[Majorityrights News] Trump will ‘arm Ukraine to the teeth’ if Putin won’t negotiate ceasefire Posted by Guessedworker on Tuesday, 12 November 2024 16:20.
[Majorityrights News] Alex Navalny, born 4th June, 1976; died at Yamalo-Nenets penitentiary 16th February, 2024 Posted by Guessedworker on Friday, 16 February 2024 23:43.
[Majorityrights Central] A couple of exchanges on the nature and meaning of Christianity’s origin Posted by Guessedworker on Tuesday, 25 July 2023 22:19.
[Majorityrights News] Is the Ukrainian counter-offensive for Bakhmut the counter-offensive for Ukraine? Posted by Guessedworker on Thursday, 18 May 2023 18:55.
During the summer of 2015, in the context of the largest refugee crisis since World War II, the flow of migrants reaching Italy by boat and headed overland for northern Europe is abruptly interrupted by the closure of the French border on June the 8th 2015. Within a few days, near the Italian border town of Ventimiliglia, a crowd of 200-300 migrants is formed. On June the 11th the Italian police attempts to forcibly deport them. Many resist and take shelter on the rocks, creating a makeshift camp a few meters from the posh French Riviera town of Menton.
Among infinite dreams, stories, hopes and uncertainties, one thing is clear above all: nobody is going back.
This image of a pregnant African woman is Not by Marco Panzetti… but he begins his photo essay at The BBC similarly, with a silhouette of an African woman at a north Italian refugee camp….
The BBC sets an image here, beginning a series of them by Panzetti, showing Africans in a north Italy migrant camp…
Caption, “Life goes on: Mohamed Fatima from Mali, who is pregnant, is waiting for her case to be processed so she can move on from Fenoglio camp.”
BBC, “The waiting game: Life in a north Italy migrant camp”, 16 Sept 2017:
About 100,000 people have arrived on Italian shores this year, after making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean from Libya.
They are joining many thousands more asylum seekers and migrants already in the country - many stuck there after other European countries closed their borders.
About 450 of them can be found in the Fenoglio camp, outside Turin, which is run by the Italian Red Cross.
It is supposed to be a transit camp, from where migrants are quickly transferred to reception centres - but the logjam in the system means many end up spending months here.
Posted by DanielS on Friday, 15 September 2017 23:07.
The Hill, “Trump signs resolution condemning white supremacists”, 14 Sept 2017:
President Trump has signed a resolution condemning white supremacists following violence at a rally in Charlottesville, Va., last month, the White House announced late Thursday.
“As Americans, we condemn the recent violence in Charlottesville and oppose hatred, bigotry, and racism in all forms,” Trump said in a statement released by the White House.
“No matter the color of our skin or our ethnic heritage, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God,” he continued.
“We are a Nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. As one people, let us move forward to rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.”
The White House announced that Trump signed the measure hours after the president revisited his controversial response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, saying there are “some pretty bad dudes on the other side also.”
A bipartisan group of senators had introduced the measure amid concerns about Trump’s response to the violence, which erupted as white nationalists rallied to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
The resolution condemns “the racist violence and domestic terrorist attack” in Charlottesville, where a suspected white supremacist was accused of plowing a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring more than a dozen others. It also rejects “white nationalism, white supremacy, and neo-Nazism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States.”
The White House announced earlier this week that Trump would sign the resolution.
GoEagleSearch, “White House says Trump to sign resolution condemning white nationalists”, 13 Sept 2017:
WASHINGTON—The White House said Wednesday that President Donald Trump will sign a bipartisan congressional resolution condemning white nationalists, after the measure passed both chambers earlier this week.
The joint resolution targets the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups and urges the Trump administration “to use all available resources to address the threats posed by those groups.”
Lawmakers said the legislation would put the president on the record opposing hate groups after violence erupted at a racially charged rally in Virginia last month.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday the president would sign the legislation.
