Italy: The Human Face of Uncontrolled Migration

Hat tip HeHa, Gates of Vienna, and Vlad Tepes. Translation by Fousesquawk.

-Corriere Fiorentino

The woman you see above is a 65-year-old woman who was attacked on the street in the middle of Florence by a migrant from Gambia. The photo shows how she was beaten. The man who was charged with her beating had been previously charged with another attack on another woman as well as an arrest for attempted murder in 2017. He is in Italy illegally.

Yet, thanks to the insane immigration and refugee policy of the Italian government, scenes like this are playing out daily in Italy as migrants like this one are allowed to freely roam around. This is the face and the cost of uncontrolled migration. This is not immigration. This is an invasion, facilitated and allowed by the politicians, the courts, and various organizations. That includes various international NGOs and even the Catholic Church. I can only hope that Pope Francis sees this photograph.

The below article from Corriere Fiorentino is translated by Fousesquawk.

 https://corrierefiorentino.corriere.it/firenze/notizie/cronaca/22_febbraio_08/maria-grazia-picchiata-rapinata-ho-pensato-mi-avrebbe-uccisa-d51fc936-883f-11ec-9bf4-9b7afe80df9a_amp.html

The brutal attack

8 February 2022-15:22

Florence: Maria Grazia beaten and robbed while going to work. "I thought he was going to kill me"

by Jacobo Storni

"When I look at myself in the mirror, I see that man again, I see the whole scene again." Maria Grazia, 65, lives alone in an apartment in Sesto Fiorentino. She is in pajamas and slippers, the tv turned on to Rai One, medications scattered on the table. On her wrist is still the hospital bracelet, her face is swollen, red, swollen with bruises. Her right eye no longer opens, three teeth (upper incisors) are knocked out, on her chin are four stitches, on her eye, three. But Maria Grazia is a strong woman. "My parents taught me that when  you fall, then you get up again." She doesn't cry. "I'm not used to crying in front of other people, but when I am alone, of course, I cry, I lay on the couch and the tears fall, that Sunday morning scene always passes in front of me"

Sunday morning, Maria Grazia was going to work as always. "I do the cleaning in a business in the center of Florence, I get up at 4:45 every morning. And like every morning, on Sunday, I had parked my car on Viale Fratelli Rosselli, then I walked towards the city center on via Alamanni in the vicinity of the (train) station." It (was) 6:30, and Maria Grazia is on the phone with her sister: "We were talking about a wedding to which I was invited when suddenly, an African man approached and hit me with two fists to my face. He hit me in one eye, then in the mouth, the phone fell to the ground, I cried desperately, called for help but nobody was passing by, my whole life passed in front of me, then more slaps, he pushed me to the ground, I tried to put my hands in back so as not to fall on the nape of my neck, I dropped my bag and fled, trembling with terror." Maria Grazia is laying on the ground, blood coming from her nose, but she gets up, remains lucid, stops a passing car, asks for help, then the first responders arrive, the transfer to the Santa Maria Nuova hospital while the Carabinieri search for and arrest the man who turns out to be a Gambian, with no fixed abode. Last February 2, he was charged for an attack on another woman in the same area, and in March 2017, he was arrested for attempted homicide in the province of Isernia. 

Now Maria Grazia is here, in her home waiting for visits by some friends. "I feel so much anger, anger for everything that has happened and perhaps, should not have happened. How can a woman going to work suffer such an attack in the center of Florence? Why so much violence?" Maria Grazia has no answer. "Now my head is empty." But she has clear ideas: "That man had attacked another woman a few days before, had no documents, (and) I ask myself why was he free to roam around the streets?" And to think that she has always understood the migrants. "I have always been in solidarity, every month, I send money to Africa with Save the Children, I don't believe that this episode will make me change my mind about migrants. There are bad ones and good ones, as with the Italians. Those good ones should be integrated, but the bad ones should be punished and should not have the liberty to attack a defenseless woman in the middle of the street. Maybe it's the system that doesn't work."

