevents Islam From Becoming A State Religion”, 1 Dec 2016:

        That’s the way to do it: make Islam illegal.

Slovakia – On Wednesday 30 November the Slovak parliament passed a law proposed by members of the coalition of Prime Minister Robert Fico to prevent Islam from gaining official status in Slovakia.

The Slovak National Party (SNS) proposed that, in order for a religion to be formally recognized by the State, it should have at least 50,000 members -instead of the 20,000 members before that law- and so to have State grants and run its own schools.

For the time being according to the latest statistics Slovakia has 2,000 Muslims, 5,000 according to the Slovak Islamic Foundation. On the 5.4 million inhabitants in Slovakia, 62 per cent declare themselves Roman Catholics.

The president of the Slovak National Party Andrej Danko said on this subject that “Islamization begins with a kebab and this is what happens in Bratislava, we must be aware of what we could face in 5 or 10 years … We must do everything in our power to ensure that no mosques are built in the future.”

The law was approved by two-thirds of the Slovak parliament, including the ruling coalition headed by left-wing prime minister Robert Fico and opposition parties. The Nationalist Party The SNS then proposed that not 50,000 but 250,000 should compose an official religion, which was immediately rejected.

Ivanka’s simple presence as part of the entourage of the Trump administration is helping that brand promote itself

NPR, “Trump’s Potential Conflicts Of Interest: ‘They’re Everywhere”:

Donald Trump tweeted that he will be taking himself out of his business operations and will announce the detail his plan on Dec. 15th. But that hasn’t eliminated concerns that the trump organization’s business interests in the US and in at least twenty countries around the world could lead to conflicts of interest when Trump becomes president.

In response to Trump’s tweets yesterday, the office of government ethics tweeted that - as we discussed with your council - divestiture is the way to resolve these conflicts.

As we are about to hear, “divestiture” is different from Trump taking himself out of his business operations.

16 democratic members of the house judiciary requested that the committee hold hearings to discuss conflict of interest provisions that might apply to Trump when he becomes president.

New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that because of a “quirk in the law,” American presidents are not mandated to separate themselves from their businesses.

“He could legally continue to operate them and even take actions as president that would benefit those businesses, and it wouldn’t be a formal ethics violation,” Lipton says.

Trump’s business entanglements and the complication of his potential conflicts of interest as president are unprecedented.
It’s worth a listen - NPR, 1 Dec 2016

The former PoW vowed to leave everything to the tiny village in recognition for the overwhelming kindness he received

Sun, “Nazi World War II prisoner of war donates £400,000 to tiny Scottish village where he was held because he was treated with ‘kindness and generosity”, 2 Dec 2016:

Heinrich Steinmeyer was a member of Hitler’s infamous Waffen-SS and was just 19 when he was captured by the Allies a few weeks after D-Day

A former Nazi soldier has donated £400,000 to a tiny British village because of the “kindness and generosity” he was shown there after he was captured.

Heinrich Steinmeyer was a member of Hitler’s infamous Waffen-SS and was just 19 when he was captured in Normandy in August 1944, just weeks after D-Day.

         
The young German soldier was classified as a hardline Nazi when he was captured by the Allies in 1944

He was classed as a hardline Nazi and ended up in the prisoner of war camp at Cultybraggan near Comrie, Perthshire.

But the experience transformed him and Steinmeyer said he was only shown kindness by the villagers, which he had not expected.

The experience had such an impact on him that he returned to Comrie after the war and made lasting friendships in the village.

He vowed to leave everything he owned for the benefit of the elderly of the tiny Scottish community, population less than 2,000, in the Southern Highlands near Perth.

His will read: “I would like to express my gratitude to the people of Scotland for the kindness and generosity that I have experienced in Scotland during my imprisonment of war and hereafter.”

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Incubators with headscarfs is what the Islamic incursion in Berlin has made of these women (Photo: picture alliance / dpa)

JungeFreiheit, “Demographic repression: Space without people.”

Breitbart, “Germany: Nearly 40 Per Cent of Under Fives Now ‘Migrant Background’, 21 Sept. 2016:

Following the release of figures which reveal almost four in ten children under five have foreign roots, Michael Paulwitz says the demographic change will be the death of Germany’s welfare state.

