Jul 21

Today’s News 21st July 2016

  • Sharia In Denmark

    Submitted by Judith Bergmann via The Gatestone Institute,

    • "All the bullying happens in Arabic… The hierarchy of the Arab boys creates a very violent environment. … I have filmed the particularly vile bullying of a Somali boy. You can see the tears in his eyes. They are destroying him; it is very violent. " — From a dissertation by Jalal El Derbas, Ph.D.

    • Danish teachers are the least respected and are spoken of in denigrating and humiliating terms.

    • "I am not saying that all the Arab children did ugly things, but we witnessed on a regular basis… using derogatory Arabic language towards Somalis and girls." — Lise Egholm, former head of the Rådmandsgade school in Copenhagen.

    • Whether Danish parliamentarians wish to acknowledge this problem or not, they are up against far wider issues than that of religious incitement in mosques by radical preachers.

    After the television documentary, "Sharia in Denmark", embarrassed Danish authorities by revealing how widespread the preaching of sharia is in mosques in Denmark; the Danish government, in May, concluded a political agreement about "initiatives directed against religious preachers who seek to undermine Danish laws and values and who support parallel legal systems."

    "We are doing everything we can without compromising the constitution and international agreements," Bertel Haarder, the Minister for Culture and Church, said about the political agreement.

    The agreement centers on a number of initiatives, which are supposed to compensate for the detrimental effects of all the years in which sharia was allowed to spread in Denmark while most authorities paid only scant attention to what was happening. Part of the new effort, therefore, will be the mapping of all existing mosques in Denmark.

    It will now be obligatory, according to the agreement, for all priests, imams and others who are not part of the Church of Denmark, and who wish to be able to perform weddings — as well as for foreign preachers who apply for residence permits — to learn about Danish family law, freedom and democracy. At the end of the course, all will have to sign a statement that they will accept Danish law, including freedom of speech and religion, gender equality, freedom of sexual orientation, non-discrimination and women's rights.

    The government will examine how to create more transparency in foreign donations to faith communities in Denmark, including controlling and, if necessary, preventing such donations. As part of this work, on May 4 the government presented a law making it a crime to receive funding from a terror organization to establish or run an institution in Denmark, including schools and mosques.

    Another element in the political agreement is the establishment of national lists with the names of traveling foreign (non-EU) religious preachers who will be excluded from entry into Denmark on the grounds that they are a threat to public order in Denmark. These named preachers will not be granted an entry visa and will be denied entry at the border. In addition, a non-public list, containing the names of such preachers who are EU citizens, will be established. The purpose of this list is to create awareness of the existence of these preachers, as, due to EU rules on free movement, they cannot be denied entry.

    The final component of the agreement is the criminalization of certain speech. According to the agreement, it will become illegal explicitly to support terrorism, murder, rape, violence, incest, pedophilia, the use of force and polygamy as part of religious training, and whether or not the speech was made in private or in public. Both the activities of religious preachers and the activities of others, who speak as part of religious training, are included in the criminalization.

    The political agreement is expected to become law when the Danish parliament reconvenes after the summer vacation.

    Danish parliamentarians are aware that it will be difficult to measure whether these initiatives have any effect — how do you measure whether religious preachers are indeed not explicitly supporting terrorism, murder, rape and pedophilia, unless you place them under constant surveillance? But lawmakers are nevertheless confident that the new initiatives will have an effect. "This will have an impact on what people put up with from their religious leaders." Culture and Church Minister Bertel Haarder says.

    Another parliamentarian, Naser Khader, who appears more realistic, says,

    "We are well aware that more initiatives are needed. But this stops hate preachers from coming to Denmark, preachers who only want to come here in order to sow discord between population groups and who encourage violence, incest and pedophilia."

    After the documentary "Sharia in Denmark" embarrassed Danish authorities, the government reached a new a political agreement, which Danish Member of Parliament Naser Khader supported, saying, "this stops hate preachers from coming to Denmark, preachers who only want to come here in order to sow discord between population groups and who encourage violence, incest and pedophilia."

    While Danish politicians have taken yet another step on an uncertain road that may or may not succeed in stemming the rise of sharia in Denmark, other problems abound, which compound the impression that this initiative will not amount to much more than a symbolic band-aid.

    A recent Ph.D. dissertation by Jalal El Derbas, as reported by the Danish newspaper, Berlingske Tidende, shows that in several Danish schools with Arab students, the latter, mainly boys, use Arabic as a means to sexually and racially harass and bully other students as well as their teachers, especially girls, Somalis and ethnically Danish teachers, who do not understand the insults hurled at them in Arabic.

    According to the article, El Derbas was shocked when he went through the video footage of 12- and 13-year-olds in two different Danish public schools with a majority of pupils with minority background. The purpose of his Ph.D. was to examine the possible causes of why bilingual boys — who speak both Danish and Arabic — continue to lag behind other Danish students. He wanted to see what those bilingual boys actually do in the classroom. The footage was taken over five months and it displayed a world characterized by hierarchy, sexual and religious harassment, bullying and racism, in which the first language of the students, Arabic, played a central and leading role. According to El Derbas:

    "I could see that the students used Arabic as a secret code and they only used it negatively to disturb the schoolwork. If they did not want to do the work, they simply shifted to Arabic. The schools were very flexible and allowed the students to use Arabic both inside and outside the classroom. But all that this freedom accomplished was that the students shifted from Danish to Arabic if they were getting into a fight and if there was a teacher nearby whom they did not want to understand what they were saying."

    The video footage also revealed a hierarchy consisting of sexual harassment and racism, because the Arab boys consider themselves higher-ranking than girls and Somali students.

    "All the bullying happens in Arabic. All the ugly and mean words are uttered in Arabic. The hierarchy of the Arab boys creates a very violent environment. I have video footage of severe sexual harassment against Arab girls and I have filmed the particularly vile bullying of a Somali boy. You can see the tears in his eyes. They are destroying him; it is very violent."

    According to El Derbas, Sunni and Shia Muslim strife is also imported into the grounds of these Danish schools. With the majority of the boys being Sunni Muslims, they look down on the Shia Muslim students and a teacher who is a Shia Muslim is called "Satan" or "witch", whereas a Sunni Muslim teacher is addressed courteously as "uncle" or "aunt". Danish teachers are the least respected, and are spoken of in denigrating and humiliating terms.

    El Derbas, stressed that the pupils come from ghetto areas, saying:

    "Many of the teachers have given up on engaging the parents in any way, but if this is to change it has to happen through the parents. Maybe it would help if the parents took turns of being present in the classroom to see how their children behave. Most of them [the parents] are not working or studying anyway. I think that could lead to an improvement. Because no parents will accept that their children behave in this manner".

    The results of the dissertation come as no surprise to Lise Egholm, now retired, but who for 18 years, until 2013, was the head of Copenhagen's Rådmandsgade school, which has many Arab students.