But Maria Grazia is tired and doesn't want to go through too many difficult reflections. "I don't know if the fault is with the judges, the politicians, or the integration system, I only wish that these bruises on my face would go away. As soon as I am  recovered, I will have to go to the dentist to have my teeth replaced." And then there is the ear, nose, and throat specialist and the eye doctor. She is aware that her voice, her story, and her battered face can be a testimony to the insecurity of our cities. "But I ask," she says, referring to the politicians who will read her story, "do not come now in procession to my house to bring me solidarity, what has happened, has happened."

Sweden: Islamist Party Promises to Take Over Southern Swedish Region

Sweden has its own Muslim political party, called Nyans. It is still small, and the Social Democrats are still the most popular party among Sweden's Muslim population.  

In the below article from Nya Dagbladet, the party's leader, Mikail Yüksel, has promised that they will "take over" the southern Swedish region of Skåne, which includes Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city and a hotbed of Islamism and anti-Semitism. The article is translated by Fousesquawk.

https://nyadagbladet.se/inrikes/islamistparti-lovar-ta-over-hela-skane/

Domestic

Islamist party promises "to take over Skåne”

Posted today 16:01-Avisac Boman

Caption: Party leader 

In a Twitter posting, the Islamist party Nyans declares that is on the way "to taking over all of  Skåne” and that  Malmö is the first out.

Nya Dagbladet has earlier drawn attention to the party which, among others, demands that Islamophobia should become its own crime classification and that Muslims should receive a special minority position in Sweden-They have also accused all other Swedish parties as being racists. 

Founder and party leader Mikail Yüksel has a past in the Center Party but was forced out of the party after it was discovered that he had close contacts with the pan-Turkish, extreme right organization, Grey Wolves, and the party is believed to have close contacts with the Turkish dictator Recep Erdogan.

In a posting on Twitter, Mikail  Yüksel posts a photo from the party's candidate meeting and writes that, "Soon we will take over all of  Skåne with Malmö at the top".

Insert: Crowded candidate meeting also in Skåne-"Soon we will take over all of Skåne with Malmö at the top."

Thus far, the interest on the part of the mass media for the party that describes itself as the obvious alternative for the country's Muslims has been relatively cool, but the party, which among others, wants to make it illegal to criticize religious extremism, has still received a certain space in which to market itself in both the tax-financed SVT (Swedish State TV) as well as the evening newspapers.

In Muslim-dominated and immigrant-dense areas, the Social Democrats till now have been the most popular party by far.

Italy: Migrants Have Made Milan the Crime Capital of Italy

Milan, Italy's second-largest city, is now known as the crime capital of the country thanks to a sizable contribution to crime by migrants, many of whom are in the country illegally. Police are still investigating and arresting those responsible for the New Year's Eve molestation of several women at or near Piazza del Duomo.

Below is an article appearing today in Il Giornale featuring an interview with Milan political figure Silvia Sardone of the conservative Lega party. Translation by Fousesquawk,

 https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/milano/molti-reati-e-violenze-matrice-straniera-che-sinistra-finge-2008504.html

"The left pretends not to see the foreign violence"

8 February 2022-07:44

The left denies that the safety problem of Milan is connected to uncontrolled immigration. Silvia Sardone unmasks the usual feel-good story.

Francesca Galici

Safety is a problem in Milan, and the total absence of a strategy of reception (of immigrants) is a part. This is a fact that is ignored, however by the left, which prefers to tell other truths rather than admit the failure of the feel-good ideology of reception at all costs.

Minister Lamorgese, at the end of a meeting in the prefecture with the mayor of Milan, pertaining to the violence of New Year's Eve, said," those who have used violence are boys, Italian citizens of second generation, therefore I will not combine the immigration subject with the violence that, unfortunately, occurs on the part of Italian citizens."

But the Interior Minister said a half-truth, there already being three foreigners in jail for those acts. The last were arrested in the past hours. Silvia Sardone, counselor in force for the Lega (League party) for the municipality of Milan, since before the security emergency reached the maximum level of alert, is trying to shine the spotlight on the issue, but the left has always been deaf in that ear. We (spoke with) her immediately after the end of the meeting in the prefecture between the mayor, the minister the police chief, and the prefect.

