Wednesday, September 02, 2015 5:38:06 AM
A Majority Of Republicans Believe Obama Is A Muslim
Forty-four percent also say that he wasn't born in the U.S.
By Janie Velencia
Posted: 09/01/2015 05:22 PM EDT
Well into his second term as president, over half of Republicans remain convinced that president Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to a poll [ http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/08/trump-supporters-think-obama-is-a-muslim-born-in-another-country.html ] released Tuesday by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.
The poll finds that 54 percent of Republicans think Obama is a Muslim, 14 percent think he's a Christian and 32 percent say they are unsure.
Obama's country of birth also remains a question for Republicans. A plurality, 44 percent, say they don't think he was born in the U.S. Only a third believe that he is American-born, and slightly less than another third are unsure where he was born.
Beliefs that Obama is a foreign-born Muslim are even stronger among Trump supporters. Sixty-six percent of Trump supporters surveyed think Obama is a Muslim; another 61 percent think he was not born in the U.S.
Conspiracy theories about Obama's faith, as well as his birth, have existed among Republicans since the start of his 2008 campaign and have persisted throughout his presidency. In 2010, a Pew Research report [ http://www.pewforum.org/2010/08/18/growing-number-of-americans-say-obama-is-a-muslim/ ] found that 31 percent of Republicans believed Obama was a Muslim. Most recently, Republican presidential hopeful Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker told The Washington Post that he didn't know if Obama was a Christian.
Obama has responded [ http://www.christianpost.com/news/scott-walker-says-hes-not-sure-if-obama-is-christian-again-142182/ ] to criticism about his religion by asserting that he is in fact a Christian, but has made note that even if he practiced a different religion, that should not be treated as if it were a bad thing.
Questions about Obama's birth reached a peak in 2011 when Donald Trump became one of the more famous Republican figures to accuse Obama of not having been born in the U.S. Obama eventually released a copy of his birth certificate [ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/politics/28obama.html ] that proved he was born in Hawaii.
[...]
Copyright © 2015 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/majority-of-republicans-believe-obama-is-a-muslim_55e5fcade4b0aec9f354cefe [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Republicans Like Obama's Ideas Better When They Think They're Donald Trump's
09/01/2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-republicans-democrats-poll_55e5fbb8e4b0c818f6196a82 [with comments]
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Fewer Americans Go Without Medical Care Due To Cost, Survey Says
More jobs and more health insurance are making a big difference in peoples' lives.
09/01/2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-health-care-survey_55e4d402e4b0b7a9633a07e2 [with comments]
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Why Germany Will Undergo Radical Change This Year
(Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Diapers are stacked in a holding area at Munich Hauptbahnhof main railway station on September 1, 2015 in Munich, Germany.
(Lennart Preiss/Getty Images)
People line up to wait for registration at the reception center for refugees and asylum-seekers in central Berlin , Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015.
(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
By Sebastian Matthes
Posted: 09/01/2015 10:50 am EDT Updated: 09/01/2015 11:28 am EDT
Not long ago, the world was looking upon our nation with admiration. During the soccer World Cup in 2006, Germany seemed like a cheerful university dorm; a place that welcomes strangers, where everybody can party exuberantly. In the following years, Germany even turned into a role model. While our European neighbors slid into recession, jobs were created here. Young people from all over the world came, because the future looked brighter here.
But then came the summer of 2015.
Suddenly Molotov cocktails were flying into asylum-seekers' hostels. Within the first six months of this year, there have been around 200 attacks [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/26/attacken-auf-asylbewerberheime-in-deutschland_n_7810098.html ] on refugee hostels. In July and August alone, the Federal Criminal Police Office reported 131 similar [ http://www.bild.de/bildlive/2015/17-asyl-42367678.bild.html ] attacks by right-wing extremists. Additionally, verbal and physical attacks against foreigners in subways are increasing, and in one especially gross reported case [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/24/rechtsextremer-uriniert-kinder_n_8032212.html ], Nazis publicly urinated on the kids of a refugee family. Hundreds of them demonstrate in front of refugee shelters like in Heidenau, Saxony, even yelling at Angela Merkel [ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/angela-merkel/11825473/Angela-Merkel-booed-at-refugee-centre-in-Germany-following-far-Right-attacks.html ] during her visit to one of the shelters, calling her a "traitor to her people," an especially vile term of Nazi propaganda.