    "I am not saying that all the Arab children did ugly things," says Egholm, "but we witnessed on a regular basis exactly the phenomenon of using derogatory Arabic language towards Somalis and girls… Back then the biggest group of children in the school was Arabic speaking, and the words which in Arabic mean 'whore' and 'f— your mother' they all knew."

    In a written statement to Berlingske Tidende, Minister of Education, Ellen Trane Nørby, wrote,

    "It is never all right to bully, whether this happens in Danish, Arabic, or in a third language. That is why I have initiated a large initiative, which has as its purpose to prevent and combat bullying. The teachers have to signal very strongly that there has to be room for all children and that you have to treat other pupils with respect. If some pupils do not understand this and speak in 'code language' or use a language that excludes and bullies other pupils, the schools must intervene. Danish is the language used for teaching in Denmark, and pupils should not be excluded or bullied because of parallel languages in school".

    However, what the minister of education fails to mention is that the problems with this kind of behavior are not likely to remain inside the school, but will inevitably spill into the streets. Then what? No amount of lists of radical religious preachers and laws is going to change that fact.

    Whether Danish parliamentarians wish to acknowledge this problem or not, they are up against far wider issues than that of religious incitement in mosques by radical preachers. Notably, El Derbas's findings have not caused any debate remotely resembling that, which was caused by the "Sharia in Denmark" documentary. They should.

  • Ted Cruz Booed For Refusing To Endorse Trump; Heidi Cruz Escorted Out To Shouts Of "Goldman Sachs"

    Update 3: Chris Christie unloaded on Cruz… (as Politico reports)

    Chris Christie did not mince words for Ted Cruz after the Texas senator refused to endorse Donald Trump on the prime-time convention stage Wednesday night.

     

    “It was an awful, selfish speech by someone who tonight, through the words he said on that stage, showed everybody why he has richly earned the reputation that he has on Capitol Hill,” Christie said to reporters on the floor of the convention.

     

    The New Jersey governor put a formal voice to the many delegates who greeted Cruz’s failure to endorse Trump in his 23-minute speech with widespread boos.

     

    “If you love our country and love your children as much as I know that you do, stand and speak and vote your conscience,” Cruz said. “Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.”

     

    Christie mocked that rhetorical flourish. “I don’t understand how someone can present themselves as a person of integrity and then come into this room tonight and give that cute speech,” he said. “And that was cute.”

    *  *  *

    Update 2: Cruz's actions appear to be backfiring…

    *  *  *

    Update 1: RNC sources are reporting that Ted Cruz' "speech was different than the version he gave RNC in advance." Furthermore, officials and Cruz had to be physically separated after his speech.

    *  *  *

    As we detailed earlier, those who had predicted that the third day of the RNC would unveil with yet another scandal, they were right.

    Moments ago, Donald Trump's former rival, Ted Cruz was roundly booed after failing to endorse Trump during an address to the Republican National Convention, an obvious jab from the Texas lawmaker at the real estate mogul, who tormented him as "Lyin' Ted" during the primary.

    Instead of urging the crowd to vote for Tump, Cruz instead told delegates and voters to "vote your conscience" in November and never specifically said that people should cast their ballots for the Republican nominee. During the course of his speech, Cruz only mentioned Trump once, to congratulate him on getting the nomination.

    "To those listening, please, don’t stay home in November. If you love our country, and love your children as much as I know you do, stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution," Cruz said. As he continued speaking, and the crowd began to realize that an endorsement seemed less likely, the cheers that marked the early part of the speech became boos.

    "I appreciate the enthusiasm of the New York delegation," Cruz said to the vocal Trump home-state supporters who were placed right in front of the stage. They were yelling "We want Trump! We want Trump!"

    One reason why Cruz' speech was among the most anticipated, is due to the level of vitriol that enveloped the closing days of the GOP primary campaign. Trump labeled Cruz “Lyin’ Ted,” falsely accused his father of being involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, and threatened to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife, Heidi. In turn, Cruz called Trump a “sniveling coward,” a “pathological liar” and a “narcissist at a level that I don’t think this country has ever seen.”

    Cruz's wife, Heidi, was seen leaving the arena when the booing started getting very loud. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told ABC News that he escorted Heidi Cruz out of the convention hall because “it was volatile and the Trump folks were physically approaching and confrontationally yelling,” he said via text.

    According to CNN's Manu Raju, as Heidi was being escorted out, one angry Trump supporter was shouting "Goldman Sachs" at her.

     

    After leaving the floor, Heidi Cruz also reportedly got into a verbal altercation with the head of the Washington delegation, who had berated Ted Cruz following his speech.

    Or perhaps it was all intentional, and yet another dramatic sequence orchestrated to provide the next speaker, Trump's son Eric, with a crowd that needed an outlet for affirmation.

    According to Mashable, reports before Cruz spoke indicated that he did not plan to endorse Trump, although he did congratulate the nominee and admonished the crowd to vote for the candidate that will be "faithful to the constitution." That wasn't enough for the crowd, which loudly booed Cruz and chanted for Trump.

    As ABC writes, the fact that Cruz spoke at all came as a surprise to some considering how bitter the primary campaign became towards the end. At one point, Trump insinuated that Cruz's wife Heidi was less attractive than his own wife Melania, and later he made suggestions that Cruz's Cuban father was somehow connected to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

    He also questioned whether Cruz was eligible to run for the presidency because he was born in Canada.

    Shortly after Cruz exited the stage to a growing round of boos, Trump entered the arena on the opposite side to sit with his family and watch his son Eric address the crowd.

  • Wikileaks Is About To Expose The Turkish 'Coup', But Someone Is Trying To Silence Them

    Submitted by Carey Wedler via TheAntiMedia.org,

    Wikileaks claimed Monday it was under attack after it announced it would release hundreds of thousands of documents related to Turkey and the failed military coup attempted Friday, CNET reported.

    The organization, which has released information on everything from war crimes to Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, announced Sunday it would be releasing 100,000 documents related to Turkey’s “political power structure,” some of which detail the “leadup” to the coup.

     

    Wikileaks anticipated the release would be censored in Turkey, cautioning in a three-part tweet posted Monday:

    “Turks will likely be censored to prevent them reading our pending release of 100k+ docs on politics leading up to the coup. We ask that Turks are ready with censorship bypassing systems such as TorBrowser and uTorrent and that everyone else is ready to help them bypass censorship and push our links through the censorship to come.”

     

    The Turkish government, headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has increasingly ramped up censorship efforts against journalists, lending credibility to Wikileaks suspicions their release may not fully reach Turkish citizens—especially considering the latest leak concerns his ruling party, AKP.

