First Step to Annexation? The Real Reason Turkey Sent Troops to Iraq

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to take advantage of the power vacuum in northern Iraq to create a proto-state loyal to Ankara, if not annex this territory, defense analyst Stanislav Ivanov wrote for New Eastern Outlook.

In early December, Ankara sent approximately 130 Turkish troops to a town close to Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, which was captured by Daesh in June 2014. The initiative was not authorized by Baghdad, which called it a violation of sovereignty. Iraqi authorities urged Ankara to withdraw soldiers and military hardware from the province of Nineveh and refrain from similar actions in the future.

"President Erdogan and his entourage believe that Nineveh province was illegally annexed from Turkey in 1920. … Taking advantage of the attenuation of the central Iraqi authority and de facto division of the country into three parts (Shiite south, Sunni center and Kurdish north), Mr. Erdogan cherishes the idea of restoring 'historical justice,'" the analyst explained.

© AFP 2015/ MEHDI FEDOUACH

A large convoy of Turkish military including tanks and ambulances rolls from the southeastern part of Turkey toward the Iraqi border (File)

© AP PHOTO/ KHALIL ASHAWI

Inconvenient Truth: Leaked Report Proves Daesh Smuggling Oil to Turkey

Ankara claimed that the troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers were deployed to northern Iraq to train Peshmerga and the operation was given a green light by the leadership of Iraqi Kurdistan. Ivanov called these claims "unconvincing," since the province is not part of Iraqi Kurdistan, "but is directly subordinate to Baghdad."

In addition, northern Iraq is rich in oil and Ankara has access to transport routes used to deliver petroleum from Iraqi Kurdistan to Turkey.

These factors "explain Ankara's desire to take advantage of the power vacuum in the north of Iraq and take control over these territories after the liberation of Mosul and Nineveh," Ivanov stated. "And it will not necessarily look like a direct occupation of Nineveh and its subsequent annexation from Iraq."

© AFP 2015/ MUSTAFA OZER 

Turkish soldiers patrol on a road near the Turkey-Iraq border in the mainly Kurdish southeastern province of Sirnak (File)

© AFP 2015/ BULENT KILIC

Erdogan's Muscle Flexing: Ankara Wants to Become a 'Military Force to Be Reckoned With'

The analyst maintains that Ankara could well encourage local Sunnis, Syrian Turkmen and friendly Kurds to call for a referendum, which would produce a political entity resembling Iraqi Kurdistan. "There are no doubts that the new regional authorities are expected to be loyal to Ankara and that Turkey will become a sort of a 'shadow master' of the northern part of Iraq," Ivanov observed.

Washington does not seem to mind Turkey's recent military adventures.

"The US administration is very much pleased that Turkey and Kurds have close ties," the analyst noted. "The reason the US supports this partnership is because as long as Turkey and Kurds have an affinity, the influence of Iran and of the pro-Iranian lobby in Baghdad will be kept at bay."

Credit to Sputnik
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151221/1032085236/turkey-erdogan-nineveh-kurds.html#ixzz3uyT7PJVp

Muslims and Christians DO NOT worship the same God.

Wheaton College political science professor Larycia Hawkins posing in a hijab in a photo that was posted to Facebook on Dec. 10, 2015.

The Rev. Franklin Graham criticized the recently suspended Wheaton College professor who decided to wear a hijab to show solidarity with Muslims and who suggested Christians and Muslims worship the same God.

"Can you believe this Wheaton College professor who says she's going to wear a hijab for the holidays this year to show solidarity with Islam? Shame on her! She said that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Well she is absolutely wrong — she obviously doesn't know her Bible and she doesn't know Islam," Graham wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

In a later interview with The Christian Post, Hawkins argued that her post, which was criticized by some Christians and supported by others, was being misunderstood.

"There is pushback on the idea that we worship the same god but taking that a step farther to assume that I am conflating Jesus and Muhammad, the prophet. That is where the pushback has come primarily," Hawkins told CP.