What is the impact of foreigners on sexual crimes in Milan?

From data in our possession, reported in the latest national ranking on crimes by Il Sole 24 Ore (newspaper), which sees Milan as the crime capital of Italy, we know that complaints against foreigners are 57%, an alarming figure if we consider that legal foreigners represent about 20% of the population of Milan. As for sexual violence, it is in front of everybody's eyes except the left, which pretends not to see the larger propensity on the part of foreigners, especially North Africans, to harass and attack women of any age, as the shameful episodes of New Year's Eve and Cascina Gobba* teach us. In almost half of the cases, the perpetrators are not Italians. At San Vittore (prison) 75% of the prisoners are foreign: Something they (the left) might want to say about these numbers...." 

Yet, it seems that (Mayor) Sala has just now realized the safety emergency. How many complaints for harassment have there been in the last year?

"We are talking about around 15 complaints a year for every 100,000 residents of Milan, important numbers that show a real drama. Behind every violence, there is a mother, a wife, a daughter, women who are harassed, attacked, raped, and humiliated by thugs without scruples who often have no right to be in our country. Illegals who the left has welcomed in our city then abandoned them to their destiny. There is much blame for the municipal administration." 

Why not assign more police to control the territory?

"The meeting yesterday in the prefecture with Minister Lamorgese did not produce the hoped-for results because 255 policemen who will be assigned to Milan, not all immediately, by the way, are not enough. And I cannot help but note that Mayor Sala now realizes the problem, yet it was he who put the local police in Smart Working rather than assign them in the territory for prevention and combating crimes. Sala is the mayor of "the day after" and is absolutely non-existent on safety. That is shown by the fact that as councilor, he chose Granelli, who, on New Year's Eve on social media explained that everything was getting better...It is disrespectful to reduce a felt and perceived fear to emotionality on social media."

How can the perception of safety in Milan be improved?

First of all, with the awareness on the part of the left that they have completely failed on this issue.  As long as those who administer this city do not recognize their faults, it will be difficult to change the situation.  In practice, the local police must be put in conditions of once again becoming the great force  that all of Italy envied as the model-rather than pursuing business people for a table out of position by two centimeters or harass drivers with 30 (kph) zones, why doesn't the left change gears by restoring neighborhood watches and creating mobile garrisons in the hottest peripheries? The citizens on the street have to see the uniforms to feel more secure and protected. The municipality must take an active part, evicting the squatters from public housing. closing the social centers, and securing the dozens of abandoned properties occupied by stragglers, dealers, and illegals. Not just that: implement video surveillance, institute patrols on public transport, increased presence of the military in the most sensitive places in the city." 

*Cascina Gobba: An area in Milan where a woman was raped by a migrant in 2021.

Belgium: Police Round up 13 Terror Suspects in Antwerp

Today, police in Antwerp, Belgium raided 13 homes and arrested 13 terror suspects. It is alleged they have been spreading jihadist propaganda on social media. One of the suspects had previously been intercepted as a minor trying to travel to Syria in 2015.

The below article from the Belgian Daily, De Standaard, is translated from Dutch by Fousesquawk.

 https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20220208_93853757

13 arrests in Antwerp during house searches in terror case involving jihadist propaganda

Today at 11:47 by Sare Me

In a large police operation in Antwerp Tuesday morning, 13 alleged members of a terrorist group were arrested. They have reportedly spread jihadist propaganda.

About 100 investigators from the Federal Judicial Police raided 13 addresses Tuesday morning in the Antwerp region, including Borgerhout, Hoboken, and Borsbeek. "The house searches were ordered by an investigative judge in the framework of a case in the Federal Prosecutor (office) involving participation in the activities of a terrorist group," the federal prosecutor's office confirmed. 

House searches were conducted in various locations in Borgerhout. An equal number of suspects were arrested at the 13 locations. They will be brought later today before an investigative judge in Antwerp. "The Antwerp group came into the picture within the Salafist jihadist environment, and the aim of this action was to further chart this group," said the federal prosecutor's office. They give no further commentary about the police action.