    As CNET noted:

    “Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were reportedly blocked in Turkey during the attempted coup Friday, but many residents appear to have gotten around the blocks, posting messages and videos, likely using VPNs or other anonymizing services.”

    Throughout Monday, Wikileaks continued to promote the release.

    They then tweeted that instead of 100,000 documents, they would actually be releasing far more. “Our pending release of 100k docs on Turkish political power? Just kidding. The first batch is 300k emails, 500k docs,” they announced.

    But just hours later, they alerted followers their website was being attacked. “Our infrastructure is under sustained attack,” they tweeted, alongside the hashtag, #TurkeyPurge.

     

    “We are unsure of the true origin of the attack. The timing suggests a Turkish state power faction or its allies. We will prevail & publish,” Wikileaks tweeted shortly after.

     

    An hour later, the organization remained resolute in its determination to publish the hundreds of thousands of documents. “Coming Tuesday: The#ErdoganEmails: 300 thousand internal emails from Erdo?an’s AKP – through to July 7, 2016,” they tweeted.

    After tweeting further about the ongoing cyber attacks, Wikileaks eventually announced Tuesday they had released the first installment of emails, which can be viewed here. The emails are from the server of the AKP.

     

    The failed military coup in Turkey over the weekend heightened tensions within the country, where President Erdo?an has grown increasingly autocratic. The Turkish government has also been implicated in the rise of ISIS and has been accused of allowing fighters to cross through their borders and providing them with medical assistance.

    The coup, which continues to be mired in uncertainties, accusations, and conflicting reports, left Turkish citizens between a rock and a hard place—a military coup or an increasingly oppressive democratically-elected leader who has now overseen 50,000 suspensions or detainments of government employees regarding the military’s failed attempt to seize power.

    It seems Wikileak’s release of information on Turkish power structures could not come at a more vital time—that is, so long as it reaches the Turkish people.

  • US To Seize $1 Billion In Embezzled Malaysian Assets Which Goldman Sachs Helped Buy

    The last time we wrote about the long-running saga of the scandalous collapse and constant corruption at the Malaysian state wealth fund, 1MDB, which also happened to be an unconfirmed slush fund for president Najib, was a month ago when we learned that the NY bank regulator was looking into fundraising by the fund’s favorite bank, Goldman Sachs. Then overnight, the story which already seemed like it has every possible angle of crime and corruption covered for a series of Hollywood action-adventure blockbusters, got a new twist when the DOJ announced it would seek to seize some $1 billion in assets from individuals affiliated with the fun as part of one of the largest seizures in US history.

    The expected asset seizures would be the U.S. government’s first action tied to the 1MDB investigation. Among the properties the US is looking to confiscate, are Van Gogh paintings, Beverly Hills properties, a private jet, ultra high end real estate in NYC and LA, and the rights to profits from the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street.

    The move by U.S. authorities to seize assets tied to an investment fund run by a foreign government would be a major escalation in Washington’s global efforts to fight corruption and block allegedly illegally obtained funds, facilitated by Goldman Sachs, from moving through the world’s financial system the WSJ adds.

    The case represents the most detailed and sweeping allegations to be brought in the multinational probe into a global scheme to siphon more than $3.5bn from the Malaysian government fund.  As the FT adds, it is also the first time Malay prime minister, Najib Razak, has been officially tied to the scandal, and while he has not been by name in court documents the description of “Malaysian Official 1” matches his biography and job responsibilities. In what may develop into a major diplomatic row, the DOJ states that that “official” received funds misappropriated from 1MDB, prosecutors say. Najib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

    The actions by U.S. authorities also threaten to upend the country’s relationship with Malaysia, a moderate Muslim nation that has long been an important U.S. ally in Southeast Asia, and may force Malaysia to enter China’s sphere of influence in exchange for protection from US retaliation. Malaysia has deep ties to the Middle East and has been seen as a bulwark against China, which has increasingly asserted its power across Asia. President Barack Obama cultivated a relationship with Mr. Najib, including playing golf together in Hawaii over the Christmas holidays in 2014, something we reported at the time.

     

    Amid the controversy, the Malaysian leader now was likely to focus on his domestic political survival rather than retaliate against the Obama administration, said James Keith, US ambassador to Malaysia from 2007 to 2010. Malaysia is a key regional partner for the US, backing a proposed trans-Pacific trade deal and hosting a digital centre to counter Islamic State propaganda. “I don’t think this is unexpected from Najib’s perspective,” said Mr Keith. “His approach is: batten down the hatches; we’re going to survive this, no matter what. He’ll do everything he can just to pretend this didn’t happen.”

    * * *

    Political fallout notwithstanding, the case reveals just how extensive money-laundering by the fund, the Malay prime minister, and a handful of affiliated individuals, often with US bank assistance, has been ever since 1MDB was created in 2009 as a government-owned vehicle to promote economic development through global partnerships and foreign investment.

    Ironically, it ended up anything but as funds intended to benefit the Malaysian people were instead diverted to buy real estate, works of art and jewellery, pay casino bills and hire musicians and celebrities for the conspirators’ “lavish lifestyles”,  the complaint says. More than $200m was spent on art alone, prosecutors allege.

    As part of the complaint, US authorities accuse Malaysian officials and business executives with receiving laundered 1MDB funds through banks in Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and New York. The Malaysian officials “treated this public trust as a personal bank account”, said Loretta Lynch, US attorney-general. The misappropriation occurred over four years beginning shortly after Mr Najib set up the fund, according to the complaint. According to the suit, in March 2013, $681m in proceeds from a 1MDB bond offering were transferred into an account belonging to the official matching Mr Najib’s description. Five months later, $620m of that amount was shifted to a different account to which a 1MDB official was an authorised signatory.

    Officials at 1MDB and others began diverting money shortly after the fund was created in September 2009 under the guise of investing in a joint venture with a private Saudi oil extraction company, PetroSaudi International. More than $1bn was transferred to a Swiss bank account held by Good Star Ltd, which was owned by Mr Low, prosecutors allege. Andrew McCabe, deputy director of the FBI, told reporters in Washington: “The Malaysian people were defrauded on an enormous scale.”

    There is more in the full complaint, and it revolves around the three main players who, aside from the prime minister,  were instrumental in the perpetuation of this grand fraud, including, Riza Aziz, stepson of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak; Jho Low, a Malaysian financier; and Khadem Al Qubaisi, a former Abu Dhabi managing director of a sovereign-wealth fund.

    Details about their involvement can be found in the WSJ.

    * * *

    Much of the above was already known, or implied, however this is the first official confirmation of just how vast the money-laundering scheme was and that it stretched to the very top. What is now also confirmed, is that at the heart of the fundraising operation was none other than Goldman Sachs.