It is shocking that something like this should happen in Germany. Because it has nothing to do with the nation that many of us are experiencing daily. It doesn't fit the cosmopolitan atmosphere of bigger cities like Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne and Munich.
This open, increasingly loud hatred against foreigners is mostly a small town phenomenon -- places with high unemployment, limited opportunities and a dangerous right-wing scene, in which the attackers are protected by others. One suspect in a recent attack, in which a refugee shelter was torched, is a fire fighter. A little later he helped to extinguish the fire.
For years, media and politics have overlooked and underestimated how powerful the right-wing movement has become in some parts of Germany. They have ignored the fact that small towns in the East German states [ http://www.dw.com/de/npd-verbot-l%C3%A4nder-f%C3%BChren-heidenau-als-beleg-f%C3%BCr-gewaltpotenzial-an/a-18682296 ] are "culturally controlled almost entirely by right-wing extremists": with murals in the style of the Nazi period, references to Hitler's birthplace, and an atmosphere of fear exaggerated by the far right extremists. In these towns, the right-wing culture dominates everything from high school to the carpenter's shop.
But there are also attacks on asylum-seekers' quarters in the South and West of Germany. Therefore, the radicalization of parts of German society is not a purely East German phenomenon. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution understands this as a threat, a new form of right-wing terrorism.
Sometimes, I just want to wake up from this nightmare. Is this really the country in which I want to raise my child? It is a country that I haven't known until now? My wife comes from Great Britain and has Indian roots. She came here and received a warm welcome from everyone -- like thousands of other immigrants. In our life, this other, ugly Germany didn't exist before.
Now, a small dissatisfied group has dismissed a broad cultural understanding: That, being one of the richest countries on earth, Germany is obliged to help people in need.
That is something we need to talk about. Forty percent of refugees coming to Europe [ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/world/europe/germany-de-maiziere-migrants-refugees-asylum.html ], come to Germany. According to recent estimates of the government, it will be 800,000 people [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/19/asylantrage_n_8009874.html ] this year. That equals the number of people living in Frankfurt, Main. Many Germans are scared of that.
Many of these "concerned citizens," as they like to call themselves, are not concerned about the refugees. They worry about themselves. They are scared of economic decline, scared of old age poverty. Scared that something will be taken away from them.
And now they have found the reason for their fear: Refugess that come to Germany to take the last couple of Euros and benefits away from them.
The preachers of hatred and extreme right parties [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/10/braunes-1968_n_7965112.html ], which have mostly flown under the radar until now, use this fear. They have found their audience. They use the Internet to goad on the scared masses. They spread fake articles about refugees, who allegedly come at German school girls, only to later exploit our social system. According to these hatemongers, politicians and the press lie, so they construct their own reality. Following their sick logic, there is [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/01/merkel-wahnsinn_n_7912422.html ] a "will of the people" that justifies violence against foreign fellow citizens. Therefore, we are not only experiencing one of the worst waves of right-wing terror since World War II, but also a gruesome peak of xenophobic propaganda.
To be clear: These people are a minority. There is no powerful anti-immigrant party in Germany either -- like there are in Denmark [ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/world/anti-immigrant-party-gains-in-denmark-elections.html ] or Sweden [ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/14/sweden-democrats-flex-muscles-anti-immigrant-kristianstad ]. However, this could change, if the dangerous and vocal minority became more powerful, due to a lack of opposition. For a long time, the majority of Germans has been looking on in disbelief. Like Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been silent about the attacks against asylum seekers for way to long, many were hoping that the rage would pass like a heavy thunderstorm. To the contrary. The silence of the majority worked like a combustive agent. Suddenly, the minority were feeling like the majority. In the beginning, not enough people spoke up in this heated debate. The Huffington Post Germany was one of the first media outlets to take a clear stance: In a big feature story, 200 politicians, actors, professors, students and retirees stated:
"Welcome, dear refugees. We're glad you are here [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/07/31/deutsche-fluechtlinge-huffington-post-willkommen_n_7903912.html ]."
Whoever dares to take the refugees' side will really get to know this country's ugly side. We were pelted with emails, Facebook messages, and phone calls. They spoke of "dirty riffraff," "gas chambers" to solve the refugee problem, stating that refugees will bring nothing but "violence and diseases" to Germany.
