Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Monday 8 February 2016

The European Union Times


Posted: 08 Feb 2016 05:56 AM PST

Donald Trump, the leading US Republican presidential candidate, has criticized President Barack Obama for apologizing to Muslims during his first visit to an American mosque.
At a campaign rally in South Carolina on Friday, the Republican billionaire defended his controversial proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.
“Where did they come from?” Trump asked his supporters as he spoke about the November attacks.
“And then President Obama yesterday goes to a mosque and he apologizes,” the candidate said to audible boos. “I mean, what’s going on?”
Republican candidates, with Trump being in the vanguard, have helped fuel unprecedented levels of anti-Muslim sentiments in the United States, accusing the Muslim community of the recent bombings carried out by Daesh (ISIL) affiliates and sympathizers.
During his speech at the Islamic Society of Baltimore in Windsor Mill, Maryland, Obama hailed the contributions of Muslim Americans amid a sharp rise in Islamophobia around the country.
The president called on Americans to embrace their “common humanity” and reject the “inexcusable” anti-Islam rhetoric emanating from some presidential candidates.
“We have to reject a politics that seeks to manipulate prejudice or bias and targets people because of religion. We’ve got to make sure that hate crimes are punished and that the civil rights of all Americans are upheld,” Obama stated.
The US president also said that Christians “have to understand” that “an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths.”
Trump, however, reiterated that he believed Christianity is “under siege,” arguing that churches could consolidate their power on politics but were “afraid to lose their tax-exempt status.”
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Posted: 08 Feb 2016 05:26 AM PST

Three Muslim Arab men who live in Australia have escaped over a decade in jail despite admitting to raping a 17-year-old Norwegian girl in Croatia. Instead, after paying the victim around $22,000, they were allowed to walk free
Dylan Djohan, 23, Ashwin Kumar, 23, and Waleed Latif, 21, who are all from Melbourne, were originally given a one-year prison sentence. However, this was immediately downgraded to a five-year good behavior bond, meaning the men would not have to spend any time behind bars, Fairfax media reports.
The rape took place in the city of Split in 2015 at a late night bar, where the three men sexually assaulted a 17-year-old Norwegian backpacker. However, the group was able to avoid a trial and a possible 15-year jail sentence after they agreed to pay the girl €20,000 ($22,000), which has angered women’s rights campaigners.
“If they can afford it, those who are indicted will pay for the best lawyers, pay the damages and receive a minimum sentence or even go free. In a democratic state, everyone should have the same treatment, regardless of their wealth or assets,” Croatian women’s rights campaigner Sanja Sarnavka told the local media.
However, Sarnavka defended the girl’s decision to accept the money in order to avoid a trial, so she would not be forced to relive the harrowing event.
Djohan, a bartender and part-time model mentioned that he had an epiphany and heard a “soft voice” telling him, while he was in Dubrovnik, Croatia, that it was his duty in life to “bed heavenly blessed beauties.”
“Four days into my Adonis shred and these cuts are coming in deeper than the Baltic seas. My gift from the gods was this blessed block of heathen marble … My curse from the gods is that I must sculpt it with my bare hands,” Mr Djohan said, as cited by Fairfax media.
Prosecutors assert the men had plotted to rape the girl and one of them dragged her into the toilets before the other men joined in and proceeded to sexually assault her. A doctor’s report showed that intercourse had taken place. However, two of the men said the sex was consensual, while the third said he had not taken part.
The three men were part of a larger Australian group, who had headed to Ibiza before traveling to Croatia for a music festival. The men said the girl was drinking with them before the attack took place, while the majority of witnesses supported the accounts given by the Australian males. Staff and security at the bar did not report any incidents.
A Croatian source with access to the court files said the prosecution’s case against the three Australian men was not very strong.
The three men spent seven months in Croatia awaiting trial for rape after police seized their passports in July last year. However, with the case settled, they have now all returned home to Melbourne.
Just days after securing his freedom, 23-year-old Djohan inquired about the possibility of having sex on an airplane and joining the “mile-high-club,” with an airline stewardess before boarding a flight to Melbourne.
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Posted: 07 Feb 2016 01:52 PM PST

The establishment finally struck back. But not in the way anyone might have imagined.
The first Republican debate since voting began revealed a still-unsettled field with as many variables as quarrels among the candidates. Marco Rubio’s post-Iowa momentum likely stalled in a flurry of repetition while the three governors in the field made strong, final pitches for New Hampshire to revive their candidacies.
By the end of ABC News’ debate Saturday, the GOP’s new center of gravity looked much like the old one: Donald Trump, center stage, poised to start winning.
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Posted: 07 Feb 2016 01:36 PM PST

Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said that Turkey had refused to confirm its agreement with the memorandum of flight safety in Syria and blocked a telephone hot line prior to the attack on the Russian Su-24.
Speaking about the possible use of Turkish aviation in Syria, Antonov said that the Russian air defense group in Syria makes it possible to use appropriate measures to ensure the safety of flights of Russian aircraft.
“Our air defense group allows to early detect a threat to Russian aircraft on combat missions in Syria and, if necessary, take adequate measures to ensure the security of their flights,” RIA Novosti quoted Antonov as saying.
He also added that Turkey should fully adhere to the provisions of the Russian-US memorandum of flight safety in the Syrian Arab Republic, should Turkey use its aviation in Syria.
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Posted: 07 Feb 2016 01:25 PM PST

Trump now has more than double the support of Rubio.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s lead widened in New Hampshire just days before the primary, according to the latest CNN/WMUR tracking poll.
Thirty-three percent of likely Republican primary voters said they support Trump, giving the billionaire a 17-point lead over his closest GOP rival.
Trump gained 5 points from a similar tracking poll last week.
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Posted: 07 Feb 2016 01:14 PM PST

General Christian Piquemal, a respected former French Legion commander, is among the dozens arrested during Europe-wide protests against the ongoing migrant influx.
The arrest at the PEGIDA rally in Calais on Saturday was one of 20, and came as clashes erupted between the ‘anti-Islamization’ group and the police in the French port city. The troubles kicked off after the authorities canceled the planned rally.
The crowd booed the police, as they tried to get Piquemal and drag him away.
The former commander led the Legion from 1994 to 1999.
A crowd of 150 protesters gathered downtown with banners and slogans, among them: “This is our home.” They waved the French flag and sang the national anthem, only several days after the government had banned protests.
Piquemal, 75, tried to rally the group in support of PEGIDA’s right-wing cause.
He spoke to the crowd and was quoted by Le Monde as saying: “There are things that have to be respected, including the national anthem – the Marseillaise – when it is sung.”
He slammed the police for not respecting the song and lamented how “France is in decline. I regret that you received these orders. You are forced to obey your orders, but you don’t have to behave this way in the field.”
Far-right French politicians were also in attendance in support of Piequemal.
Piquemal was charged with “participation in an unlawful assembly which did not dissolve after warning.” Four people in his entourage were also charged with possession of weapons, including a knuckle-duster and a Taser gun.
All five will face up to a year in prison, and are due to appear in court on Monday.
“Some groups began to circulate in the city center, mainly far-right, neo-Nazi types,” Etienne Desplanques, a regional official, told AFP.
Although the police issued warnings to disperse, the crowd refused. This resulted in the use of tear gas and other riot gear. Several scuffles took place as arrests were made.
“We have had a series of arrests, in all about 20,” Desplanques said, adding that the number could be higher.
Despite tactics by authorities aimed at eradicating the makeshift and slum-like camps, some 3,700 migrants continue to live in the northern port city, in a camp just on the outskirts known colloquially as “the Jungle.”
In the southern city of Montpellier, 200 people showed up to protest the migrant situation.
Across Europe, tens of thousands of people marched in 14 countries, which involved violent clashes.
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Posted: 07 Feb 2016 12:04 PM PST