    According to the complaint, in 2012, 1MDB officials and others fraudulently diverted $1.4bn in proceeds from two bond offerings arranged by Goldman Sachs, according to the complaint. Representing almost 40 per cent of the total raised, the funds were transferred to a Swiss account controlled by a British Virgin Islands entity called Aabar Investments PJS Limited. Aabar had been named to suggest a relationship with an Abu Dhabi company, Aabar Investments PJS, an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government. But funds diverted to the Swiss account ultimately ended up in a Singapore bank account.

    In 2013, several officials including those from 1MDB diverted nearly $1.3bn from another $3bn Goldman bond offering. The money was supposed to be used to finance a joint venture known as the Abu Dhabi Malaysia Investment Co but was instead funnelled into a Singapore account controlled by Mr Low’s associate, the complaint says.

    Where it becomes clear that Goldman had a special arrangement with the complicit issuer and the prime minister, is that Goldman earned $192.5m or nearly 11 per cent of the principal amount on one of the 2012 bond deals, a $1.75bn offering, according to court documents, which also said that the offering circular “contained misleading statements and omitted materials facts”. Considering that a typical fee for an emerging market sovereign or quasi-sovereign bond offering between $1bn-$5bn would be between 0.1 per cent and 0.3 per cent, according to Dealogic, this is nothing short of kickback to Goldman, and raises questions about why Goldman wilfully accepted such an overblown fee for a deal which any of its competitor banks would have done for a fraction of the cost.

    This being Goldman, of course, the bank was not accused of any wrongdoing in today’s action. It may be in the future as per the DOJ’s parallel prove whether Goldman violated the Bank Secrecy Act in its handling of the proceeds of the securities offerings, but somehow the FBI was unable to link the bank to any crime conducted by the same people who were paying it exorbitant fees to keep the money flowing.

    * * *

    So once Goldman’s fundraising skills allowed corrupt Malaysian politicians and selected shady middlemen to have access to billion which they would then embezzle, what did they spend the money on? Perhaps a better question is what did they not spend on: among the purchases were Van Gogh paintings, a private jet, the rights to profits from the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street, and real estate. Lots and lots of ultra high end real estate.

    Here are some of the details from WSJ:

    The properties allegedly bought with funds misappropriated from a Malaysian investment fund would make for a stunning house tour of high-end real estate in New York and Los Angeles. Besides flashy real estate, the U.S. government alleges that money from the fund, known as 1Malaysia Development Bhd. or 1MDB, was used to buy a $35 million private jet and a stake in EMI Music Publishing.

    The assets that the government is trying to seize were purchased by three men who had close ties to 1MDB: Jho Low, a Malaysian deal maker; Riza Aziz, the stepson of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and Khadem Al Qubaisi, a former Abu Dhabi managing director of a sovereign-wealth fund, and occasionally the men sold or gave assets to one another.

    The properties range from a Beverly Hills mansion with a 120-foot-long pool to a string of Manhattan condos, including a seven-bedroom, five-bathroom duplex overlooking Central Park that cost $35 million.

     The complaints paint a picture of lavish spending on casinos and private jets and a taste for high-end real estate—an asset that has been an increasingly popular place for the world’s wealthy to stash their cash outside the banking system and inside stable countries. Mr. Low declined to comment. A representative for Mr. Al Qubaisi didn’t reply to requests for comment. Red Granite Pictures, a company owned by Mr. Aziz, said it and Mr. Aziz “did nothing wrong.”

    Mr. Aziz’s New York duplex is by far the most expensive property in the Park Laurel building, a prominent luxury address near Lincoln Center and overlooking Central Park. Mr. Aziz has stayed in the apartment when he visits New York, according to a doorman there.

    A home bought by Mr. Low is located in the so-called Bird Streets in Los Angeles’s Hollywood Hills—a quiet enclave of narrow, twisting roads named after different types of birds. The property on Oriole Drive is a 6-bedroom, 5-bathroom home with a swimming pool, spa and wine cellar, which Mr. Low bought in 2012 for $39 million, according to records. A tall, white wall surrounds the house.

    The Los Angeles home owned by Mr. Aziz on North Hillcrest Road— a winding street just off Sunset Boulevard—was purchased in 2010 for $17.5 million. Security guards on the site Wednesday said that they had no idea who owned the property and that no federal agents had visited.

    The Viceroy L’Ermitage Beverly Hills, the hotel Mr. Low purchased in 2009 through his family’s trust, sits discreetly on a tree-lined, residential street and features a rooftop pool and 116 newly renovated suites. Hotel staff said they hadn’t noticed any unusual activity Wednesday morning.

    Mr. Low owns a majority stake in the Park Lane Hotel, a trophy property overlooking New York’s Central Park. He put up about $240 million of the $400 million of equity provided by the investors who bought the 46-story property in 2013 in a deal that valued it at about $850 million.

    The investor group, led by New York developer Steve Witkoff, planned at the time to continue running the Park Lane as a hotel while studying the possibility of redeveloping the hotel into condominiums or a mixed-use property. But when news broke that Mr. Low was under investigation, those plans were stymied. Such a plan would require approval from the New York state attorney general’s office, an unlikely event when the property’s majority owner was being investigated.

    * * *

    And that kind of magnificent organized crime, dear New Yorkers, is why real estate in Manhattan has never been more expensive.

  • Potential Crisis Triggers Continue To Pile Up In 2016

    Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

    We are a little over half way through 2016 and, at the current rate, it will be a miracle if the year finishes without outright catastrophe in half the nations of the world. Some might call these events “Black Swans,” some might call them completely engineered threats, others might call it all a simple “coincidence” or a tragedy of errors. I stand strictly by the position that most of the dangers we see today have been deliberately escalated, if not strategically implemented.

    Here is the problem; international financiers and globalist nut-jobs are clearly operating on a timeline with the end goal of creating enough general chaos to convince the masses that complete centralized authority over every aspect of our lives is preferable to constant fear.

    For a more in-depth analysis on the schemes of the elites, see my articles Are Globalists Evil Or Just Misunderstood and Globalists Are Now Openly Demanding New World Order Centralization.

    In order to elicit this kind of thinking from the public, crisis events are required that will cause many human beings to act, for the most part, like rabid animals. How would this be accomplished? Well, what does history tell us about that which inspires people to sometimes sacrifice their moral code or to bow down to tyrants? Usually a loss of necessities is required — including a lack of employment, lack of production, lack of serviceable shelter, lack of ample food and clean water, lack of medical care, lack of overall security and a sense of safety, etc.

    The question often arises: “Why would the elites need to create crisis at all; don’t they already have control of the world?”

    The answer is no, not yet they don’t, and if you read my recent article The Reasons Why The Globalists Are Destined To Lose, you can see why they never will have total control. That said, just because the globalist plan for complete centralization is doomed to fail does not mean they will not do everything in their power to make the attempt.