But finally, a counter movement is forming now.
Students, actors, managers, bloggers and politicians are collecting clothing donations [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/28/taxi-rechnung-fluechtlinge_n_8053302.html ], getting involved in provisions [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/06/28/millionaer-ramadan-fluechtlinge_n_7680518.html ] for the refugees and using social media to oppose Nazi stupidity [ http://videos.huffingtonpost.de/politik/botschaft-an-fluechtlingsgegner-oliver-kalkofe-hat-eine-geniale-botschaft-an-alle-rassisten_id_4913506.html ] with strong arguments.
They see the situation for what it is: An extreme challenge for all of us.
Jack Moore
@JFXM
"REFUGEES WELCOME". Banners draped across Germany's football stadiums this weekend. (@markito0171)
1:08 AM - 30 Aug 2015
[ https://twitter.com/JFXM/status/637899713170264064 ]
Even the tabloids dispel myths about refugees. Only a couple of years ago they poisoned the atmosphere with questionable "truths" about immigrants.
But this can only be the beginning. Next, we will be faced with an enormous integration challenge. By now, this has also dawned on Angela Merkel. In Monday's press conference, she compared the integration work of the coming years with the effort invested in "building up the East" after the German reunification.
In the coming months and years, we have to re-integrate two minorities at once: On one side, there are the refugees staying with us long-term and on the other side are the "concerned citizens," representatives of the culture of fear.
It's likely that the second group will be more difficult.
This is a historic challenge. How we master it will decide on where this country will be headed. It all boils down to the question: Does Germany want to remain the cheerful World Cup country that many of us would like to live in?
This blog post first appeared on HuffPost Germany [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/sebastian-matthes/asylheime-rechter-mob-hassposts-deutschland-radikal-veraendern_b_8066018.html ] and was translated into English.
Copyright ©2015 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sebastian-matthes/germany-refugee-crisis_b_8071114.html [with comments]
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Poland Blocks Gold Hunters From Site Of Alleged Nazi Treasure Train
Men walk in underground galleries in the area where the Nazi gold train is supposedly hidden , on Aug. 28, 2015.
People are flocking to the area with metal detectors.
09/01/2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nazi-treasure-train-gold-hunters_55e5a5c2e4b0aec9f3546cb5 [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Auschwitz Summer Cooling 'Showers' Anger Visitors
[ https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/status/638252428064768000 ]
"I was in shock. It was a punch to the gut."
09/01/2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/auschwitz-showers_55e55415e4b0aec9f3546077 [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Israel Asks UN to Reject Palestinian Attempt to Raise Flag
SEPT. 1, 2015
UNITED NATIONS — Israel on Tuesday urged U.N. leaders to reject a Palestinian attempt to raise their flag at U.N. headquarters as early as this month's gathering of world leaders there.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor accused the Palestinians in letters to the United Nations secretary-general and General Assembly president of "attempting to swiftly change longstanding U.N. tradition in order to score political points."
The flags of all 193 U.N. member states fly outside U.N. headquarters in New York and other U.N. offices — but not the flags of the two non-member observer states, Palestine and the Vatican.
The Palestinians are seeking General Assembly approval of a draft resolution that would allow non-member observer states to raise their flags.
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour told The Associated Press that he expects a revised draft to be circulated on Thursday and a vote on Sept. 10, though a General Assembly spokeswoman said no date had been set.
He said he expects an "overwhelming majority" of states to support the resolution.
It states that "observer states maintaining permanent observer missions will raise their flags after member states," Mansour said. And it gives Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 20 days to implement the flag-raising provision.
Mansour said he would like to see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raise the flag after he addresses the General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders on Sept. 30. He said if the Holy See wants to raise its flag in time for Pope Francis' visit to the U.N. on Sept. 25, "by all means — we'll be there!"
[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/09/01/world/middleeast/ap-un-united-nations-palestinians-flag.html
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UN: Gaza could be ‘uninhabitable’ by 2020 if trends continue
By Cara Anna?
September 1, 2015 at 7:41 PM
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A new United Nations report says Gaza could be “uninhabitable” in less than five years if current economic trends continue.
