Month: July 2022

If that isn’t a resounding slap in the face for Brussels: Hungary is negotiating with Russia about additional gas supplies. The Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó was in Moscow for this purpose and was conferring there with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Explosive: the action took place without consultation with Brussels – and is thus tantamount to a direct affront to the address of the EU.

In addition to the quantities already agreed, the Hungarian guest announced in Moscow that his country wants to buy 700 million cubic meters of Russian gas this year. It is about Hungary’s energy security, he said. His Russian counterpart responded: “This request will be reported and considered immediately.”

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has already completely cut off the gas supply to several “unfriendly” European countries – including Poland and Bulgaria – because they refused to pay for the supplies in rubles, as demanded by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

After the Russian operation in Ukraine started at the end of February, the EU passed several far-reaching sanctions packages against Moscow. Russia is also persistently refusing these sanctions. On the contrary, Hungarian President Orbán recently criticized the joint sanctions as harmful to Europe – to the displeasure of Brussels.

Hungary meanwhile established a Defense Council headed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with special powers to make political decisions.

EU chief Von der Leyen’s gas winter plan is another dilemma for Brussels eurocrats: the so-called “Winter Plan” for gas consumption in the EU is on the verge of extinction after it has come into force. Already, the plan comes with exemptions, and according to Spanish broadcaster La Sexta, Spain and Portugal were unhappy about the deal and negotiated a 7 percent cut instead of 15 percent. Other exceptions have been made for island nations, Malta, Cyprus and Ireland, and the Baltic states.

The reason for the broad rejection of the Brussels plan is the far-reaching regulatory powers that it envisages for the eurocrats. Brussels believes it should decide when to heat and when not. Decision-making competences are to be taken away from member states. In addition, political unity against Russia is to be forged – but precisely this unity is melting away more and more every day.

In concrete terms, the winter plan stipulates that the member countries will consume 15 percent less gas in the eight months from August to March next year than in previous years. Above all, there is protest against the planned obligation to save gas. If, for example, private households and companies in a country do not voluntarily save enough gas and if the supply situation deteriorates dramatically, Brussels could set binding savings targets that the national governments have to meet.

In an exceptional fast-track procedure, the project was to be approved by all energy ministers of the EU member states on Tuesday. Although commission chief von der Leyen had already reduced the obligation from two to one year, many states did not want to vote. A refusal has already been announced from Madrid that “no disproportionate sacrifices” would be made while Poland and Hungary announced that the savings targets were much too high. Island states like Ireland or Cyprus are not even connected to the European gas grid.

Sanctions are destroying Europe not Russia. On 26 July natural gas prices broke new records after a 30% surge in two days. They are now 10x higher than between 2010-2020. Not only Ukrainians but also Europeans are paying the price for the US proxy war. https://t.co/k8Ada8PjrG

— Thierry Baudet (@thierrybaudet) July 27, 2022

The process that took place in Brussels on Tuesday is therefore on shaky ground because even before the vote, insiders strongly doubted the plan would get the full approval it needed. In addition to the energy ministers of all EU countries, the Ukrainian energy minister Halushchenko was also a guest. Commission chief von der Leyen actually wanted to present a united EU to him – but her project has not quite been going to plan.

The European Union has exhausted its possibilities to introduce restrictive measures against the Russian Federation, noted French daily Le Monde, citing an unnamed diplomat.

Gas prices in Europe for the first time since the beginning of March are above $2300. Danish Climate and Energy Minister Dan Jorgensen: In the event of a complete halt in Russian gas supplies to Europe, there could be a “real danger that Europeans will freeze”.

If it happened that the gas would be completely cut off from the Russian side at the same time as the harsh winter, then there would be a real danger that the Europeans would freeze and the industry would have to close,” Danish Radio quoted Jorgensen as saying.

US presidential coordinator for global energy Amos Hochstein has seen the writing on the wall. Hochstein held emergency meetings in Paris and Brussels to discuss US-European contingency planning to deal with gas shortages as well as extending nuclear power operations. The gas crisis undermined the European Union’s unity against Moscow, CNN reported citing US officials: “It [the gas shortage] will be a major test of European resilience and unity against Russia.”

https://freewestmedia.com/2022/07/27/eu-struggles-to-cancel-winter/

Following the French National Assembly’s abolition of license fees, the Rassemblement National (RN) has called for the complete privatization of public broadcasters. The fact that broadcasting is now financed from taxes is “inconsistent,” said Marine Le Pen, leader of the RN parliamentary group.