Potentially new Sharia4Belgium* 

The group has allegedly been engaged in spreading of Salafist-jihadist propaganda on social media. That allegedly includes inflammatory language and anti-Western propaganda. The detectives fear that the group, under the leadership of one of the suspects arrested today, could have the potential of becoming a new Sharia4Belgium.  

According to our information, among the suspects, there are several men who also previously came under attention during terrorism investigations. One of them was intercepted in 2015, as a minor, on his way to Syria. He was eventually tried as an adult in Antwerp and received a suspended sentence.

* Sharia4Belgium was an Islamist organization that pushed for the introduction of sharia law into Belgium. They were declared a terrorist organization and disbanded in 2012.

Italy "Celebrates" Senegal's Victory in African Cup-Sort of

*Update: Here is a video from the major Turin daily, La Stampa. The only voice is at the end where someone says, "The police have fled." (Translation by Fousesquawk.

On Sunday, the Senegalese national soccer team won the African Cup. Far away in Turin (Torino), Italy, their fans "celebrated" by rioting. The below article from Il Giornale, written by Francesca Galici, is translated by Fousesquawk. The article contains a short video of the rioting.

 https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/cronache/polizia-costretta-fuga-bande-immigrati-caos-torino-2008447.html

Onslaught and chaos: Gangs of immigrants force police to flee

7 February 2022-12:57

Madness and delirium in Turin after the victory of Senegal in the African Cup: Gangs of immigrants in the street and police forced to withdraw

Francesca Galici

The security emergency is a problem not only in Milan, where today, the Minister of Interior, Luciana Lamorgese, will meet with Mayor Beppe Sala and the chief of police. Uncontrolled immigration in our country is leading to an increase in situations of hardship, ghettoization, and marginalization in all the large cities, with a resultant reduction in levels of security for the citizens. Problems very similar to those in Milan are also recorded in Turin, on the extreme periphery of the city under the control of criminal gangs, often of foreign extraction.

One of the recent cases is the maxi-brawl thwarted by the Carabinieri in Nichelino, a bedroom community at the gates of Turin, where a group of 100 young men of North African origin was about to clash with local youths. The 100 foreign youths had all arrived from the Barriera quarter, known as one of the "suburbs" of Torino (inhabited by immigrants).  And some of the young men under investigation by police for the New Years' Eve violence in Milan have come from the periphery of the Savoian capital. One of them is still in jail. Barriera and Barca are the two quarters in which Italian law seems to be suspended, where the State cannot assert its authority.

It is shown also by what happened recently in the Barriera quarter, where the streets were invaded by hundreds of people to celebrate  Senegal's victory in the African Cup. "Years of Pd (Partito Democratico) and M5S (5 Stars Party ) government, and this is the result," Augusta Montaruli, parliamentarian of Fratelli d'Italia-Brothers of Italy (party) and Maurizio Marrone regional commissioner of Legal Affairs, charge. The images that were captured by ex-municipal counselor Raffaele Petrarulo speak clearly: The local police patrols in Turin were forced to flee. "While Lo Russo sleeps, Turin is already becoming a ("no-go zone") in which the streets are devastated to celebrate the victory of Senegal in the finals of the African Cup," the two representatives of Brothers of Italy charge. 

For several hours, the quarter remained completely out of control with the police being unable to intervene to restore order and safety: Gangs of African immigrants who attack the police patrols in the quarter, forcing them to flee, and then generating chaos in the streets. Surely for them, the mayor's proposition of a street psychologist is a joke. The municipal administration also needs to take more serious action. For some time, we have been reporting how north Turin has been transforming itself into a maxi-ghetto in which the drug dealers of the African mafia are rampant".  

The president of District 6 in Turin, Valerio Lomanto, echoes the report of Montaruli and Marrone: "This attack is not accidental, it is not a celebration of a victory. It is a  regurgitation of Mafia (drug) dealers who, finally, are afraid of losing control of the zone. It is an indication that the efforts of the police are bearing fruit".

Is the University of Chicago a "Brown University"?