The report released Tuesday by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development points to the eight years of economic blockade of Gaza as well as the three wars between Israel and the Palestinians there over the past six years.
Last year’s war displaced half a million people and left parts of Gaza destroyed.
The war “has effectively eliminated what was left of the middle class, sending almost all of the population into destitution and dependence on international humanitarian aid,” the new report says.
Gaza’s GDP dropped 15 percent last year, and unemployment reached a record high of 44 percent. Seventy-two percent of households are food insecure.
The wars have shattered Gaza’s ability to export and produce for the domestic market and left no time for reconstruction, the report says. It notes that Gaza’s “de-development,” or development in reverse, has been accelerated.
Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.
The report comes as Egyptian military bulldozers press ahead with a project that effectively would fill Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip with water and flood the last remaining cross-border underground smuggling tunnels, which have brought both commercial items and weapons into Gaza.
The report calls the economic prospects for 2015 for the Palestinian territories “bleak” because of the unstable political situation, reduced aid and the slow pace of reconstruction.
© 2015 Associated Press
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/un-gaza-could-be-uninhabitable-by-2020-if-trends-continue/2015/09/01/3ce36ca2-50fd-11e5-b225-90edbd49f362_story.html [with comments]
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Damnatio Memoriae: Returning Mediterranean's Lost Migration History to Center Stage
09/01/2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/damnatio-memoriae-returni_b_8072908.html [no comments yet]
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Meet Donald Trump's base
REUTERS
by Hunter
Mon Aug 24, 2015 at 12:30 PM PDT
In North Dakota, a white supremacist looking for a town he can take over and turn into his dreamed-of white supremacist enclave says he'd name the town after his new hero, Donald Trump [ http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/craig-cobb-white-enclave-donald-trump ].
Cobb, a hate crimes fugitive from Canada who is currently on probation for brandishing a gun at Leith residents in 2013, joins a number of other individuals with known white supremacist leanings who've expressed their adoration for Trump.
At Donald Trump's Alabama rally, a neo-Confederate handed out flyers [ https://twitter.com/costareports/status/634842836148490240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw ], news crews were unnerved by open bigotry [ https://twitter.com/downwithtyranny/status/634871028942921728 ] and at least one fellow occupied himself by shouting "white power!" throughout the speech [ http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-supporter-white-power ].
"I don't know about the individual you're talking about in Alabama," Lewandowski said on "State of the Union." "I know there were 30-plus thousand people in that stadium. They were very receptive to the message of 'making America great again' because they want to be proud to be Americans again."
Others in the Alabama stadium had more concrete hopes for a Trump presidency [ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/us/donald-trump-fails-to-fill-alabama-stadium-but-fans-zeal-is-undiminished.html ].
“Hopefully, he’s going to sit there and say, ‘When I become elected president, what we’re going to do is we’re going to make the border a vacation spot, it’s going to cost you $25 for a permit, and then you get $50 for every confirmed kill,’ ” said Jim Sherota, 53, who works for a landscaping company. “That’d be one nice thing.”
You can say one thing about Donald Trump: He's definitely found his audience.
© Kos Media, LLC
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/24/1415069/-Meet-Donald-Trump-s-base [with comments]
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Trump Is Setting the GOP Agenda
Every Republican presidential contender is playing Trump’s game. And losing at it.
08/30/15
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/donald-trump-2016-setting-gop-agenda-213088 [with comments]
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GOP establishment plans Trump takedown
August 31, 2015
[...]
An anti-Trump ad deluge after Labor Day?
It's no secret the Republican establishment is unnerved by Donald Trump and his lead in national and key state polls.
And now, after weeks of assuming his support would be fleeting, there is a debate about how to take aim at Trump -- and just who should finance such an effort.
CNN's Maeve Reston noted that most GOP strategists see risks in having the attacks come from the other candidates or their directly affiliated super PACs. So, she reports, there is conversation about what other group might raise money for anti-Trump TV ads.
"There are a lot of donors out there who see it as much too dangerous, obviously, for the candidates, or their allied super PACs, to go after Trump," said Reston. "So they're looking to more establishment PACs to potentially take him down in post-Labor Day ads."
[...]