At the weekend, 170 MPs voted in favor of the motion to remove the fee, and 57 MPs rejected it. In future, public service broadcasting in the country will be financed directly from the state treasury. Previously, all households with a television paid 138 euros a year. The second chamber of parliament, the Senate, still has to confirm the decision. However, approval is considered certain.

Before the election, in her interview with Reuters, Le Pen promised to transcend the traditional left-right divide in abandoning the focus on immigration. Instead, she pledged to focus on the rising cost of living and inflation by proposing measures such as income tax exemptions for the under 30s and cutting VAT on petrol to 5,5 percent from 20 percent.

“You can’t put me in a box. I’m neither left nor right. In my manifesto, you have the nationalisation of motorways and the privatisation of public broadcasting, so a left-wing measure and a right-wing measure,” Le Pen said.

In Germany, on the other hand, fee payers have to be prepared for further increases in costs. As early as May, the chairman of the commission to determine the financial needs of public broadcasters, Martin Detzel, indicated an increase in the license fee. “If you extrapolate the cost trend given the current rate of inflation, it’s no surprise that premiums could rise in nominal terms. Even when considering the potential savings,” he told the FAZ.

https://freewestmedia.com/2022/07/27/le-pen-calls-for-privatization-of-public-broadcasting/

By Christopher Paslay

Isimemen Etute, the former Virginia Tech linebacker recently acquitted of second-degree murder, will be playing football at Iowa Community college this fall.  The fact that Etute is free at all, let alone playing football, is quite astonishing in today’s political climate.

The entire Etute case — from his defense to the media’s coverage of it — doesn’t pass the smell test.  It stinks of left-wing double-standards and selective morality, and anyone interested in true justice should be concerned over the turn of events.

Here’s a quick recap.

In April of 2021, an 18-year-old Etute met a person on the Tinder dating app named “Angie Renee.”  Unknown to Etute, Angie Renee was really Jerry Smith, a 40-year-old white man from Blacksburg, Virginia.  Etute, along with teammate Da’Shawn Elder, went to Smith’s house, thinking they were meeting a woman.  According to ESPN, “Elder testified that he was disturbed by the circumstances of the meeting, in which Smith hid his face and kept his apartment nearly pitch dark.  Both players initially left, but Etute returned to the apartment, and testified that he received oral sex [sic] and a $50 gift from Smith.”

Etute testified in court that he left Smith’s apartment still believing he was a woman.  Several weeks later, Etute’s teammates began teasing him that “Angie Renee” could have been a man.  This didn’t stop another Virginia Tech player, Jalen Hampton, from connecting with Smith on Tinder, too.  On May 31, he went to the apartment expecting a sexual encounter with a woman but decided to leave after feeling uncomfortable.

Intent on finding out Smith’s sex, Etute and Hampton — along with a third teammate, Jordan Brunson — returned to Smith’s apartment later that night on May 31.  Etute entered Smith’s apartment alone, in the dark, with his teammates waiting outside in the hallway.  Etute used his cell phone’s flashlight to determine that Smith was not a woman.  According to ESPN, “[u]pon confronting Smith, Etute testified that Smith grabbed at Etute’s genitals, causing Etute to strike Smith in the face with the back of his hand.  Etute testified that he then believed Smith reached for a weapon under his bed, causing Etute to strike Smith with a fist several more times.”

Etute, who is 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, beat the 153-pound Smith to death.  Etute struck Smith in the head five times, knocking him to the floor.  Etute admitted in court that he stomped on Smith’s face as he left the apartment, leaving a bloody shoe print on Smith’s cheek.  Nearly all the bones in Smith’s face were broken, an autopsy revealed.  Smith also suffered bleeding of the brain and had his teeth knocked out.

Etute and his teammates quickly fled the apartment, shown on video here.  Smith’s body was found in his apartment the next night, on June 1, after a welfare check by police. 

Etute was acquitted of second-degree murder this past May, pleading self-defense.  Etute testified in court that he thought Smith was going for a gun, and so he attacked him to save his own life.  No gun was found.  According to ESPN, “[d]uring a police search of the apartment, a knife was found between Smith’s mattress and box spring, but Etute testified he never saw the knife, and he did not mention any concerns for his own safety during his initial police interview on June 2, 2021.”

“He could never reach a gun from there,” prosecuting attorney Patrick Jensen said, explaining that Etute is an “elite college athlete” whose physical size creates a “big disparity” in the situation. 

Etute’s defense attorney argued there should be no second-degree murder charge, as there was no — get ready for it — malice.  Incredibly, a jury agreed.