"I am not making any kind of equivalency between two religions and the prophet Muhammad and the prophet Jesus, that is not what I said but that, people have taken."


Wheaton College announced in a statement, however, that they are placing her on administrative leave, and will be conducting a full review of the issue.

"As they participate in various causes, it is essential that faculty and staff engage in and speak about public issues in ways that faithfully represent the College's evangelical Statement of Faith."

Hawkins has defended her position, arguing that many Christians have long believed that Muslims worship the same God as they do.

"Whether or not you find this position, one held for centuries by countless Christians (church fathers, saints, and regular Christian folk like), to be valid, I trust that we can peacefully disagree on theological points and affirm others like the Triune God (albeit there are differences here as well — Athanasian Creed, anyone?), the virgin birth (or Immaculate Conception depending on your persuasion), and the Resurrection," the tenured professor added. "Let there be unity in our diversity of views about all of the above."

Graham argued in his post on Wednesday, however, that Muslims do not believe that God has a Son named Jesus Christ, which makes all the difference.

"The God of the Bible sent His Son to earth to die in our place and save us from our sins. The god of Islam requires you to die for him to be sure that you're going to heaven. That's a huge difference — and there are many more examples," the evangelical leader added.

He also thanked Wheaton College for placing the professor on administrative leave, calling it "one of the premier evangelical universities in this country."

Graham's father, famed evangelist Billy Graham, graduated from Wheaton, which now has a center named in his honor, the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism.

The head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said earlier this week that he is "sick of hearing about Islam," which last month he claimed had "declared war" on the rest of the world due to the Islamic State's terror actions in France.

Credit to Christian Post
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/franklin-graham-hijab-wheaton-prof-god-christians-muslims-152775/#r0I7TUCgpDCcdQ5K.99

The Rate Hike Stock Market Crash Has Thrown Gasoline Onto An Already Raging Global Financial Inferno

If the stock market crash of last Thursday and Friday had all happened on one day, it would have been the 7th largest single day decline in U.S. history.  On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 367 points after finishing down 253 points on Thursday.  The overall decline of 620 points between the two days would have been the 7th largest single day stock market crash ever experienced in the United States if it had happened within just one trading day.  

If you will remember, this is precisely what I warned would happen if the Federal Reserve raised interest rates.  But when news of the rate hike first came out on Wednesday, stocks initially jumped.  This didn’t make any sense at all, and personally I was absolutely stunned that the markets had behaved so irrationally.  But then we saw that on Thursday and Friday the markets did exactly what we thought they would do.  The chief economist at Gluskin Sheff, David Rosenberg, is calling the brief rally on Wednesday “a head-fake of enormous proportions“, and analysts all over Wall Street are bracing for what could be another very challenging week ahead.

When the Federal Reserve decided to lift interest rates, they made a colossal error.  You don’t raise interest rates when a global financial crisis has already started.  That is absolutely suicidal.  It is the kind of thing that you would do if you were trying to bring down the global financial system on purpose.

Surely the “experts” at the Federal Reserve can see what is happening.  Junk bonds have already crashed, just like they did in 2008.  The price of oil has crashed, just like it did in 2008.  Commodity prices have crashed, just like they did in 2008.  And more than half of all major global stock market indexes are already down at least 10 percent for the year so far.

You don’t raise interest rates in that kind of an environment.

You would have to be utterly insane to do so.

The Federal Reserve has thrown fuel onto a global financial inferno that is already raging, and things could spiral out of control very rapidly.

As far as this upcoming week is concerned, we have now entered “liquidation season”.  Investors are going to be pulling their money out of poorly performing hedge funds before the end of the calendar year, and as CNBC has pointed out, more hedge funds have already failed in 2015 than at any point since the last financial crisis…

Liquidation season occurs when clients of poorly performing hedge funds ask for their money back. It tends to occur at the end of a quarter or year. In response, hedge funds must sell stocks in the open market to raise the money that needs to be returned to investors.

That means if a hedge fund performed poorly this year; it is probably flooded with liquidation requests right now. In fact, there have been more failed hedge funds this year than any time since 2008.