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/30/politics/ip-obama-trump-jeb--romney/
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in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (other) following, see also (linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=115561020 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=115892128 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116624029 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116644169 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116665021 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116667166 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116676548 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116678132 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116681329 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116682108 and preceding (and any future following),
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116682147 and preceding and following
Forty-four percent also say that he wasn't born in the U.S.
By Janie Velencia
Posted: 09/01/2015 05:22 PM EDT
Well into his second term as president, over half of Republicans remain convinced that president Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to a poll [ http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/08/trump-supporters-think-obama-is-a-muslim-born-in-another-country.html ] released Tuesday by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.
The poll finds that 54 percent of Republicans think Obama is a Muslim, 14 percent think he's a Christian and 32 percent say they are unsure.
Obama's country of birth also remains a question for Republicans. A plurality, 44 percent, say they don't think he was born in the U.S. Only a third believe that he is American-born, and slightly less than another third are unsure where he was born.
Beliefs that Obama is a foreign-born Muslim are even stronger among Trump supporters. Sixty-six percent of Trump supporters surveyed think Obama is a Muslim; another 61 percent think he was not born in the U.S.
Conspiracy theories about Obama's faith, as well as his birth, have existed among Republicans since the start of his 2008 campaign and have persisted throughout his presidency. In 2010, a Pew Research report [ http://www.pewforum.org/2010/08/18/growing-number-of-americans-say-obama-is-a-muslim/ ] found that 31 percent of Republicans believed Obama was a Muslim. Most recently, Republican presidential hopeful Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker told The Washington Post that he didn't know if Obama was a Christian.
Obama has responded [ http://www.christianpost.com/news/scott-walker-says-hes-not-sure-if-obama-is-christian-again-142182/ ] to criticism about his religion by asserting that he is in fact a Christian, but has made note that even if he practiced a different religion, that should not be treated as if it were a bad thing.
Questions about Obama's birth reached a peak in 2011 when Donald Trump became one of the more famous Republican figures to accuse Obama of not having been born in the U.S. Obama eventually released a copy of his birth certificate [ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/politics/28obama.html ] that proved he was born in Hawaii.
[...]
Copyright © 2015 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/majority-of-republicans-believe-obama-is-a-muslim_55e5fcade4b0aec9f354cefe [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Republicans Like Obama's Ideas Better When They Think They're Donald Trump's
09/01/2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-republicans-democrats-poll_55e5fbb8e4b0c818f6196a82 [with comments]
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Fewer Americans Go Without Medical Care Due To Cost, Survey Says
More jobs and more health insurance are making a big difference in peoples' lives.
09/01/2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-health-care-survey_55e4d402e4b0b7a9633a07e2 [with comments]
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Why Germany Will Undergo Radical Change This Year
(Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Diapers are stacked in a holding area at Munich Hauptbahnhof main railway station on September 1, 2015 in Munich, Germany.
(Lennart Preiss/Getty Images)
People line up to wait for registration at the reception center for refugees and asylum-seekers in central Berlin , Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015.
(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
By Sebastian Matthes
Posted: 09/01/2015 10:50 am EDT Updated: 09/01/2015 11:28 am EDT
Not long ago, the world was looking upon our nation with admiration. During the soccer World Cup in 2006, Germany seemed like a cheerful university dorm; a place that welcomes strangers, where everybody can party exuberantly. In the following years, Germany even turned into a role model. While our European neighbors slid into recession, jobs were created here. Young people from all over the world came, because the future looked brighter here.
But then came the summer of 2015.
Suddenly Molotov cocktails were flying into asylum-seekers' hostels. Within the first six months of this year, there have been around 200 attacks [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/26/attacken-auf-asylbewerberheime-in-deutschland_n_7810098.html ] on refugee hostels. In July and August alone, the Federal Criminal Police Office reported 131 similar [ http://www.bild.de/bildlive/2015/17-asyl-42367678.bild.html ] attacks by right-wing extremists. Additionally, verbal and physical attacks against foreigners in subways are increasing, and in one especially gross reported case [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/24/rechtsextremer-uriniert-kinder_n_8032212.html ], Nazis publicly urinated on the kids of a refugee family. Hundreds of them demonstrate in front of refugee shelters like in Heidenau, Saxony, even yelling at Angela Merkel [ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/angela-merkel/11825473/Angela-Merkel-booed-at-refugee-centre-in-Germany-following-far-Right-attacks.html ] during her visit to one of the shelters, calling her a "traitor to her people," an especially vile term of Nazi propaganda.