    Changes in mass psychology that might take decades to achieve can be accomplished in only a few short years if the public is placed under the right amount of duress. I find that younger people (and isolated people who spend all their time on the web) in particular just don’t understand how this works. Look at it this way; you may not think crisis would be all that useful in pushing the globalist agenda forward until you find your family threatened, your children at risk or your parents in dire need. Fear of losing those we love can open the door to great collective evils, even more so than the fear of harm to ourselves.

    Those who have no concept of self defense or the will to prepare and fight are the easiest to manipulate in this way. Pacifists are an effortless meal for dedicated despots.  Hell, for some folks the simple threat of losing day-to-day comforts can cause them to make terrible choices and support destructive leaders and policies.

    Chaos is NOT the end game, it is only a tool by which the elites gain psychological leverage over the masses so that people willingly give up their rights to self determination and hand more power to the establishment.

    A perfect example would be the recent Brexit referendum, the effects of which have not even begun to rise to the economic surface yet. In light of this event, numerous political puppets and banking moguls have declared an outright need for financial centralization of all nations in order to avoid a calamity.

    Investors have been lured into a false sense of safety as equities do not yet reflect the fiscal downturn taking place in every other sector of the global economy, but time grows short nonetheless. The political can negatively affect the financial and vice versa.  Here are just a few of the latest trigger events that are piling up atop an already precarious year…

    Italian Banking Crisis

    Globalists continue to warn that the effects of the Brexit are coming soon, and that they will bring frightening instability. The latest warning comes again from the IMF, which argues that in the wake of the Brexit a banking crisis in Italy is now imminent and will initiate a “global contagion” in markets. The IMF is not wrong – probably because it had a hand in creating the crisis in the first place.

     

    Italy is the third largest economy in the EU. Current estimates project at least $400 billion in toxic debts tied to Italy’s insolvent banks (this obviously does not include the bulk of derivatives). The stock of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the world’s oldest bank and Italy’s most vulnerable lender, has dropped by a staggering 43 percent. Most of the EU is inexorably chained to Italian finance through various debt obligations, bond holdings, long term investments, etc. A breakdown in Italy would indeed be a “Lehman moment” for Europe.

     

    In response, the Italian government and the Italian banking sector is seeking taxpayer bailouts from the EU under extraneous circumstances, but EU officials are questioning whether or not this is even legal under EU charter.

     

    They are also hoping that international banks like JP Morgan will successfully form a bailout response for distressed Italian assets and save Italian banks from a hard landing.

     

    It is doubtful that any bailout plan will be enough to stall the shock wave from an Italian bank crisis. I do not believe the elites even intend to defuse such a crisis. With Italy’s own constitutional referendum coming this fall, a political shakeup may result. If a banking disaster is mixed into this shift, the potential for Italy to exit the EU becomes more plausible. A refusal by the EU to save Italian banks would seal the deal.

     

    In my pre-Brexit articles outlining why I believed the Brexit vote would pass, I predicted that numerous instabilities in the global economy would be allowed to turn volatile and that the Brexit would be blamed for nearly all of them. Not surprisingly, the Italian finance minister is already placing the blame for Italy's impending bank implosion on the Brexit vote.

     

    This is the economic event that no one in the mainstream is paying much attention to. Again, as long as stocks remain in the green, the mainstream is oblivious to the underlying dangers. By the time equities begin to plummet, it will be too late for most people to do much to hedge their bets or prepare.

     

    "Failed" Coup In Turkey

    Maybe you thought 2016 was already getting weird, but this ugly party is just beginning. In what amounted to a half-day coup against Turkish president Recep Erdogen, Turkey went from corrupt cronyism to outright fascism overnight.

     

    I am not so sure that this short lived coup actually "failed"; in fact, I think it achieved exactly what it was supposed to achieve.  I am not surprised in the slightest that some believe that Erdogen fabricated the entire conflict in order to provide an excuse to root out his political opponents. The Turkish government has targeted at least 50,000 people so far, including judges, teachers, and political opposition, all in the name of combating "treason". Erdogen has been sliding into ruin for years with failed policies and an increasing penchant for human rights and free speech violations and now he has free reign to go full totalitarian.

     

    That said, I think the claims of an Erdogen false flag are missing the bigger picture.

     

    First, the coup was clearly staged. Anyone who knows anything about successful coups in history knows that you either imprison or kill the existing leadership of a government before you try to take it over militarily. Reports indicate that military insurgents had Erdogen’s plane in their sights and could have easily turned him into a cloud of flaming vapor, but for some reason did not fire.

     

    My instincts told me upon first hearing of the fleeting momentum of the coup that the whole event was not really about Erdogen. Rather, the event was about NATO, or a rationale for dividing NATO and weakening the West. Rather predictably, Erdogen’s government is now blaming the U.S. in particular for the coup attempt, as the Obama administration and the U.N. warn of civil rights violations by Erdogen.  John Kerry has openly suggested removing Turkey from NATO membership.

     

    At this time, Erdogen has allowed U.S. military operations at Incirlik Air Base to continue, but the prospect remains that this is a temporary condition.

     

    It is interesting that as the situation develops it is becoming obvious that whether the coup succeeded or failed the end result would be a rationalization for Turkey to break ranks with NATO and, in particular, America.  Turkey is a vital pivot point for NATO in dealing with the Middle East and Russia. To lose Turkish aid would mean a considerable weakening of NATO operations and open a path to more volatile confrontation between Eastern and Western powers.  Take note that no matter the ultimate outcome of the coup fiasco, the most probable result will be a Turkish break from the West.  If the latest coup is exposed as an Erdogen "false flag", this process will progress very quickly.

     

    I will be watching this situation carefully over the next few weeks, but I suspect that tensions between Erdogen and the U.S. are slated to expand and that Erdogen is about to go full-despot with human rights violations of the worst kind. I also suspect that Erdogen will begin drafting proposals for greater cooperation with Russia in the near term.

     

    The instability in Turkey is an advantage for the globalists. They can use it to undermine NATO operations if they wish. They can flood the EU with even MORE refugees and blame Turkey in the process. They can even help their Frankenstein monster, ISIS, by allowing Turkey to shut down U.S. operations out of Incirlik (as if the U.S. government had any intention of actually stopping ISIS anyway). This could be used as an impetus for a resurgence of ISIS activities.

     

    To summarize, a crisis in Turkey is not only good for Erdogen, it is also good for the globalists. Watch for this trigger event to continue mutating.

     

    Race War In The U.S.

    I have covered extensively the efforts by globalists, and George Soros specifically, to create open wounds in the American social structure and divide the public along racial lines. This has been done by promoting, and in some cases funding, operations of social justice groups (cultural Marxists) and black racist organizations. Black Lives Matter has so far been the vehicle Soros has used to lure useful idiots into championing a race war that has no basis in reality.