Back in 2005, I published my third book, Erlangen: An American's History of a German Town. My reason for choosing the Franconian (N Bavaria) town of Erlangen was that I had spent almost three years there as a US Army Military Policeman in the 1960s. I developed a strong attachment to Erlangen, and after my army service, I returned several times and ultimately decided to write a history of the town. 

Erlangen is also a university town and home to Friedrich-Alexander University, notable for its medical department and historically famed as a center of Lutheran theology. Many of Germany's greatest Lutheran theologians taught there, and I know of at least 3 or 4 who are buried in Erlangen.

An unfortunate part of its history was that it was the first university in Germany where Nazi students formed a student organization, (the NS Studentenbewegung-National Socialist Student Movement) in 1923 and achieved a majority in student government (1929). This was in the days before Hitler took power in 1933. Hence, they acquired the moniker, the "Brown University".

Indeed, as Hitler and his party were struggling throughout the 1920s and early 1930s to gain power in Germany, one of their first targets was the universities. Hitler made a total of 5 speeches in Erlangen between 1923-1931, largely due to the presence of the university. In 1931, the famed writer and later exiled dissident, Thomas Mann, spoke at Erlangen, and his speech was disrupted by the Nazi students. In addition, Hitler's student followers engaged in acts of intimidation against their opponents including of course Jewish students and Jewish professors, whose classes they boycotted and occasionally disrupted. This happened, of course, at other universities. 

Why do I bring this up? Certainly not to denigrate the present-day University of Erlangen nor present-day Germany. It is because I have seen similar agitation in US universities against today's generation of Jewish students-especially if they support the Jewish state of Israel. 

That is because the well-organized and well-financed Palestinian movement is alive and well on US college campuses as Israel is regularly demonized. pro-Palestinian activists fight to gain seats in student governments while trying to keep Jews out. In recent years, we have witnessed the latter effort at UCLA, USC, and UC Santa Cruz. I wrote about them on this site. Anti-Israel events on campuses all over the country are the order of the day while any pro-Israel event can expect to be disrupted by today's latter-day Brown Shirts.

And who are these Brown Shirts in the 21st century? In my opinion, we are talking about the various chapters of the Muslim Student Association on campuses around the country and their sister organization, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the latter organization open to non-Muslim students as well including some misguided Jewish students on the left of the political spectrum. 

SJP's tactics of bullying and disruption have been well documented at more universities that could be listed here. On more than one occasion, I have applied the moniker The Brown University to Brown University itself due to harassment of Jewish students at that Rhode Island institution. I know some would accuse me of resorting too often to Nazi comparisons in writing about current anti-Semitism on our campuses. But the harassment, bullying, disruption, and intimidation that I have personally witnessed brings back the specter of what was going on in German universities in the years before and immediately after Hitler took power.

Of course, things got infinitely worse in Germany for Jews later in the 3rd Reich, and we have not reached that level of horror yet. But as we witness the awful resurgence of anti-Semitism worldwide, it is important to note that in the US, at least, its point of origin has been within our universities. During my 18 years teaching part-time at UC Irvine, I personally witnessed it many times. I've seen how they try to intimidate Jewish students. They've tried to intimidate me-unsuccessfully.

In my case, I had the advantages of age, life experience, and my position as an adjunct teacher on campus to deal with the intimidation. But the average 19-20 student usually doesn't possess those advantages. I've seen time and time again how Jewish students try to "dialogue" with these people. They are routinely unsuccessful. It is a losing tactic.

The following article from The College Fix on what is going on at the University of Chicago is reminiscent of what was going on in German universities in the lead-up to 1933 when Hitler took power. 

https://www.thecollegefix.com/dont-take-shtty-zionist-classes-uchicago-students-for-justice-in-palestine-says/

If you are a student of the history of the Third Reich, which I am, you can look back to the 1920s and early 30s when Nazi students were boycotting classes taught by Jewish professors and agitating to get them removed from their positions. After Hitler took power, they were successful.