It is shocking that something like this should happen in Germany. Because it has nothing to do with the nation that many of us are experiencing daily. It doesn't fit the cosmopolitan atmosphere of bigger cities like Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne and Munich.
This open, increasingly loud hatred against foreigners is mostly a small town phenomenon -- places with high unemployment, limited opportunities and a dangerous right-wing scene, in which the attackers are protected by others. One suspect in a recent attack, in which a refugee shelter was torched, is a fire fighter. A little later he helped to extinguish the fire.
For years, media and politics have overlooked and underestimated how powerful the right-wing movement has become in some parts of Germany. They have ignored the fact that small towns in the East German states [ http://www.dw.com/de/npd-verbot-l%C3%A4nder-f%C3%BChren-heidenau-als-beleg-f%C3%BCr-gewaltpotenzial-an/a-18682296 ] are "culturally controlled almost entirely by right-wing extremists": with murals in the style of the Nazi period, references to Hitler's birthplace, and an atmosphere of fear exaggerated by the far right extremists. In these towns, the right-wing culture dominates everything from high school to the carpenter's shop.
But there are also attacks on asylum-seekers' quarters in the South and West of Germany. Therefore, the radicalization of parts of German society is not a purely East German phenomenon. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution understands this as a threat, a new form of right-wing terrorism.
Sometimes, I just want to wake up from this nightmare. Is this really the country in which I want to raise my child? It is a country that I haven't known until now? My wife comes from Great Britain and has Indian roots. She came here and received a warm welcome from everyone -- like thousands of other immigrants. In our life, this other, ugly Germany didn't exist before.
Now, a small dissatisfied group has dismissed a broad cultural understanding: That, being one of the richest countries on earth, Germany is obliged to help people in need.
That is something we need to talk about. Forty percent of refugees coming to Europe [ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/world/europe/germany-de-maiziere-migrants-refugees-asylum.html ], come to Germany. According to recent estimates of the government, it will be 800,000 people [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/19/asylantrage_n_8009874.html ] this year. That equals the number of people living in Frankfurt, Main. Many Germans are scared of that.
Many of these "concerned citizens," as they like to call themselves, are not concerned about the refugees. They worry about themselves. They are scared of economic decline, scared of old age poverty. Scared that something will be taken away from them.
And now they have found the reason for their fear: Refugess that come to Germany to take the last couple of Euros and benefits away from them.
The preachers of hatred and extreme right parties [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/10/braunes-1968_n_7965112.html ], which have mostly flown under the radar until now, use this fear. They have found their audience. They use the Internet to goad on the scared masses. They spread fake articles about refugees, who allegedly come at German school girls, only to later exploit our social system. According to these hatemongers, politicians and the press lie, so they construct their own reality. Following their sick logic, there is [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/01/merkel-wahnsinn_n_7912422.html ] a "will of the people" that justifies violence against foreign fellow citizens. Therefore, we are not only experiencing one of the worst waves of right-wing terror since World War II, but also a gruesome peak of xenophobic propaganda.
To be clear: These people are a minority. There is no powerful anti-immigrant party in Germany either -- like there are in Denmark [ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/world/anti-immigrant-party-gains-in-denmark-elections.html ] or Sweden [ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/14/sweden-democrats-flex-muscles-anti-immigrant-kristianstad ]. However, this could change, if the dangerous and vocal minority became more powerful, due to a lack of opposition. For a long time, the majority of Germans has been looking on in disbelief. Like Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been silent about the attacks against asylum seekers for way to long, many were hoping that the rage would pass like a heavy thunderstorm. To the contrary. The silence of the majority worked like a combustive agent. Suddenly, the minority were feeling like the majority. In the beginning, not enough people spoke up in this heated debate. The Huffington Post Germany was one of the first media outlets to take a clear stance: In a big feature story, 200 politicians, actors, professors, students and retirees stated:
"Welcome, dear refugees. We're glad you are here [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/07/31/deutsche-fluechtlinge-huffington-post-willkommen_n_7903912.html ]."