     

    While there is in fact a legitimate cause for concern over the militarization of state police, police abuses are in no way limited to any single race. I wrote about the best possible solution to constitutional violations by police organizations in my article The ‘Thin Blue Line’ Serves No Purpose. In it, I outlined why state police, funded by federal cash, should not exist all and that their duties should be by taken over by elected sheriff’s offices and neighborhood watches. This removes the gasoline from the fire and undermines attempts by cultural Marxists to incite race violence.

     

    Of course, this will never happen. Both Republicans and Democrats are calling for even MORE federalization of police in response to the continued shootings of random LEO’s by black activists. The Democrats want more federalization because they think it will reign in violent cops. The Republicans want more federalization because they think it will reign in violent BLM activists. Notice that no other solution is being offered other than more federal presence on American streets.

     

    Keep in mind that the shooting of random police officers is becoming an active trend and it is only going to get worse as we close in on the November elections. Watch for officers to be killed not only while on duty, but also while off duty, perhaps even in their homes.

     

    The goal here is to create an excuse for martial law without necessarily declaring martial law outright. That is to say, the government will enact the conditions of martial law incrementally. This will likely include anonymity of LEO identities — meaning ski masks, hidden badge numbers and zero public accountability, all in the name of “protecting police lives.” Groups like BLM and the social justice cultists that exploit them as a weapon are not a real threat to the public overall and could be crushed in an instant by an angry white majority and militarized police unrestrained by the constitution. But this is not the point.

     

    The militarization and federalization of the police will end in totalitarianism in the U.S. if it receives wide support by conservatives, or widespread civil war if it does not. Police need to refuse to act in an unconstitutional manner even in the face of violence directed against them, otherwise, they risk starting a fight with liberty groups as well. Black Lives Matter would be the least of their worries at that point.

     

    Quick Mention – 28 Page 9/11 Report Release: If you want my in-depth look at the growing rift between Saudi Arabia and the U.S., read my article 'One More Casualty Of The 9/11 Farce – The Petrodollar'.  I am giving this a quick mention because we have yet to hear the full Saudi response to the release of this report.  The original threat was that they would dump their U.S. treasury holdings and depeg their currency from the dollar.  This would officially end the petro-status of the dollar and eventually end the dollar's world reserve status as well.  I believe that if the Saudi's do take this action, they will do it quietly before bond markets and oil markets realize what is happening.  It is likely that a Saudi break from the U.S. will occur quickly in the event of a Trump presidency.

     

    Quick Mention – South China Sea Build Up: A prelude to WWIII?  Maybe, maybe not.  China and the U.S. have been sparring politically over the South China Sea for some time.   An international ruling has argued that China has no legitimate claims to the waters nor any territorial history.  This has led to greater tensions.  The latest build up of naval units in the region is concerning, but there has not yet been a true catalyst to instigate a war.  This is another scenario which may not materialize until next year, if it materializes at all.

    The overall purpose of these events, I believe, is first to conjure mass confusion. The globalists are turning up the heat on the citizenry much faster than ever before, and it is time to take stock of our position and response. The best defense, as I have always stated, is personal preparedness and self sufficiency, organization with friends and family, then organization of the like-minded within your neighborhood and if possible your town. Most people are self-isolated and thus weak in their defensive position. Anyone effectively organized will have far reaching advantages in the midst of social breakdown. Anyone who is organized with solid planning will become the point to which everyone else gravitates. You can either be a pillar of strength or a victim, it is your choice.

    Rest assured, there is more shock and awe to come in 2016. Now is the time to prepare if you have not done so already.

  • How Much Space Does $1,500 Rent You In America's Most Populous Cities?

    While location, location, location is something that is empasized a lot, the best places often come with compromises that are hard to come to terms with – chief among which, the financial matters. Across the 30 most populous US cities, the following chart from CafeRent.com shows how much bang you get for your buck…

    (click image for interactive version)

     

    For the record, the proportions in this infographic are correct – if San Diego seems twice as large as San Francisco, it’s because its average price per square foot is half that of the Golden Gate City. And in case you were wondering: yes, the hypothetical Manhattan studio that you’d get for $1,500/month, fits loosely inside the living room of a four-bed, three-bath Memphis home you could rent for the same amount of cash:

    In Boston’s 41 Saratoga community, one could rent a 386-square-foot studio unit for that price, and for an extra $100, that space could “grow” to 513 square feet. Although the apartments seem to lack bedroom furniture, they are brand new, featuring open floor plans with hardwood flooring, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances.

    In the right column, Southport Crossing in Indianapolis offers three-bed townhome layouts with 2.5 baths in a broad price range topping out at a little over $1,600. The amenities here include a resort-style swimming pool as part of the common space, and individual units come with up to 400 square feet of enclosed patio area.

    Read more here at RentCafe.com…

  • "My Own People Hate Me!" – Black Brooklyn Cop Slams "False Narrative Of Black Lives Matter"

    Authored by Brooklyn, NY police officer Jay Stalien (via Facebook),

    I have come to realize something that is still hard for me to understand to this day. The following may be a shock to some coming from an African American, but the mere fact that it may be shocking to some is prima facie evidence of the sad state of affairs that we are in as Humans.

    I used to be so torn inside growing up. Here I am, a young African-American born and raised in Brooklyn, NY wanting to be a cop. I watched and lived through the crime that took place in the hood. My own black people killing others over nothing. Crack heads and heroin addicts lined the lobby of my building as I shuffled around them to make my way to our 1 bedroom apartment with 6 of us living inside. I used to be woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of gun fire, only to look outside and see that it was 2 African Americans shooting at each other.

    It never sat right with me. I wanted to help my community and stop watching the blood of African Americans spilled on the street at the hands of a fellow black man. I became a cop because black lives in my community, along with ALL lives, mattered to me, and wanted to help stop the bloodshed.

    As time went by in my law enforcement career, I quickly began to realize something. I remember the countless times I stood 2 inches from a young black man, around my age, laying on his back, gasping for air as blood filled his lungs. I remember them bleeding profusely with the unforgettable smell of deoxygenated dark red blood in the air, as it leaked from the bullet holes in his body on to the hot sidewalk on a summer day. I remember the countless family members who attacked me, spit on me, cursed me out, as I put up crime scene tape to cordon off the crime scene, yelling and screaming out of pain and anger at the sight of their loved ones taking their last breath. I never took it personally, I knew they were hurting. I remember the countless times I had to order new uniforms, because the ones I had on, were bloody from the blood of another black victim…of black on black crime. I remember the countless times I got back in my patrol car, distraught after having watched another black male die in front me, having to start my preliminary report something like this:

    Suspect- Black/ Male, Victim-Black /Male.

    I remember the countless times I canvassed the area afterwards, and asked everyone “did you see who did it”, and the popular response from the very same family members was always, “Fuck the Police, I ain't no snitch, Im gonna take care of this myself". This happened every single time, every single homicide, black on black, and then my realization became clearer.

