Rahm Emanuel defends Michael Bloomberg in wake of NRA criticism

[friendly_iconoclast]

24. Or black or North African in Italy, for that matter

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/what-happens-to-african-migrants-once-they-land-in-italy-during-the-summer-9681473.html

To the outside observer, Italy has appeared to slide into the backwaters of European intolerance over the past two decades. In the 1980s, left-wing governments worried more about protecting incomers from discrimination than keeping them out. As the numbers grew, however, and disorder came to city-centres, some of the Italian simpatia curdled into hatred. In its most public spheres, football and politics, Italy seems unable to clamp down on the kind of bigotry last seen (openly) in Britain in the 1970s.

Throughout his nine-year, on-and-off premiership, Berlusconi displayed a cheerful backwardness – which peaked, perhaps, with a 2008 witticism about the "suntan" of Barack Obama. Less cheerful is the Northern League, Italy's far-right, anti-immigrant party. When, in 2013, Cécile Kyenge was appointed the first black minister in the country, the League's MEP jibed: "She would make a good cleaner, not a minister". The party has sought to capitalise on anger at apparently uncontrollable immigration. A few months ago, a Pew survey suggested that 80 per cent of Italians want fewer immigrants in the country; nevertheless, in May's EU election, the League's leaders corralled just 6 per cent of the vote. "There is racism, but not all of Italy is racist," was the diplomatic view of Father Mussie Zerai, a monk of Eritrean descent whose work for migrants has seen him elevated to saviour-like status in his home country.

Two weeks before I visited Catania, the local wing of Forza Nuova, a 'militant' far-right group, held a demonstration in the city. It was publicised on their website with a picture of a bloodied pick-axe, dropped on an Italian flag, next to the slogan 'Immigration kills. Go home Cécile Kyenge'. Videos show the white-uniformed group, in a crowd of around 100, marching under banners that carry slogans such as 'For Italy, blood and culture', and suggest, in their bold black-and-red design, that someone has spent a little too much time admiring Nazi regalia.

Do not do a GIS for "Lega Nord" (Northern League)
unless you have a strong stomach. Even the Tea Partiers aren't usually that blatant.