The dominoes are starting to fall.  We have already seen funds run by Third Avenue Management, Stone Lion Capital Partners and Lucidus Capital Partners collapse.  Amazingly, there are some people out there that are still attempting to claim that “nothing is happening” even in the midst of all of this chaos.

As they say, “denial” is not just a river in Egypt.

And this crisis is going to get even worse as we head into 2016.  Egon von Greyerz, the founder of Matterhorn Asset Management, is convinced that we will soon see “one disaster after another”…

Greyerz predicts, “I think we will have one disaster after another, first in the junk bond market, then in emerging markets and, after that, the subprime markets. Subprime car loans and student loans I see as another massive problem area. It is going to be one thing after another that will unravel. Since 2008, when the world almost went under, we have printed or increased credit by 50% or by $70 trillion, and the world economy is still struggling to survive. I think the real change in confidence will come down when markets come down. . . . I think things will come down very quickly.”

And I think that he is right on target.  The global financial system is more interconnected today than ever before, and when one financial institution fails, it inevitably affects dozens of others.  And the failures that we have already seen are already spreading a wave of fear and panic that may be difficult to stop.  The following comes from Business Insider, and I think that it is a pretty good explanation of what we could see next…

• Funds such as Third Avenue and Lucidus close, liquidating their portfolios.
• Investors, spooked by the closures and the risk that they might not be able to get their money out of these funds, make a rush for the exits while they still can.
• That creates even more selling pressure.
• Funds sell the assets that are easiest to sell as they look to reduce risk, which pushes the selling pressure from the risky parts of the market to the higher-quality part of the market.
• Things evolve from there.

If you have been waiting for the next financial crisis to arrive, you can stop, because it is already unfolding right in front of our eyes.

The only question is how bad it is going to become.

In the final analysis, I find myself agreeing quite a bit with Charles Hugh Smith, the author of “A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All“.  He believes that the ridiculous monetary policies of the Federal Reserve have played a primary role in setting the stage for this new crisis, and that now this giant financial “Death Star” that they have created “is about to blow up”…

By slashing rates to zero, the Fed ruthlessly eliminating safe returns for savers, pension funds, insurers and the millions of people with 401K retirement nesteggs. In effect, the Fed-Farce has pushed everyone into risk assets–and then played another Dark Side mind-trick by masking the true dangers of these risky assets.

As oil-sector debt blows up, as junk bonds blow up, and emerging markets blow up, we are finally starting to see the real costs of going over to the Dark Side of endless credit expansion and throwing the gasoline of near-zero interest rates on the speculative fires of financialization.

The Fed’s hubris has led it to the Dark Side, and now its Death Star of impaired debt, phantom collateral, speculative frenzy and bogus mind-tricks is about to blow up.

Personally, instead of saying that it “is about to blow up”, I would have said that it is already blowing up.

We have already seen trillions upon trillions of dollars of wealth wiped out around the world.

Energy companies are failing, giant hedge funds are going under, and the 7th largest economy on the entire planet has already plunged into “an outright depression“.

Everyone that warned of financial disaster in the second half of 2015 has been proven right, but this is just the beginning.  Now that the Federal Reserve has thrown gasoline onto the fire, our problems are only going to accelerate as we head into 2016.

So for the upcoming year, let us hope for the best, but let us also prepare for the worst.

Credit to Economic Collapse

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-rate-hike-stock-market-crash-has-thrown-gasoline-onto-an-already-raging-global-financial-inferno

This Is the Anti-Christ’s Military of the Future

I did not sleep particularly well last night. I interviewed Pastor Billy Crone on The Common Sense Show. I considered myself to be knowledgeable on the topic of drone and robotic technology until I interviewed Pastor Crone. His revelations left the staff of my show in absolute shock. Why would a pastor become concerned about drone technology? Simple, this is end times, Mark of the Beast, human enslaving technology.