Today, we have little Brown Shirts agitating against the hiring of Israeli professors and against any classes that would present Israel in a positive light as opposed to the propaganda and indoctrination delivered by the pan-Arab, anti-Israel, anti-West professors of the various Middle East Studies departments and their useful idiot allies. These modern-day Brown Shirts are trying to stop their universities from having any relationships with Israeli universities. They routinely disrupt pro-Israel events and try to shut them down. They are against free speech when it comes to their opponents. And to the great shame of our universities, the administrators have turned a blind eye. They have refused to punish offenders. They have enabled the trouble-makers and the anti-Semites. The institution where I taught for 18 years-UC Irvine- is no exception.

The University of Chicago needs to tell SJP in no uncertain terms that they will not censor speech or classes they don't like on campus. SJP is a despicable organization. That they count a few Jewish members in their ranks is irrelevant. They are still Brown Shirts.

Sweden: Islamists Spreading Hate Against Sweden

Below is a translation of an article by Sophie Löwenmark in the Swedish daily, Expressen. The article tells how many Swedish imams and other Islamist activists in the country are spreading hate against the country and its institutions through a campaign of disinformation against the country's social services. One example is that Swedish social services want to take custody and care of Muslim children in order to convert them to Christianity.

The article is translated from Swedish by Fousesquawk. 

 https://www.expressen.se/ledare/sofie-lowenmark/radikala-islamister-hetsar-mot-socialtjansten/

Sophie Löwenmark

Radical Islamists incite against social services

Posted February 4, 2022 at 16:59

Caption: Raad al Duhan speaks disparagingly about Swedish democracy, social services, and LVU (Laws for special provision for care of young people) on Tiktok.

Sweden kidnaps Muslim children claimed in a massive disinformation campaign. The anger is fueled by radical Islamists and can lead to acts of terror.

In closed groups on social media that gather tens of thousands of members, conspiracy theories and pure hate against Sweden flow. A common allegation is that Muslim children are taken into custody to convert them to Christianity and that LVU is used as part of a war against Islam. Such rumors are also spread mouth to mouth and are raised in some mosques and associations.

In Sweden, there are large groups that are susceptible to such disinformation. Those are people who have a poor knowledge of Swedish, low level of education, low knowledge of Swedish society, and live in areas where no native Swedes reside.

But those who spread rumors also take advantage of the fact that many people have a strong religious conviction. Lies that social services can take custody of children solely on grounds of the family's Muslim faith naturally, cause both fear and anger.

It is a golden opportunity for radical Islamists. The Islamist propaganda apparatus is always looking for information that can create widespread anger. It matters little if it involves a caricature of the Prophet or a law whose real purpose is to protect vulnerable children. They use whatever they can to counter integration and to radicalize people. 

In the current campaign, some of the so-called "deportation imams" are heavily involved. This involves persons who are judged to pose a threat against the country's security, but who are still in Sweden since their deportation order has not been enforced. Gävle imam, Abo Raad and Västerås imam Fekri Hamad, for example, are very active in issues on social media. Abo Raad also spoke about LVU in his last Friday sermon. 

His son, Raad al Duhan, received extensive attention last year after I revealed that he started a relationship with an Ekot reporter who reported on his deportation case. He is also active in the issue, (and) on Tiktok, he speaks disparagingly about Swedish democracy, social services, and LVU.

More well-known names from the Radical Islamist environment in Sweden are also acting and trying to bring others along in their hate against democracy and the secular Swedish society through spreading lies about social services.

"Unfortunately, nothing indicates that the large anger towards Sweden will diminish by itself"

At the same time, an extensive campaign against Sweden is in progress from the Middle East. Arabic hashtags with disparaging opinions about Sweden have become viral on Twitter. Rabid Islamists in countries, like Egypt, Qatar, and Jordan put up clips filled with hate and conspiracy theories on platforms with hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of followers.

Sweden's alleged violations against Muslims are put into evidence through occasional, personal cases that are incorrectly rendered. Talk is beginning of a boycott of Swedish goods. The campaign is not totally different from what we have earlier seen against Denmark and France, among others.

There are large risks here. If large groups in Sweden lose trust in the authorities, that in itself can become system threatening.