The inconsistency of Etute’s description of events to police raises questions, and one has to wonder if the self-defense angle was concocted by the defense team after the fact.  What’s clear is that Etute received fellatio and a $50 gift from Smith in his apartment on April 10 and was later teased about it by his teammates.  It’s also clear that on May 31, after realizing Smith might be a man, Etute ended up beating Smith to death inside his apartment, with two teammates waiting outside in the hallway.  What’s not clear is what actually took place inside the apartment in the darkness.  Did Smith make a quick motion for a weapon?  And did this warrant the kind of beating Etute gave Smith?   

Ironically, Etute’s acquittal has garnered little reaction from the LGBT community, or from the mainstream media in general.  A gay man dressed as a woman is beaten to death after it’s discovered he’s not a woman — and mum’s the word from the rainbow mafia.  How is this possible?  

Intersectionality, that’s how.  In this case, race trumps sexual orientation, and the pressure to protect a young black athlete (three black athletes, actually) from the horrible racism of the American criminal justice system takes precedence.  There was a defense fund to save Isimemen Etute before Smith’s body was even cold, and seasoned defense attorneys jumped to his defense.  There’s no doubt the jury felt this pressure.

Smith is certainly not free of all blame, but does his dishonesty about his sex deserve this kind of horrific outcome?  Where are the calls for justice from progressives?  When will Joe Biden ask the DOJ to file charges against Etute for violating Smith’s civil rights?

Think for a moment if things were reversed: if a 200-pound white football player beat a skinny, gay, cross-dressing black man to death in his apartment in such a violent manner.  How fast would BLM take to the streets?  How soon would the loathsome, race-hustling Benjamin Crump be clamoring to take the case, putting out the requisite propaganda on every news channel in America?  

No such luck for Jimmy Smith or his family.  He’s the wrong race, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.  His fate is sealed, and sadly, his case is of no political use to progressives or the LGBT community at large.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/07/how_intersectionality_works_black_vs_lgbt.html

Roubaix – A local resident reported what she had witnessed in a playground in the city. “My husband was present with my two-year-old daughter”. ” They were watching the whole incident. It was children of Syrian origin who reportedly started the fire before running off shouting “Allah Akbar.” This was reported by Voix du Nord yesterday. The fire brigade extinguished the fire. At the same time, another fire was reported by residents, who put it out themselves.

(…) The Parc du Nouveau Monde, like many of these places where you can go for a walk and relax, becomes hell for the residents from the early evening on. Drugs, street fights, alcohol – the whole gamut to make residents avoid this place, even though it is well maintained by the city administration.

Worse still, for some time now there has been an increase in violence due to the heavy presence of Syrians and Bulgarians. People from these communities regularly become violent or, worse, fight each other with knives. (…) Le Miroir du Nord

Selon des témoins, ces enfants syriens âgés de moins de dix ans seraient partis en criant « Allah Akbar » 😬 https://t.co/qYgP0l7XM9

— Bruno Renoul (@brenoul) July 25, 2022

https://www.fdesouche.com/2022/07/26/roubaix-des-enfants-syriens-ages-de-moins-de-10-ans-declenchent-un-incendie-dans-une-aire-de-jeux-ils-auraient-crie-allah-akbar/

The faithful of the Saint-Germain church in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines) were afraid. Very afraid. “Some were crying. Especially children were crying,” one of the parishioners told 78actu.

On Sunday July 24, 2022, at around 6.50pm, a man interrupted the Mass by shouting and hurling insults. A parishioner approached him. In return, the man head-butted him in the face. According to our information, two of his teeth were knocked out.

“He called us hypocrites. He said we were fucking Christians. He said we were fooling him. Then a rather large man came up to him and told him to leave. The other asked him if he wanted to fight. It was at that moment that the headbutt happened. Others intervened to subdue him.”

“He was shouting a lot of abuse. He accused the church of being racist when he had come to pray like a Muslim. He shouted: Satan has entered me! We have to sacrifice some of them… I don’t want to hear the priest’s words. He also said that he was the second son of God because his blood was the blood of Jesus. All this was done by lashing out and spitting”.

The priest temporarily interrupted the mass. ” Afterwards, when there was peace again, he asked us to pray for this man.” (…) Actu.fr

https://www.fdesouche.com/2022/07/26/saint-germain-en-laye-dimanche-dernier-un-musulman-a-fait-irruption-dans-leglise-pendant-la-messe-et-a-tabasse-un-paroissien-il-accusait-leglise-detre-raciste-il-nous-t/