    I woke up every morning, put my freshly pressed uniform on, shined my badge, functioned checked my weapon, kissed my wife and kid, and waited for my wife to say the same thing she always does before I leave, “Make sure you come back home to us”. I always replied, “I will”, but the truth was I was never sure if I would. I almost lost my life on this job, and every call, every stop, every moment that I had this uniform on, was another possibility for me to almost lose my life again. I was a target in the very community I swore to protect, the very community I wanted to help. As a matter of fact, they hated my very presence. They called me “Uncle Tom”, and “wanna be white boy”, and I couldn’t understand why. My own fellow black men and women attacking me, wishing for my death, wishing for the death of my family. I was so confused, so torn, I couldn’t understand why my own black people would turn against me, when every time they called …I was there. Every time someone died….I was there. Every time they were going through one of the worst moments in their lives…I was there. So why was I the enemy? I dove deep into that question…Why was I the enemy? Then my realization became clearer.

    I spoke to members of the community and listened to some of the complaints as to why they hated cops. I then did research on the facts. I also presented facts to these members of the community, and listened to their complaints in response. This is what I learned:

    Complaint: Police always targeting us, they always messing with the black man.

     

    Fact: A city where the majority of citizens are black (Baltimore for example) …will ALWAYS have a higher rate of black people getting arrested, it will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks getting stopped, and will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks getting killed, and the reason why is because a city with those characteristics will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks committing crime. The statistics will follow the same trend for Asians if you go to China, for Hispanics if you go to Puerto Rico, for whites if you go to Russia, and the list goes on. It’s called Demographics

     

    Complaint: More black people get arrested than white boys.

     

    Fact: Black People commit a grossly disproportionate amount of crime. Data from the FBI shows that Nationwide, Blacks committed 5,173 homicides in 2014, whites committed 4,367. Chicago’s death toll is almost equal to that of both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined. Chicago’s death toll from 2001–November, 26 2015 stands at 7,401. The combined total deaths during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2015: 4,815) and Operation Enduring Freedom/Afghanistan (2001-2015: 3,506), total 8,321.

     

    Complaint: Blacks are the only ones getting killed by police, or they are killed more.

     

    Fact: As of July 2016, the breakdown of the number of US Citizens killed by Police this year is, 238 White people killed, 123 Black people killed, 79 Hispanics, 69 other/or unknown race.

     

    Complaint: Well we already doing a good job of killing ourselves, we don’t need the Police to do it. Besides they should know better.

     

    Fact: Black people kill more other blacks than Police do, and there are only protest and outrage when a cop kills a black man. University of Toledo criminologist Dr. Richard R. Johnson examined the latest crime data from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports and Centers for Disease Control and found that an average of 4,472 black men were killed by other black men annually between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2012. Professor Johnson’s research further concluded that 112 black men died from both justified and unjustified police-involved killings annually during this same period.

    The more I listened, the more I realized. The more I researched, the more I realized. I would ask questions, and would only get emotional responses & inferences based on no facts at all. The more killing I saw, the more tragedy, the more savagery, the more violence, the more loss of life of a black man at the hands of another black man….the more I realized.

    I haven’t slept well in the past few nights. Heartbreak weighs me down, rage flows through my veins, and tears fills my eyes. I watched my fellow officers assassinated on live television, and the images of them laying on the ground are seared into my brain forever. I couldn’t help but wonder if it had been me, a black man, a black cop, on TV, assassinated, laying on the ground dead… would my friends and family still think black lives mattered? Would my life have mattered? Would they make t-shirts in remembrance of me? Would they go on tv and protest violence? Would they even make a Facebook post, or share a post in reference to my death?

    All of my realizations came to this conclusion.

    Black Lives do not matter to most black people. Only the lives that make the national news matter to them. Only the lives that are taken at the hands of cops or white people, matter. The other thousands of lives lost, the other black souls that I along with every cop, have seen taken at the hands of other blacks, do not matter. Their deaths are unnoticed, accepted as the “norm”, and swept underneath the rug by the very people who claim and post “black lives matter”.

     

    I realized that this country is full of ignorance, where an educated individual will watch the ratings-driven news media, and watch a couple YouTube video clips, and then come to the conclusion that they have all the knowledge they need to have in order to know what it feels like to have a bullet proof vest as part of your office equipment, “Stay Alive” as part of your daily to do list, and having insurance for your health insurance because of the high rate of death in your profession. They watch a couple videos and then they magically know in 2 minutes 35 seconds, how you are supposed to handle a violent encounter, which took you 6 months of Academy training, 2 – 3 months of field training, and countless years of blood, sweat, tears and broken bones experiencing violent encounters and fine tuning your execution of the Use of Force Continuum.

     

    I realized that there are even cops, COPS, duly sworn law enforcement officers, who are supposed to be decent investigators, who will publicly go on the media and call other white cops racist and KKK, based on a video clip that they watched thousands of miles away, which was filmed after the fact, based on a case where the details aren’t even known yet and the investigation hasn’t even begun.

     

    I realized that most in the African American community refuse to look at solving the bigger problem that I see and deal with every day, which is black on black crime taking hundreds of innocent black lives each year, and instead focus on the 9 questionable deaths of black men, where some were in the act of committing crimes.

     

    I realized that they value the life of a Sex Offender and Convicted Felon, [who was in the act of committing multiple felonies: felon in possession of a firearm-FELONY, brandishing and threatening a homeless man with a gun-Aggravated Assault in Florida: FELONY, who resisted officers who first tried to taze him, and WAS NOT RESTRAINED, who can be clearly seen in one of the videos raising his right shoulder, then shooting it down towards the right side of his body exactly where the firearm was located and recovered] more than the lives of the innocent cops who were assassinated in Dallas protecting the very people that hated them the most.

     

    I realized that they refuse to believe that most cops acknowledge that there are Bad cops who should have never been given a badge & gun, who are chicken shit and will shoot a cockroach if it crawls at them too fast, who never worked in the hood and may be intimidated. That most cops dread the thought of having to shoot someone, and never see the turmoil and mental anguish that a cop goes through after having to kill someone to save his own life. Instead they believe that we are all blood thirsty killers, because the media says so, even though the numbers prove otherwise.

     

    I realize that they truly feel as if the death of cops will help people realize the false narrative that Black Lives Matter, when all it will do is take their movement two steps backwards and label them domestic terrorist.

     

    I realized that some of these people, who say Black Lives Matter, are full of hate and racism. Hate for cops, because of the false narrative that more black people are targeted and killed. Racism against white people, for a tragedy that began 100’s of years ago, when most of the white people today weren’t even born yet.

     

    I realized that some in the African American community’s idea of “Justice” is the prosecution of ANY and EVERY cop or white man that kills or is believed to have killed a black man, no matter what the circumstances are.