Listen to Dave’s Interview with Pastor Crone 

False Bravado of Many Americans

“There is an American behind every blade of grass.” “Americans will never submit to tyranny”. These are  phrases which one often hears as we contemplate how much control the globalists have gained over our country and over our lives. And because of compartmentalization and “national security”, the technology you see here is over 30 years old. Having said that, most Americans will scarcely believe their collective ears.

Here is an example of technology that is 30-40 years old.

Total Enslavement of a Population

Fox News reported that Human Rights Watch is advocating for a ban on these artificial weapons systems. I believe that humanity has more to fear from DARPA killer robots than creating an unethical and brutal army and/or tyrannical police force. When considering the principle of Moore’s Law, in which computer capacity doubles every 18 months, how long will it be until these machines will advance to a level in which they will represent the most powerful weaponry on the planet? The following video is frightening in its implications for American society.

What this group does not realize is that there knowledge is at least 30 years behind the curve. All their expressed fears have already happened in a DARPA laboratory.

Micro Aerial Vehicles

A drone flies overhead at a high altitude, it releases 100,000 micro drones known as Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV). Each MAV has the capability to be autonomous and carry out its own mission. Or, 100,000 MAV’s can perform like the Borg in carrying out its mission objectives in unison. Each MAV comes equipped with surveillance capability, they also have facial recognition applications and each can carry out assassinations or joint military maneuvers. Each MAV has the capability to crawl like bugs and fly like a bird. They blend into the environment and are barely detectable. Taking on the shape of an insect, MAV’s are able to gain access to secure areas much like bugs do in nature. The release of 100,000 MAV’s constitutes an attacking army. So, as a Predator B drone approaches suspected Constitutional supporting Americans, the American person(s) would quickly be overwhelmed by an overwhelming force of mechanical birds and insects each with the capability to kill. A picture is worth a thousand words. The following Department of Air Force video release speaks volumes as to how far the technology has developed.

What is most concerning is that Pastor Crone stated that he was told off the record that this technology is 30 years old. We can only imagine how advanced the forces now.

The Elite Will Soon Be Impervious to Harm

Any chance of a rebel insurrection, or military uprising that does not possess this robotic and drone technology is doomed to fail.

Omnipresent Surveillance

Americans forces, stationed in urban Iraqi areas (e.g. Baghdad) are still coming under fire.  DARPA, has responded with technology which allows the military to spy on whole cities with its  Large Area Coverage Optical Search-while-Track and Engage  (LACOSTE). LACOSTE is a program of imaging technology that will allow for “single sensor , day or night, ongoing tactical surveillance of all moving vehicles in an urban area.  LACOSTE will eventually be able to identify individual humans in the same manner. This surveillance system is being integrated into department store video surveillance, the street light turned spy Intellistreets and all traffic cameras. If the globalists want to find you, you better have a darn good place to hide.

DARPA’s Straight Shooters
vs. the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

In the original Red Dawn movie, I chuckle at the scenes where Wolverines successfully ambush convoy after convoy of enemy columns. This might have been possible in the 1990’s, but that day is long gone. You see, NRA members, the military now possess bullets that cannot miss.  On your last trip to your local gun range, how close to 100% was your accuracy?

EXACTO, or the  Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance, is the first ever guided small caliber (“smart”) bullet. If you’ve ever watched a heat-seeking missile follow a fighter jet on the big screen, then you would comprehend the idea of DARPA’s intention for  creating a maneuverable and flexible bullet, which is controlled by a guidance system,  that moves with the target and adjusts in mid-flight and to eventually shatters a human skull.

“Take Cover” Commands Cannot Save You

Meet the XM-25 “smart” grenade launcher. The weapon is portable and can be carried to the battlefield by a soldier, or even better, a DARPA killer robot who has orders to search and destroy a specific target which will be identified by facial recognition. Once you are located, the X-25 possess a laser range-finder built in that can detect the distance to the wall or trench that you’re hiding behind and then blow you and your cover to oblivion. Again, there is nowhere to run and hide.