A new survey has found that there is nowhere on the entire planet where the average wage earner is making enough money to live “the American Dream”
Are you living “the American Dream”? If so, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate, because most Americans are not.
In fact, as you will see below, a new survey has found that there is nowhere on the entire planet where the average wage earner is making enough money to live “the American Dream”. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now the middle class makes up a minority of the population, 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year, and poverty is growing rapidly. The American Dream is essentially dead, and even the mainstream media is starting to figure this out.
Just today, someone sent me a U.S. News & World Report article entitled “Even Americans Can’t Afford the American Dream”. The following is an excerpt from that article…
The study goes country by country, factoring in average local wages and prices to calculate the regional costs of luxuries such as midsize homes (by U.S. standards, 1,480 square feet); electricity and high-speed Internet; cars and enough money for gasoline; food for a family of four; and enough disposable income to periodically dine out and attend movies or other events.
Researchers ultimately found there isn’t a country on the map whose average wage earner could afford all of these expenses together. What’s more, average consumers in Saudi Arabia and Oman are actually closer to financing these socioeconomic goals than the average American. The average Saudi household would only need to see monthly salaries climb by about $74 to realize the American dream in their own country, while U.S. workers would need hundreds of dollars in additional income.
Isn’t that alarming?
The American Dream is out of the grasp of most people living in America, and there isn’t anywhere else on the globe where a majority of the workers are experiencing it either.
That same article also contained a few other facts that are truly sobering…
“After more than four decades of serving as the nation’s economic majority, the American middle class is now matched in number by those in the economic tiers above and below it,” the Pew report said. “Since 1971, each decade has ended with a smaller share of adults living in middle-income households than at the beginning of the decade, and no single decade stands out as having triggered or hastened the decline in the middle.”
Another recent study from the Brookings Institution found that median wages fell in 80 percent of America’s largest metros between 2009 and 2014.
The middle class has been shrinking for a very long time, and now that collapse is accelerating.
So what is the solution?
Well, CNN is reporting that a new survey has discovered that middle class Americans feel that the federal government should do more to help them out…
Hey federal government! The middle class would like some help, too.
A majority of Americans say the feds don’t do enough to help the middle class, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday. The middle class is more neglected than the poor or children, survey respondents said.
More socialism for everyone!
That will solve all of our problems, right?
Of course not. Actually, if we had a much smaller government that would probably go a long way toward fixing things. This is hard to believe, but in 2015 Americans spent more on taxes than on food, clothing and housing combined.
If the federal government would just stop taxing us into oblivion, a lot more of us would do okay all on our own.
These days, so many families are just scraping by from month to month. As the cost of living continues to move steadily upward, many Americans find themselves forced to go into debt just to cover basic expenses.
And our society actually encourages all of us to go into debt, and so we think that it is okay. But many of us end up digging financial holes that we never get out of. This is especially true for a lot of young people today. One recent survey found that 68 percent of all Americans had destroyed their credit before the age of 30.
Of course then we hear on the news that the economy is “not growing fast enough” because consumers are not spending enough money.
The experts that are telling people this don’t seem to understand that most consumers are tapped out at this point.
You can’t get blood from a rock, and as a result a lot of retailers are really hurting right now. The following list of store closures comes from my recent article about the ongoing retail apocalypse…
-Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, including 154 inside the United States.
-K-Mart is closing down more than two dozen stores over the next several months.
-J.C. Penney will be permanently shutting down 47 more stores after closing a total of 40 stores in 2015.
-Macy’s has decided that it needs to shutter 36 stores and lay off approximately 2,500 employees.
-The Gap is in the process of closing 175 stores in North America.
-Aeropostale is in the process of closing 84 stores all across America.
-Finish Line has announced that 150 stores will be shutting down over the next few years.
-Sears has shut down about 600 stores over the past year or so, but sales at the stores that remain open continue to fall precipitously.
When I was a young boy, I think that you could have said that the American Dream was still alive and well in the United States.
But after decades of exceedingly foolish decisions, things have completely changed and the middle class is dying right in front of our eyes.
If you doubt this, please see the list of statistics that I have shared below that comes from one of my previous articles…
#1 This week we learned that for the first time ever recorded, middle class Americans make up a minority of the population. But back in 1971, 61 percent of all Americans lived in middle class households.
#2 According to the Pew Research Center, the median income of middle class households declined by 4 percent from 2000 to 2014.
#3 The Pew Research Center has also found that median wealth for middle class households dropped by an astounding 28 percent between 2001 and 2013.
#4 In 1970, the middle class took home approximately 62 percent of all income. Today, that number has plummeted to just 43 percent.
#5 There are still 900,000 fewer middle class jobs in America than there were when the last recession began, but our population has gotten significantly larger since that time.
#6 According to the Social Security Administration, 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year.
#7 For the poorest 20 percent of all Americans, median household wealth declined from negative 905 dollars in 2000 to negative 6,029 dollars in 2011.
#8 A recent nationwide survey discovered that 48 percent of all U.S. adults under the age of 30 believe that “the American Dream is dead”.
#9 At this point, the U.S. only ranks 19th in the world when it comes to median wealth per adult.
#10 Traditionally, entrepreneurship has been one of the engines that has fueled the growth of the middle class in the United States, but today the level of entrepreneurship in this country is sitting at an all-time low.
#11 If you can believe it, the 20 wealthiest people in this country now have more money than the poorest 152 million Americans combined.
#12 The top 0.1 percent of all American families have about as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent of all American families combined.
#13 If you have no debt and you also have ten dollars in your pocket, that gives you a greater net worth than about 25 percent of all Americans.
#14 The number of Americans that are living in concentrated areas of high poverty has doubled since the year 2000.
#15 An astounding 48.8 percent of all 25-year-old Americans still live at home with their parents.
#16 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 49 percent of all Americans now live in a home that receives money from the government each month, and nearly 47 million Americans are living in poverty right now.
#17 In 2007, about one out of every eight children in America was on food stamps. Today, that number is one out of every five.
#18 According to Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, the authors of a new book entitled “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America“, there are 1.5 million “ultrapoor” households in the United States that live on less than two dollars a day. That number has doubled since 1996.
#19 46 million Americans use food banks each year, and lines start forming at some U.S. food banks as early as 6:30 in the morning because people want to get something before the food supplies run out.
#20 The number of homeless children in the U.S. has increased by 60 percent over the past six years.
#21 According to Poverty USA, 1.6 million American children slept in a homeless shelter or some other form of emergency housing last year.
#22 The median net worth of families in the United States was $137, 955 in 2007. Today, it is just $82,756.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 20:02