Whoever dares to take the refugees' side will really get to know this country's ugly side. We were pelted with emails, Facebook messages, and phone calls. They spoke of "dirty riffraff," "gas chambers" to solve the refugee problem, stating that refugees will bring nothing but "violence and diseases" to Germany.
But finally, a counter movement is forming now.
Students, actors, managers, bloggers and politicians are collecting clothing donations [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/08/28/taxi-rechnung-fluechtlinge_n_8053302.html ], getting involved in provisions [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/06/28/millionaer-ramadan-fluechtlinge_n_7680518.html ] for the refugees and using social media to oppose Nazi stupidity [ http://videos.huffingtonpost.de/politik/botschaft-an-fluechtlingsgegner-oliver-kalkofe-hat-eine-geniale-botschaft-an-alle-rassisten_id_4913506.html ] with strong arguments.
They see the situation for what it is: An extreme challenge for all of us.
Jack Moore
@JFXM
"REFUGEES WELCOME". Banners draped across Germany's football stadiums this weekend. (@markito0171)
1:08 AM - 30 Aug 2015
[ https://twitter.com/JFXM/status/637899713170264064 ]
Even the tabloids dispel myths about refugees. Only a couple of years ago they poisoned the atmosphere with questionable "truths" about immigrants.
But this can only be the beginning. Next, we will be faced with an enormous integration challenge. By now, this has also dawned on Angela Merkel. In Monday's press conference, she compared the integration work of the coming years with the effort invested in "building up the East" after the German reunification.
In the coming months and years, we have to re-integrate two minorities at once: On one side, there are the refugees staying with us long-term and on the other side are the "concerned citizens," representatives of the culture of fear.
It's likely that the second group will be more difficult.
This is a historic challenge. How we master it will decide on where this country will be headed. It all boils down to the question: Does Germany want to remain the cheerful World Cup country that many of us would like to live in?
This blog post first appeared on HuffPost Germany [ http://www.huffingtonpost.de/sebastian-matthes/asylheime-rechter-mob-hassposts-deutschland-radikal-veraendern_b_8066018.html ] and was translated into English.
Copyright ©2015 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sebastian-matthes/germany-refugee-crisis_b_8071114.html [with comments]
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Poland Blocks Gold Hunters From Site Of Alleged Nazi Treasure Train
Men walk in underground galleries in the area where the Nazi gold train is supposedly hidden , on Aug. 28, 2015.
People are flocking to the area with metal detectors.
09/01/2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nazi-treasure-train-gold-hunters_55e5a5c2e4b0aec9f3546cb5 [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Auschwitz Summer Cooling 'Showers' Anger Visitors
[ https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/status/638252428064768000 ]
"I was in shock. It was a punch to the gut."
09/01/2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/auschwitz-showers_55e55415e4b0aec9f3546077 [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Israel Asks UN to Reject Palestinian Attempt to Raise Flag
SEPT. 1, 2015
UNITED NATIONS — Israel on Tuesday urged U.N. leaders to reject a Palestinian attempt to raise their flag at U.N. headquarters as early as this month's gathering of world leaders there.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor accused the Palestinians in letters to the United Nations secretary-general and General Assembly president of "attempting to swiftly change longstanding U.N. tradition in order to score political points."
The flags of all 193 U.N. member states fly outside U.N. headquarters in New York and other U.N. offices — but not the flags of the two non-member observer states, Palestine and the Vatican.
The Palestinians are seeking General Assembly approval of a draft resolution that would allow non-member observer states to raise their flags.
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour told The Associated Press that he expects a revised draft to be circulated on Thursday and a vote on Sept. 10, though a General Assembly spokeswoman said no date had been set.
He said he expects an "overwhelming majority" of states to support the resolution.
It states that "observer states maintaining permanent observer missions will raise their flags after member states," Mansour said. And it gives Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 20 days to implement the flag-raising provision.
Mansour said he would like to see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raise the flag after he addresses the General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders on Sept. 30. He said if the Holy See wants to raise its flag in time for Pope Francis' visit to the U.N. on Sept. 25, "by all means — we'll be there!"
[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/09/01/world/middleeast/ap-un-united-nations-palestinians-flag.html
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UN: Gaza could be ‘uninhabitable’ by 2020 if trends continue
By Cara Anna?
September 1, 2015 at 7:41 PM
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A new United Nations report says Gaza could be “uninhabitable” in less than five years if current economic trends continue.