But there is also a possible jihadist threat. In France, investigators talk about "atmospheric jihad". That doesn't involve terror groups, like earlier, who train, finance, and order acts. Instead so-called "entrepreneurs in anger" spread views that Islam or Muslims have been violated and identify individuals who are responsible. On that information, one or several perpetrators can then act with violence.

The beheading of the teacher Samuel Paty and the knife murders of three people in a church in Nice are two examples of this atmospheric jihadism. In both cases, the perpetrators had no connections to Islamist organizations, and neither of them acted under orders. They acted on their own on the message that someone else had spread about alleged injustices against Islam's Prophet.

In the current campaign against Sweden, people have already called for acts of violence, such as burning down social (service) offices. The people behind such posts can well be harmless figures who are writing in the heat of the moment. But in such an explosive situation, there is a risk that messages can lead others to action.

Unfortunately, nothing indicates that the large anger towards Sweden will diminish by itself.

Sofie Löwenmark is a freelance columnist on Expressen's opinion page. Read several of her writings here.

Let's go, Brandon, Romanian Style

On December 21, 1989, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu gave his last speech in Bucharest before being overthrown. To the dismay of Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, the crowd was none too friendly, as they gave him the "Let's go, Brandon" treatment. They were forced to cut short the speech and flee the capital. On December 25, he and his wife were put on "trial" by a military tribunal, convicted, and shot.

Using a little literary license, we have added English subtitles to a video of his speech (in Romanian, of course) to add a little humor to the event back on December 21, 1989-as if it wasn't humorous enough.

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to other living persons is rather coincidental, and no-I am not advocating that anybody meet the same fate as the Ceaușescus.

Beijing Winter Olympics: Dutch Reporter Forcibly Removed by Chinese Security

 Hat tip Vlad Tepes and Gates of Vienna. Translation by Fousesquawk.

The Winter Olympics in Beijing is off to a roaring start. In the below video from the Dutch news outlet, NOS, Sjoerd den Daas, a correspondent covering the Olympics for NOS in Beijing, found himself being forcibly removed from his spot by Chinese security just as he was beginning to broadcast back to the Netherlands from outside the stadium.

France: Broadcast on Radical Islam Draws Death Threats

Ophelie Meunier

It's an all-too-familiar story these days, especially in Europe. A French journalist has been threatened with death after she did a show on radical Islam. And she is not the only one. A lawyer who appeared on the show and discussed the problem has also been threatened with death.

The below article from Midilibre (France) is translated by Fousesquawk.

https://www.midilibre.fr/2022/02/03/ophelie-meunier-menacee-de-mort-le-producteur-de-zone-interdite-donne-de-ses-nouvelles-10086349.php

Ophelie Meunier threatened with death: The producer of Forbidden Zone discloses the news

Posted February 3, 2022 at 15:31

Ophelie Meunier, M6 journalist, is the target of death threats since the broadcast of a report on radical Islam on the program, Forbidden Zone on Sunday, 23 January. And the subject had caused much conversation even before it went on the air with a boycott launched on social media under the hashtag,#boycottzoneinterditeM6. After its broadcast, the journalists were targeted.

Death threats

It is (also)  the case of Amine Elbahi, a 25-year-old lawyer living in Roubaix who testified to his worry in the face of separatism progressively leaning toward fundamentalism in the poorest city in France. On BFMTV, the young man confided that  he received numerous violent messages "threats of decapitation, being slaughtered, of coming after me because I spoke the truth with my face uncovered."

On Saturday, 29 January, TV Mag revealed that the presenter of Forbidden Zone, Ophelie Meunier, had been placed under police protection after having received threats deemed to be serious. According to Agence France Presse, the young woman has since been under watch of the SDLP, the service assigned to protect personalities. The producer of Forbidden Zone disclosed the news.

Ophelie is coping, she is working

On Wednesday, 2 February, Philippe Vandel hosted on his program, Culture Medias on Europe 1, Jean-Marie Tricaud, the producer and editorial manager of Forbidden Zone, as well as Michaelle Gagniet, the director of the report. "We knew it was a minefield, a very complicated subject to approach," admitted the former. While the latter reiterated the "fear of those who testified, the fear on the part of the politicians and the fear on the part of the journalists," in the face of the fundamentalists. 