Every Move You Make,
DARPA Will Be Stalking You

Many gun owners mistakenly believe that they are going to be able to carry out acts of terrorism against an illegitimate government as they begin to lockdown the country under a martial law takeover. Thwarting most ideas of a revolutionary effort  can be found in the Battlefield Optical Surveillance System, a device that can be mounted on a truck that scans and deciphers the landscape with lasers and sensors. When it sees the almost imperceptible glint of a rifle scope, or more amazingly it also recognizes you through your retinas as the detection device “paints” you with a laser beam, just prior to your demise.

And even in the unlikely event that you can slip into firing range of your intended target, theBoomerang countermeasure system uses an array of microphones which will be able to instantly decipher the speed and direction of your shot, based on the muzzle report and the shockwave of the bullet as it zips past. Immediately, Boomerang knows where the shot came from, and even what kind of weapon was utilized. This system will reduce all future sniper missions to a Kamikaze endeavor.

Round-Ups for FEMA Camps Made Easy

Getting These People From Here…

To Here….

Is Easy When You Have This Technology Combined with Facial Recognition Software…

It is time, once again, for the mantra:

THIS TECHNOLOGY IS OVER 30 YEARS OLD

The Artificial Intelligence Aspect

We know that robots are developing the ability to be autonomous, plan their own mission and even repair one another. How long will it be until they no longer need humans? Based upon what we know about Google’s fascination with singularity and a flavor of transhumanism in which the elite escape their bodies with their brain and consciousness intact and inhabit the shell of a robot and achieve immortality.

Who could deny that Satanic forces would not embrace this technology. I often use the word, Satanists, to describe the globalist cabal who is attempting to impose their will on all of humanity. My use of the word “Satanist” is not merely a term used to demean a group of elite. I truly mean that these people are Satanists. If you do not believe that the New World Order is not Satanically inspired, please listen to what Melissa Melton and Aaron Dykes have to say on this subject.

Pastor Crone has a more ominous view. If one believes that we are anywhere near the end times, these all watching and all knowing robots will be able to enforce the Mark of the Beast.  Total surveillance, total control is upon us.

Credit to Common Sense

Germans Scramble To Buy Weapons Amid Nationwide Spike In Migrant Driven Crime

• 
  
  
  
  The scramble to acquire weapons comes amid an indisputable nationwide spike in migrant-driven crime, including rapes of German women and girls on a shocking scale, as well as physical assaults, stabbings, home invasions, robberies and burglaries — in cities and towns throughout the country.
• German authorities, however, are going to great lengths to argue that the German citizenry's sudden interest in self-defense has nothing whatsoever to do with mass migration into the country, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
• The spike in violent crimes committed by migrants has been corroborated by a leaked confidential police report, which reveals that a record-breaking 38,000 asylum seekers were accused of committing crimes in the country in 2014. Analysts believe this figure — which works out to more than 100 crimes a day — is only a fragment: many crimes are not reported.
• "Anyone who asks for the reasons for the surge in weapons purchases encounters silence." — Süddeutsche Zeitung

Germans, facing an influx of more than one million asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, are rushing to arm themselves.

All across Germany, a country with some of the most stringent gun-control laws in Europe, demand is skyrocketing for non-lethal self-defense weapons, including pepper sprays, gas pistols, flare guns, electroshock weapons and animal repellants. Germans are also applying for weapons permits in record numbers.

The scramble to acquire weapons comes amid a migrant-driven surge in violent crimes — including rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults — in cities and towns throughout the country.

German authorities, however, are going to great lengths to argue that the German citizenry's sudden interest in self-defense has nothing whatsoever to do with mass migration into the country, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

In recent weeks, German newspapers have published dozens of stories with headlines such as: "Germany is Afraid — And Grabs for the Weapon," "Germans are Arming Themselves: The Demand for Weapons Explodes," "More and More People are Buying a Weapon," "Security: Hands Up!" "The Need for Security Increases," "Boom in Weapons Stores," and "Bavarians are Arming Themselves— Afraid of Refugees?"