Occidental Dissent, “Chuck Schumer Caught On Hot Mic Discussing Budding Partnership With President Cuck”, 15 Sept 2017:
Hey, MAGApedes, I know you guys have gotten as slippery as water snakes in your defense of President Trump, but I would very much like to see y’all defend what you’re about to hear courtesy of C-SPAN and a nice steaming hot mic.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took to the Senate floor Thursday morning to discuss Equifax’s massive security breach; the physical limitations of a border wall; and his supposed agreement with President Trump, struck alongside his House counterpart Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to work to preserve protections for immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
But before he officially took to the floor, Schumer bounded into the Senate chamber just after a speech by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and took a minute to converse with a colleague. “Sorry, just got here. Anything new?” Schumer can be heard saying on C-SPAN2’s live feed of the Senate, though he’s not seen on video. Then: “He likes us! He likes me, anyway,” Schumer says with a chuckle.
Schumer is presumably referring to himself and Pelosi, and Trump’s apparent affection for them — or one of them, anyway. He continues telling his unseen colleague that the statement he and Pelosi put out about Trump’s DACA promise was “exactly accurate.” “Here’s what I told him,” Schumer continues. “I said: ‘Mr. President, you’re much better off if you can sometimes step right and sometimes step left. If you have to step just in one direction, you’re boxed.’ He gets that.”
Let’s just be real here, Brothers, it’s pretty damned bad.
Like, it’s so bad that there really isn’t much room for maneuver whatsoever.
You can’t even make the argument that there is some sort of negotiating ploy alive here – most folks would say that we’re either seeing Trump operating on a Sub-Saharan IQ level, or we’re merely watching Jewry pulling a move honed by both time and use among peoples ranging from the Pagan Romans to the Catholic Poles.
Honestly, I see neither situation at play here – instead I see a man who because of blackmail (increasingly unlikely), through ignorance gifted by being a member of the 1% (possible), or by infection with the same egalitarian corruption that permeates both political parties (most possible) cares little about the White Man in the United States.
He would rather break bread with liberal Jews (and marry his daughter off to one), than sit with the working man whose ancestors built up this country from swamp, woods, and hostile wilderness.
But hey, if you’re just an average Trump supporter, don’t think I’m mocking you or gloating in the downfall of the President – the biggest fanbois are just in it for the money, their brand, or are trapped into a personality cult due to weird daddy issues that may never be cured.
Like you, I too was caught up in the frenzy during 2015 and 2016, and at points I truly hoped that Donald would at the very least buy us time by enacting policies that really aren’t too radical when you break everything down.
I went to rallies, pushed The Don on normies sitting on the fence, and literally wrote 2,000 or so articles covering the most exciting political race in living memory.
I have no regrets, and I feel no remorse, but I would like you to take a long look at what the Alt-Right is offering – we’ll actually fullfil our promises, and we’ll actually work to make America (or at least a chunk of the country) great again.
Indeed, people should take a long hard look at what the Alt-Right is offering, doing, who they are collaborating with and not follow them into the Jewish bum steers that they take without regrets, remorse - without learning. People should also avoid following the Alt-Right’s self defeating reactions thereof.
Posted by DanielS on Wednesday, 13 September 2017 09:11.
Gatestone Inst., “Germany Heading for Four More Years of Pro-EU, Open-Door Migration Policies”, 8 Sept 2017:
The policy positions of Merkel and Schulz on key issues are virtually identical: Both candidates are committed to strengthening the European Union, maintaining open-door immigration policies, pursuing multiculturalism and quashing dissent from the so-called far right.
Merkel and Schulz both agree that there should be no upper limit on the number of migrants entering Germany.
Merkel’s grand coalition backed a law that would penalize social media giants, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, with fines of €50 million ($60 million) if they fail to remove offending content from their platforms within 24 hours. Observers say the law is aimed at silencing critics of Merkel’s open-door migration policy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is on track win a fourth term in office after polls confirmed she won the first and only televised debate with her main election opponent, Martin Schulz, leader of the Social Democratic Union Party (SDP).