He took the occasion to give some news on Ophelie Meunier: "She is fine. Obviously, it is intolerable to find oneself in this situation for having done your job. Orphelie is coping, she is working. She has returned to the office. But I'm not going to lie to you, it is a very difficult situation to live in," Jean-Marie Tricaud said at the end.

The journalist had received many messages of support, especially from her colleagues .

It's the Washington Commanders! Hitler Reacts

Fousesquawk's latest Hitler parody masterpiece. 

Yesterday, after two years as the Washington Football Team, the organization, such as it is, has announced its new name. After an exhaustive process, the new name will be the Washington Commanders!

After two years, they come up with that? Well, I guess nobody will be offended.

Except for one fan in Germany, who had sent in his own suggestion. That would be the Fuehrer. 

Netherlands: The Train to Nowhere

In recent months, we have been reporting on the problems caused by asylum-seekers in the Netherlands while riding buses to and from the asylum center at Ter Apel, a small town where many refugees have been sent. Many of them are from so-called "safe countries" which are not at war, but from which many are asking for asylum. Many bus drivers have been subjected to abuse from refugees.

Now the local authorities and the carriers have attempted to substitute train travel for asylum-seekers over bus travel. Still, station and train personnel are suffering abuse at the hands of non-paying refugees.

In the below article from the Dutch outlet, RTV Oost, translated by Fousesquawk, the Dutch Rail agency and the carrier company Arriva are pleading for the national government to step in and provide a solution.

https://www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/2058522/Vervoersbedrijven-trekken-aan-noodrem-vanwege-overlast-asielzoeker

Caption beneath photo: Leonie Bosselaar on the increasing trouble from (people from) "safe countries"

Transport companies pull emergency brake due to asylum-seekers

Transport companies  Arriva and the Dutch Railways are urging the government to take action. According to the companies, residents of asylum centers are causing trouble and endangering the safety of railway workers.

It has especially been a problem in the past months in and around the Zwolle station. The carriers fear that the nuisance will be an increasingly bigger problem if the authorities take no action.

Trouble from the asylum-seekers from the so-called "safe countries" has been a problem for some time primarily concentrated on the Emmen-Zwolle track line . To rid the nuisance from the train(s), a bus line was subsequently opened specially for (refugees from) "safe countries" that can be used to reach the asylum center in Ter Apel. There is no need to buy a ticket on that line. 

Special bus line canceled

But the special bus line was hardly used, Arriva reports: "The bus rode three times a day from Zwolle to Ter Apel. An average of 5-7 passengers made use of this bus per day, spread over the three (trips). There were also days in which there were no passengers. Because there was hardly any to no use, in consultation with the Justice and Security Ministry, the municipality of Emmen and Arriva decided to cancel it."

Caption beneath photo: Trouble caused by lack of transport ticket

No ticket

In itself, a logical decision, Arriva believes. But both transport companies reproach the government for not first taking new measures. Now people again have to take the train and must be in possession of a ticket.

 "What we see is that often the people from the asylum-seekers center have no ticket and are stuck at the station at Zwolle. If they are approached, situations can arise that can become ugly," says Leonie Bosselaar, from the Dutch Railways. 

This often results in spitting and name-calling, but it can also get further out-of-hand. According to Dutch Railways and Arriva, the lack of such a train ticket or the money to buy it is mainly the problem. "As carriers, you have to deal with it, and our appeal to the government is to intervene."

Caption beneath photo:    Police increasingly at and around the Zwolle station

Government must provide a solution quickly

The carriers want the government to provide a solution "up front". Bosselaar: "Then we can prevent annoyance to other passengers on the train and at the station."

According to spokesperson Bosselaar, it is a societal problem, in which not only the carriers, but the police, for example, have to (get involved.

Arriva reports: "Insults, intimidation, spitting incidents; our personnel are regularly exposed to this here. Something has to be done about this. This is a societal problem in which we feel that this must be solved by the government."