The journalist and historian predicts that “hard struggles” over resources will take place when ethnic Germans are a minority, and that native Germans “will inevitably lose out”.

Mr Paulwitz’ article follows the release on Friday of official figures from the Federal Statistics Office. While they show 21 per cent of the total population currently have a migrant background he notes that such people are disproportionately represented in the younger age cohorts.

One in three people aged under 18 who are resident in Germany have foreign roots, and the number jumps to 36 per cent among people under five.

This, he ominously points out, “allows one to appreciate where [Germany] is headed”. Mr Paulwitz points to the demographics of Berlin, where people with a migration background comprise 30 per cent of residents.

Mr Paulwitz also mentions that ethnic Germans are already minority in the district centre and many of the surrounding central districts.

With these trends in mind, he observes: “First in the cities, later throughout the country, ethnic Germans are to become a minority in their own city and in their own country.

“Will Germany still be, in the coming years and decades, the land of the Germans when immigration of people from non-European cultures continues at a high level?” Mr Paulwitz asks.

The historian writes that “one does not need much imagination to imagine how profoundly the population picture will change within the next two decades”.

He calls attention to the fact that in this timeframe many current pensioners will die and that the, mainly German lineage, cohort of 45 to 65 year olds — those “at the peak of their working lives” with regards to paying taxes — will have withdrawn from the workforce.

The demographic statistics for this year also show that people with foreign roots are twice as likely to be unemployed than Germans and are significantly more likely to have been educated to only a lower secondary school level, or have no education background at all.

Mr Paulwitz writes: “The social and redistributive state as we know it will no longer be affordable at its present level when the population is no longer dominated by ethnic Germans, and is a multicultural population mix.”

Collected in mid 2015, the Federal Statistics Office data fails to reflect the more than 1.6 million migrants who arrived in 2015 and the first half of 2016, or the huge number of estimated illegal immigrants living in Germany.

Mr Paulwitz points out that while Angela Merkel’s open door policy was a “dramatic escalation” of previous policies, even before she “opened the lock” a quarter of people aged between 15 and 45 had foreign roots in 2014.

He contends that these demographic trends can only increase as, “through family reunification, this number [1.6 million] is expected to at least double if not multiply”.

Furthermore he observes there is an “inexhaustible supply” of Arabs and Africans who want to move to Germany. The historian typifies them as “second, third and fourth sons” of families, who are “demanding” but “lack the education or drive to create their own wealth”.

Taking all of this into account, Mr Paulwitz diagnoses a grim future for Germany and its native population. He forecasts “hard struggles over resources will be the result” and contends that ethnic Germans are “pacified” and “ageing”.

Considering the huge number of people with foreign roots already present, their far higher fertility rate and no sign of an end to the country’s policy of importing hundreds of thousands of migrants a year, Mr Paulwitz says indigenous Germans “will inevitably lose out”. He also foresees that “the sexual assaults, a result of the surplus men imported, will increase”.

Mr Paulwitz concludes: “A government that decides to change the ethnic and cultural structure of the country without asking its people violates the principle of popular sovereignty, constitutional lawyer Dietrich Murswiek has said … It’s surprising that citizens have begun to fight it at the ballot, but more surprising is that so few are doing so.”

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Though a resort area, and mostly White area, one in four people there live below the federal poverty level.

USA Today, “Extent of Tennessee fire damage comes into grim focus”, 30 Nov 2016:

The center of Gatlinburg’s tourist district escaped heavy damage, but “it’s the apocalypse” on either side, said Newmansville Volunteer Fire Department Lt. Bobby Balding.

[...]

“In my 25 years of federal (park) service, I’ve participated in many fires, but none of that could have prepared me for this.”

CNN, “Gatlinburg fires: 4 dead; crews search for missing”, 30 Nov 2016:

Investigators believe the trail fire was “human caused,” without offering further information, but it’s still under investigation.

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The Somali shooter at Ohio State had apparently been inspired by neo-liberal propaganda presuming that Muslim incursions and compradors which had been promoted and backed in Burma by right-wing Western sources supposedly had some right to remain there.