A survey for the public broadcaster ARD showed that 55% of viewers thought Merkel was the “more convincing” candidate during the debate, which took place on September 3; only 35% said Schulz came out ahead.
Many observers agreed that Schulz failed to leverage the debate to revive his flagging campaign, while others noted that Schulz’s positions on many issues are virtually indistinguishable from those held by Merkel.
Rainald Becker, an ARD commentator, described the debate as, “More a duet than a duel.”
“Merkel came out as sure, Schulz was hardly able to land a punch,” wrote Heribert Prantl, a commentator at Süddeutsche Zeitung. “The candidate is an honorable man. But being honorable alone will not make him chancellor.”
Christian Lindner, leader of the classical liberal Free Democrats, compared the debate to “scenes from a long marriage, where there is the occasional quarrel, but both sides know that they have to stick together in the future, too.”
Television presenter Günther Jauch, writing in Bild, said he had hoped to “at least understand what differentiates Merkel and Schulz in political terms. Instead, it was just a conversation between two political professionals who you suspect could both work pretty seamlessly in the same government.”
Radio and television host Thomas Gottschalk said that the two candidates agreed with each other too often: “They were both always nodding their heads when the other was speaking.”
Germany’s general election is scheduled for September 24. If voters went to the polls now, Merkel’s CDU, together with its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), would win 39%, according to a September 4 Politbarometer survey conducted for the public broadcaster ZDF.
Coming in second, Schulz’s SDP would win 22%; the classical liberal Free Democrats (FDP) 10%; the far-left Linke 9%; the Greens 8% and the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) 8%.
The poll also found that 57% of respondents said they preferred that Merkel serve another term; only 28% favored Schulz to become the next chancellor. Nevertheless, half of Germany’s 60 million voters are said to be undecided, and some pollsters believe that the country’s huge non-voting population may determine the outcome.
As Merkel’s CDU/CSU is unlikely to emerge from the election with an absolute majority, the 2017 vote effectively revolves around the issue of coalition-building. If current polling holds, Merkel, who has vowed to serve a full four years if re-elected, will have two main options.
Merkel could form another so-called grand coalition, an alliance of Germany’s two biggest parties, namely the CDU/CSU and the SPD.
Merkel currently governs with a grand coalition and has done so during two of her three terms in office.
Both the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats have said they hope to end the grand coalition and lead the government with smaller partners after the September election. After the debate, however, many observers believe a grand coalition between Merkel and Schulz is more probable than not.
Merkel’s second option would be to form a three-way coalition with the Greens and the FDP, which served as junior coalition partner to the CDU/CSU for almost half of Germany’s post-war history. Merkel has already ruled out forming a coalition with either the Linke or the AfD.
In any event, the policy positions of Merkel and Schulz on key issues are virtually identical: Both candidates are committed to strengthening the European Union, maintaining open-door immigration policies, pursuing multiculturalism and quashing dissent from the so-called far right.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and her main election opponent, Martin Schulz (left), whose policy positions on key issues are virtually identical. (Image source: European Parliament/Flickr)
Merkel and Schulz are ardent Europhiles and both are committed to more European federalism. During an August 12 campaign speech in Dortmund, for example, Merkel described the European Union as the “greatest peace project” in history and vowed that she would never turn her back on this “wonderful project.”
Previously, Merkel said:
“We need more Europe, we need not only a monetary union, but we also need a so-called fiscal union, in other words more joint budget policy. And we need most of all a political union — that means we need to gradually give competencies to Europe and give Europe control.”
Merkel has also endorsed the idea of a European Monetary Fund to deal with sovereign defaults by eurozone countries:
“It could make us even more stable and allow us to show the world that we have all the mechanisms in our own portfolio of the euro zone to be able to react well to unexpected situations.”