     

    I realized the African American community refuses to look within to solve its major issues, and instead makes excuses and looks outside for solutions. I realized that a lot of people in the African American community lead with hate, instead of love. Division instead of Unity. Turmoil and rioting, instead of Peace.

     

    I realized that they have become the very entity that they claim they are fighting against.

    And ultimately, I realized that the very reasons I became a cop, are the very reasons my own people hate me, and now in this toxic hateful racially charged political climate, I am now more likely to die… and it is still hard for me to understand… to this day.

  • Visualizing The Volatile History Of Crude Oil Markets

    Crude oil is the world’s most actively traded commodity (and today’s chaos evidenced that perfectly), and oil-related markets are a staple for traders, hedgers, investors around the globe. The below infographic, put together by Aspect, covers the history of crude oil trading, while also highlighting the major events that have shaped the landscape of the oil market as we know it today.

    As VisualCapitalist’s Jeff Desjardins points out, the infographic serves as the perfect primer for all the questions about oil that you had, yet were afraid to ask. It also illustrates the impact that unexpected geopolitical events can have on the oil price – and how this volatility can be contagious to other global markets.

    Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

  • George Soros Doubles Down: Accept 300k Refugees Costing $30Bn, Or Risk EU Collapse

    Seemingly doubling down on his comments in April (following what he called Europe's "flawed asylum policy"), George Soros has expanded his demands from four to seven fundamental pillars on how to prevent the collapse of the European Union. In an article penned for Foreign Policy titled “This Is Europe’s Last Chance to Fix Its Refugee Policy," Soros details his plan (over-riding the current "piecemeal approach") for rescuing Europe before it is too late. Simply put, the billionaire says the EU must take in hundreds of thousands of refugees a year, spend at least 30 billion euros (a minor sum, since he believes it can all be financed by debt and taxes) or Europe faces an "existential threat."

    Soros begins ominously: The EU’s piecemeal solutions are coming apart. Only a surge of financial and political creativity can avoid a catastrophe.

    The refugee crisis was already leading to the slow disintegration of the European Union. Then, on June 23, it contributed to an even greater calamity — Brexit. Both of these crises have reinforced xenophobic, nationalist movements across the continent. They will try to win a series of key votes in the coming year — including national elections in France, the Netherlands, and Germany in 2017, a referendum in Hungary on EU refugee policy on Oct. 2, a rerun of the Austrian presidential election on the same day, and a constitutional referendum in Italy in October or November of this year.

     

    Rather than uniting to resist this threat, EU member states have become increasingly unwilling to cooperate with one another. They pursue self-serving, discordant migration policies, often to the detriment of their neighbors. In these circumstances, a comprehensive and coherent European asylum policy is not possible in the short term, despite the efforts of the EU’s governing body, the European Commission. The trust needed for cooperation is lacking. It will have to be rebuilt through a long and laborious process.

     

    This is unfortunate, because a comprehensive policy ought to remain the highest priority for European leaders; the union cannot survive without it. The refugee crisis is not a one-off event; it augurs a period of higher migration pressures for the foreseeable future, due to a variety of causes including demographic and economic imbalances between Europe and Africa, unending conflicts in the broader region, and climate change. Beggar-thy-neighbor migration policies, such as building border fences, will not only further fragment the union; they also seriously damage European economies and subvert global human rights standards.

     

    What would a comprehensive approach look like? It would establish a guaranteed target of at least 300,000 refugees each year who would be securely resettled directly to Europe from the Middle East — a total that hopefully would be matched by countries elsewhere in the world. That target should be large enough to persuade genuine asylum-seekers not to risk their lives by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, especially if reaching Europe by irregular means would disqualify them from being considered genuine asylum-seekers.

     

    This could serve as the basis for Europe to provide sufficient funds for major refugee-hosting countries outside Europe and establish processing centers in those countries; create a potent EU border and coast guard; set common standards for processing and integrating asylum-seekers (and for returning those who do not qualify); and renegotiate the Dublin III Regulation in order to more fairly share the asylum burden across the EU.

    And, as ValueWalk's Jacob Wolinksy notes, specifically Soros thinks the seven points below are key…

    First, the EU and the rest of the world must take in a substantial number of refugees directly from front-line countries in a secure and orderly manner, which would be far more acceptable to the public than the current disorder…

     

    Second, the EU must regain control of its borders. There is little that alienates and scares publics more than scenes of chaos…

     

    Third, the EU needs to develop financial tools that can provide sufficient funds for the long-term challenges it faces and not limp from episode to episode…

     

    Fourth, the crisis must be used to build common European mechanisms for protecting borders, determining asylum claims, and relocating refugees…

     

    Fifth, once refugees have been recognized, there needs to be a mechanism for relocating them within Europe in an agreed way…

     

    Sixth, the European Union, together with the international community, must support foreign refugee-hosting countries far more generously than it currently does…

     

    The seventh and final pillar is that, given its aging population, Europe must eventually create an environment in which economic migration is welcome.

    Soros concludes as follows:

    The benefits brought by migration far outweigh the costs of integrating immigrants. Skilled economic immigrants improve productivity, generate growth, and raise the absorptive capacity of the recipient country. Different populations bring different skills, but the contributions come as much from the innovations they introduce as from their specific skills — in both their countries of origin and their countries of destination. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence for this, starting with the Huguenots’ contribution to the first industrial revolution by bringing both weaving and banking to England. All the evidence supports the conclusion that migrants have a high potential to contribute to innovation and development if they are given a chance to do so.

     

    Pursuing these seven principles is essential in order to calm public fears, reduce chaotic flows of asylum-seekers, ensure that newcomers are fully integrated, establish mutually beneficial relations with countries in the Middle East and Africa, and meet Europe’s international humanitarian obligations.

     

    The refugee crisis is not the only crisis Europe has to face, but it is the most pressing. And if significant progress could be made on the refugee issue, it would make the other issues — from the continuing Greek debt crisis to the fallout from Brexit to the challenge posed by Russia — easier to tackle. All the pieces need to fit together, and the chances of success remain slim. But as long as there is a strategy that might succeed, all the people who want the European Union to survive should rally behind it.

    Interestingly, Soros goes back hundreds of years to give us the examples Huguenots and not fifty years to when France starting letting in migrants from Algeria and Morocco – so far the much recent plan has been a failure most would agree even before the recent terror attack in Nice. While hope continues to spring eternal (for many establishmentarians) that the EU stays together, we can't help but suspect that spending 30 billion euros a year (funded by taxing or indebting EU citizens more) and letting in 'even' 300,000 refugees a year when the social fabric of the looming super-state is near collapse, terrorist attacks are increasing, and unemployment in many European countries is in double digits – will likely be a non-starter.

    Soros' full treatise can be found here…

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