The German daily newspaper Die Welt recently produced a video report about Germany's surge in sales of self-defense weapons, which was titled "The Weapons Business is Profiting from the Refugee Crisis." (Image source: Die Welt video screenshot)

Since Germany's migration crisis exploded in August 2015, nationwide sales of pepper spray have jumped by 600%, according to the German newsmagazine, Focus. Supplies of the product are now completely sold out in many parts of the country and additional stocks will not become available until 2016. "Manufacturers and distributors say the huge influx of foreigners in recent weeks has apparently frightened many people," Focus reports.

According to KH Security, a German manufacturer of self-defense products, demand is up by a factor of five, and sales in September 2015 — the month when the implications of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door migration policy began to dawn on many Germans — were the highest since the company was founded 25 years ago. The company says there is an increased demand not only for self-defense weapons, but also for home alarm systems.

Another manufacturer of self-defense products, the Frankfurt-based company DEF-TEC Defense Technology, has reported a 600% increase in sales this fall. According to CEO Kai Prase:

"Things took off beginning in September. Since then, our dealers have been totally overrun. We have never experienced anything like this in the 21 years of our corporate history. Fear: This is not rational. The important term is: 'refugee crisis.'"

The same story is being repeated across Germany. According to the public broadcaster, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, citizens in Saxony can regularly be seen queuing up in large numbers waiting for gun shops to open.

A store owner in the Saxon town of Pirna said he is now selling up to 200 cans of pepper spray each day, compared to five cans a week before the migrant crisis began. He said he is seeing many new customers who are not the typical clientele, including women of all ages and men who are buying weapons for their wives.

Günter Fritz, the owner of a gun shop in Ebersbach, another town in Saxony, told RTL News, "Since September, all over Germany, also at my shop, sales of self-defense products have exploded." He added that his clients come from all walks of life, ranging "from the professor to the retired lady. All are afraid."

Andreas Reinhardt, a gun shop owner in the northern German town of Eutin, said he now sells four to five self-defense weapons each day, compared to around two per month before the recent influx of asylum seekers. "The current social upheaval is clearly driving the current rush to self-defense," he said. "I never thought that fear would spread so quickly," he added.

Eric Thiel, the owner of a gun shop in Flensburg, a city on the Baltic Sea coast, said that pepper spray is no longer available: "Everything is sold out. New supplies will not arrive until March. Everything that has to do with self-defense is booming enormously."

Wolfgang Mayer, the owner of a gun shop in Nördlingen, a town in Bavaria, said he has an explanation for the surge in gun licenses: "I think with the influx of refugees, the rise in break-ins and the many tricksters, the people are demanding greater protection."

Mayer added that there is a growing sense within German society that the state cannot adequately protect its citizens and therefore they have to better protect themselves. "Since the summer, sales of pepper spray have increased by 50%," Mayer said, adding that buyers are mainly women, of all ages — from the student in the city up to the widowed grandmother.

Pepper spray and other types of non-lethal self-defense weapons are legal in Germany, but a permit is required to carry and use some categories of them. Officials in all of Germany's 16 federal states are reporting a spike in applications for such permits, known as the small weapons license (kleinen Waffenschein).

In the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, nearly 10,000 people now hold a small weapons license, an "all-time record level," according to the regional interior ministry. Retailers in the state are also reporting an "unprecedented surge" in sales of self-defense weapons, with supplies of pepper spray sold out until the spring of 2016.

In Saxony, retailers are reporting an unprecedented boom in sales of pepper spray, tear gas, gas pistols and even cross bows. Some stores are now selling more self-defense weapons in one day than they did in an entire month before the migrant crisis began.

Saxon officials are also reporting a jump in the number of people applying for the full-fledged firearms license (großen Waffenschein). The rush to arms can be attributed to a "subjective decline in the people's sense of security," Saxon Interior Minister Markus Ulbig said.

In Berlin, the number of people holding a small weapons license increased by 30% during the first ten months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, while the number of those holding the full-fledged firearms license jumped by some 50%, accordingto local police.