Schulz has argued that the EU must be preserved at any cost:
“We are at a historical juncture: A growing number of people are declaring what has been achieved over the past decades in Europe to be wrong. They want to return to the nation-state. Sometimes there is even a blood and soil rhetoric that for me is starkly reminiscent of the interwar years of the past century, whose demons we are still all too familiar with. We brought these demons under control through European structures, but if we destroy those structures, the demons will return. We cannot allow this to happen.”
Schulz has opposed the idea of holding national referendums on leaving the EU:
“Referendums have always posed a threat when it comes to EU policy, because EU policy is complicated. They are an opportunity for those from all political camps who like to oversimplify things.”
Schulz has also voiced optimism that the British decision to leave the European Union would facilitate the creation of a European Army:
“In the fields of security and defense policy, although the EU loses a key member state, paradoxically such a separation could give the necessary impulse for a closer integration of the remaining member states.”
During the September 3 debate, Schulz declared that he would end Turkey’s accession talks to join the European Union because of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authoritarianism. Merkel initially said she opposed such a move but then suddenly changed her mind. Unexpectedly, Merkel said: “The fact is clear that Turkey should not become an EU member.”
On the issue of migration, Schulz and Merkel differ on procedure, not principle. During the debate, for example, Schulz accused Merkel of failing to involve the European Union in her 2015 decision to open German borders to more than a million migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Merkel said that although some mistakes had been made, she would take the same decision again.
In fact, Merkel and Schulz both agree that there should be no upper limit on the number of migrants entering Germany: “On the issue of an upper limit, my position is clear,” Merkel told ARD television. “I won’t accept one.”
Schulz has said:
“A numerical cap is not a response to the refugee issue, even if it is agreed upon in a European context. What do we do with the first refugee who comes to the European frontier and has no quota available? Do we send him back to perhaps a sure death? As long as this question is not resolved, such a discussion makes no sense.”
Schulz believes the European Union should have a greater role in migration policymaking:
“What we need is a European right of immigration and asylum. The refugee crisis shows us clearly that we cannot give a national response to a global phenomenon such as the refugee movements. This is only possible in a European context.”
Merkel has criticized Hungary for failing to show “solidarity” in aiding refugees. She has also vowed to punish Poland for its refusal to take in more migrants from the Muslim world:
“As much as I wish for good relations with Poland — they are our neighbor and I will always strive for this given the importance of our ties — we can’t simply keep our mouth shut in order to keep the peace. This goes to the very foundations of our cooperation within the European Union.”
Schulz vowed that, if elected chancellor, he would push for the EU to cut subsidies to countries that do not take in refugees: “With me as chancellor, we won’t accept that solidarity as a principle is questioned.”
Meanwhile, Merkel’s grand coalition backed a law that would penalize social media giants, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, with fines of €50 million ($60 million) if they fail to remove offending content from their platforms within 24 hours. Observers say the law is aimed at silencing critics of Merkel’s open-door migration policy.
Like Merkel, Schulz has reserved his worst vitriol for the anti-immigration AfD, whose leaders he has described as “rat catchers” (Rattenfänger) who are “trying to profit from the plight of refugees.” He has also called them “shameful and repulsive.”
In an August 22 interview with Bild, Merkel answered critics of her desire to continue in power by saying that the longer she rules, the better she gets: “I’ve decided to run for another four years and believe that the mix of experience and curiosity and joy that I have could make the next four years good ones.”
Note that according to EU rules, when migrants are granted permission to stay in Germany they are free to move anywhere within the EU after three years.
Newsweek, “Tillerson, Mattis and McMaster Present Trump With Plan to Stop Iranian Aggression”, 12 Sept 2017:
A Kurdish-Arab coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces has been battling ISIS in eastern Syria but has encountered hostile fire from Iranian-backed forces, as well as Syrian rebels backed by Turkey.
Ibid: Trump has railed against the landmark nuclear deal signed in July 2015 between the Islamic Republic and six world powers, threatening on the presidential campaign trail to rip up the agreement that lifted sanctions in return for reining in the country’s uranium enrichment program.
Trump gained the White house through a pledge to un-do the Iran deal and a claim that was his inspiration to run for President.