The report released Tuesday by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development points to the eight years of economic blockade of Gaza as well as the three wars between Israel and the Palestinians there over the past six years.
Last year’s war displaced half a million people and left parts of Gaza destroyed.
The war “has effectively eliminated what was left of the middle class, sending almost all of the population into destitution and dependence on international humanitarian aid,” the new report says.
Gaza’s GDP dropped 15 percent last year, and unemployment reached a record high of 44 percent. Seventy-two percent of households are food insecure.
The wars have shattered Gaza’s ability to export and produce for the domestic market and left no time for reconstruction, the report says. It notes that Gaza’s “de-development,” or development in reverse, has been accelerated.
Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.
The report comes as Egyptian military bulldozers press ahead with a project that effectively would fill Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip with water and flood the last remaining cross-border underground smuggling tunnels, which have brought both commercial items and weapons into Gaza.
The report calls the economic prospects for 2015 for the Palestinian territories “bleak” because of the unstable political situation, reduced aid and the slow pace of reconstruction.
© 2015 Associated Press
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/un-gaza-could-be-uninhabitable-by-2020-if-trends-continue/2015/09/01/3ce36ca2-50fd-11e5-b225-90edbd49f362_story.html [with comments]
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Damnatio Memoriae: Returning Mediterranean's Lost Migration History to Center Stage
09/01/2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/damnatio-memoriae-returni_b_8072908.html [no comments yet]
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Meet Donald Trump's base
REUTERS
by Hunter
Mon Aug 24, 2015 at 12:30 PM PDT
In North Dakota, a white supremacist looking for a town he can take over and turn into his dreamed-of white supremacist enclave says he'd name the town after his new hero, Donald Trump [ http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/craig-cobb-white-enclave-donald-trump ].
Cobb, a hate crimes fugitive from Canada who is currently on probation for brandishing a gun at Leith residents in 2013, joins a number of other individuals with known white supremacist leanings who've expressed their adoration for Trump.
At Donald Trump's Alabama rally, a neo-Confederate handed out flyers [ https://twitter.com/costareports/status/634842836148490240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw ], news crews were unnerved by open bigotry [ https://twitter.com/downwithtyranny/status/634871028942921728 ] and at least one fellow occupied himself by shouting "white power!" throughout the speech [ http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-supporter-white-power ].
"I don't know about the individual you're talking about in Alabama," Lewandowski said on "State of the Union." "I know there were 30-plus thousand people in that stadium. They were very receptive to the message of 'making America great again' because they want to be proud to be Americans again."
Others in the Alabama stadium had more concrete hopes for a Trump presidency [ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/us/donald-trump-fails-to-fill-alabama-stadium-but-fans-zeal-is-undiminished.html ].
“Hopefully, he’s going to sit there and say, ‘When I become elected president, what we’re going to do is we’re going to make the border a vacation spot, it’s going to cost you $25 for a permit, and then you get $50 for every confirmed kill,’ ” said Jim Sherota, 53, who works for a landscaping company. “That’d be one nice thing.”
You can say one thing about Donald Trump: He's definitely found his audience.
© Kos Media, LLC
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/24/1415069/-Meet-Donald-Trump-s-base [with comments]
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Trump Is Setting the GOP Agenda
Every Republican presidential contender is playing Trump’s game. And losing at it.
08/30/15
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/donald-trump-2016-setting-gop-agenda-213088 [with comments]
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GOP establishment plans Trump takedown
August 31, 2015
[...]
An anti-Trump ad deluge after Labor Day?
It's no secret the Republican establishment is unnerved by Donald Trump and his lead in national and key state polls.
And now, after weeks of assuming his support would be fleeting, there is a debate about how to take aim at Trump -- and just who should finance such an effort.
CNN's Maeve Reston noted that most GOP strategists see risks in having the attacks come from the other candidates or their directly affiliated super PACs. So, she reports, there is conversation about what other group might raise money for anti-Trump TV ads.
"There are a lot of donors out there who see it as much too dangerous, obviously, for the candidates, or their allied super PACs, to go after Trump," said Reston. "So they're looking to more establishment PACs to potentially take him down in post-Labor Day ads."
[...]
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/30/politics/ip-obama-trump-jeb--romney/
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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