In Bavaria, more than 45,000 people now hold a small weapons license, 3,000 more than in 2014. This represents a "significant increase," according to the regional interior ministry. As in other parts of Germany, Bavarian retailers are also reporting a boom in sales of self-defense weapons, including gas pistols, flare guns and pepper spray.

In Stuttgart, the capital city of Baden-Württemberg, local gun shops are reporting a four-fold increase in sales of self-defense weapons since August. One shop owner said she now sells more weapons in one week than she normally sells in one month. She added that she has never seen such high demand.

In Heilbronn, another city in Baden-Württemberg, local officials report that sales of pepper spray have doubled in 2015. According to one shopkeeper, the demand for pepper spray began surging in August, when many mothers started purchasing the product for their school-aged daughters. "Our clients are extremely afraid," the shopkeeper said. "We are seeing this everywhere."

In Gera, a city in Thuringia, local media reported that at one store, the entire inventory of 120 cans of pepper spray was sold out within three hours. The store, which subsequently sold out of another batch of 144 cans, is now on a waiting list to obtain more because of supplier shortfalls.

A woman in Gera who bought pepper spray for her 16-year-old daughter said:

"I think it is fundamentally proper for me to protect my daughter. She is at that age where she is out alone in the evening. If she says she needs this for protection, I think this is not unjustified. Of course, due to the current situation that we now have in Germany. We just do not know who is here. There are quite a lot of people who are not registered."

The same trend toward self-defense is being repeated in the German states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt and North Rhine-Westphalia, where spiraling levels of violent crime perpetrated by migrants is turning some neighborhoods into no-go zones.

Apologists for mass migration are accusing German citizens of overreacting. Some point to recent studies — commissioned by pro-migration groups — which claim, implausibly, that the number of crimes committed by migrants is decreasing, not increasing.

Others deny that the rush to self-defense has anything to do with migrants at all. They blame a variety of different factors, including the early darkness associated with the end of daylight savings time, the jihadist attacks in Paris (which occurred in November, three months after sales of self-defense weapons began to spike), and the need for protection from wild wolves in parts of northern Germany.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung described the deception this way:

"Anyone who asks for the reasons for the surge in weapons purchases encounters silence. Officially, the regulatory agencies say that anyone who applies for the small weapons license does not need to provide a justification and therefore the government offices have no explanation. 'But it is true that sometimes we clearly get the message that they are afraid because of the refugees,' says one, on condition that his name and office will not be mentioned in the newspaper. 'People have already told me: I want to protect my family.' We have reported this to the Ministry...

"The retailers also say nothing officially about the reasons for the increase in sales. Call a small gun shop. Many refugees arrived at the end of August, and since September the numbers are up, can there not be a connection? 'If you do not use my name: Sure, what else?' Says the man on the phone. The people who come to the store are afraid. They believe that among the refugees there are 'black sheep.' Some customers openly admit it."

Empirical evidence shows an indisputable nationwide spike in migrant-driven crime, including rapes of German women and girls on a shocking scale, as well as sexual and physical assaults, stabbings, home invasions, robberies, burglaries and drug trafficking.

The spike in violent crimes committed by migrants has been corroborated by a confidential police report leaked to a German newspaper. The document reveals that a record-breaking 38,000 asylum seekers were accused of committing crimes in the country in 2014. Analysts believe this figure — which works out to more than 100 crimes a day — is only a fragment: many crimes are not reported.

Not surprisingly, a new poll shows that 55% of Germans are pessimistic about the future, up from 31% in 2014 and 28% in 2013. The poll shows that 42% of those between the ages of 14 and 34 believe their future will be bleak; this is more than double the number of those (19%) who felt this way in 2013. At the same time, 64% of those aged 55 and above are fearful about the future.

The poll also shows that four-fifths (79%) of the German population believe the economy will deteriorate in 2016 due to the financial burdens created by the migration crisis, and 70% believe that member states of the European Union will drift further apart in the coming year. The most predictable finding of all: 87% of Germans believe their politicians will experience a decline in public support during 2016.

Credit to Zero Hedge