Washington Post, “I can’t take it anymore’: Ohio State attacker said abuses of Burma’s Muslims led to ‘boiling point”, 29 Nov 2016:

Participants in a vigil at Jacob’s Porch pray after the attack of Ohio State University, who rammed his car into a crowd of pedestrians and attacked them with a butcher knife.

The Ohio State University student who carried out a knife attack on campus Monday wrote in a Facebook post shortly before the rampage that the abuse of a little-known Muslim community in Burma had driven him to the “boiling point,” writing, “I can’t take it anymore,” CNN reported.

“Seeing my fellow Muslims being tortured, raped and killed in Burma has led to a boiling point,” Abdul Razak Ali Artan allegedly wrote on his Facebook page shortly before Monday’s rampage, where he injured 11 people with a butcher knife before police killed him.

                 

“America! Stop interfering with other countries,” he wrote.

Artan’s Facebook post throws a little-known and long-persecuted Muslim community in western Burma, also known as Myanmar, into the spotlight.

More than 1 million Rohingya Muslims live in Burma, but they have long been denied citizenship and other basic rights, and many from Burma’s Buddhist majority consider them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Aung San Suu Kyi — the Nobel laureate leading Burma’s new civilian government — has been criticized for refusing to use the term “Rohingya,” which she says is inflammatory.

In recent weeks, thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing into the forests and neighboring Bangladesh on the heels of a brutal military crackdown that followed a terrorist attack on police posts Oct. 9, allegedly carried out by Rohingya militants.

Human Rights Watch has alleged that the military has perpetrated a scorched-earth campaign, providing before-and-after satellite images that showed three villages completely burned. The death toll estimates vary, but several dozen have been killed since October, activists say.

Earlier this week, a U.N. refugee agency official, John McKissick, was in the Bangladesh region of Cox’s Bazar — where more than 30,000 people, many of them Rohingya, have fled to — and told the BBC that Burmese troops were “killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river” into Bangladesh. He said that the “ultimate goal” of Burma’s government is “ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority.”

       
        Kosher/ Neo-liberal media jerking the tears and prayers from fellow Abrahamics

As Trump shows his right wing and Jewish-collaborative colors the dubiousness of White Nationalist support is highlighted.

Mnuchin led the 2009 mortgage bailout of failed subprime mortgage lender IndyMac, now known as One West - the bank received 900 million in federal bail-out money.

Minuchin helped back the construction of Trump International Hotel in Chicago. Trump later sued him to secure more favorable terms.

Minuchin also has interests in the film industry.

Minuchin donated to both Republicans and Democrats in the past, including to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Washington Post, “Trump expected to name financier Steve Mnuchin to Treasury”, 29 Nov 2016:

President-elect Donald Trump is planning to name investor and former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary, opting for an industry insider with no government experience to helm the agency in charge of the nation’s finances, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mnuchin (pronounced mah-NEW-chin) joined Trump’s whirlwind campaign in May as finance chairman, despite the fact that he had never worked in politics and that he had donated to Democrats in the past. He quickly earned Trump’s trust as he worked closely with the Republican National Committee to raise substantial amounts of money in a short period. On policy issues, he was instrumental in crafting the details of Trump’s proposal to overhaul the tax code.

“He’s an expert on finance issues,” said Stephen Moore, who worked with Mnuchin as an adviser to the president-elect on the campaign trail. “He clearly, like Donald Trump, understands that the number one goal for this administration is going to be to grow the economy and get jobs.”

The president-elect scored an early victory Tuesday night when air-conditioning manufacturer Carrier announced that it would reverse plans to move one of its factories from Indiana to Mexico. The company, which is owned by United Technologies, said about 1,000 U.S. jobs would be preserved.

Trump’s tough talk on trade during his campaign helped cement his populist appeal. But Trump — a real estate developer famous for his flashy style — appears to be staffing his Cabinet with advisers who also have amassed extraordinary wealth. Trump is expected to nominate industrialist billionaire Wilbur Ross to lead the Commerce Department, and Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos was named as Trump’s pick for education secretary last week.

Wallsreet Journal, “Treasury Pick Steven Mnuchin Bet on Donald Trump and Won”, 29 Nov 2016:

Former Goldman Sachs executive turned Hollywood financier was Trump’s campaign finance chairman