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.

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.

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.

“This is a betrayal of the grassroots and of the Republican Party,” Schlafly said in an exclusive interview with WND. “We thought we were electing a different crowd to stand up for America, and they didn’t. We’re extremely outraged by what Congress has done. Nancy Pelosi couldn’t have engineered it any better. I think the people are going to react by electing Donald Trump.”

Trump put out a statement Friday to ABC News saying, “If anyone needs more evidence of why the American people are suffering at the hands of their own government, look no further than the budget deal announced by Speaker Ryan. In order to avoid a government shutdown, a cowardly threat from an incompetent president, the elected Republicans in Congress threw in the towel and showed absolutely no budget discipline.”

Trump continued, “Congress cannot seem to help itself in bending to every whim of special interests. How can they face their constituents when they continue to burden our children and grandchildren with debts they will never be able to repay? Our government is failing us, so we must do something about it. Who knows how bad things will be when the next administration comes in and has to pick up the pieces?”

Schlafly applauded the GOP front-runner’s fighting spirit. “It sounds like Donald Trump is the only one who has any fight in him,” she said. “He will fight for the issues that we really care about and are very hot at the present time, such as the immigration issue. I don’t see anyone else who’s eager to fight.”

The Republican-controlled Congress just sold America down the river in the “worst kind of betrayal,” Schlafly told WND. “It’s the worst kind of a betrayal because we thought we elected a bunch of good guys who would shape up the party,” she said. “We had a lot of fancy promises that the Republicans were going to shape up and change course. And they disappointed us. Betrayal is an appropriate word to describe it.”

Now, the Pentagon says it has a plan to do something about the threat. Its research division, Darpa, has launched a new program to target security threats that have the potential to wipe out all of America's power systems. Initially, however, it will focus on infrastructure that is vital to the Department of Defense's missions.

Dubbed Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization (RADICS), its goal is to develop automated systems to deal with a loss of power. They say these systems should help utilities engineers restore power within seven days of an attack. 'If a well-coordinated cyber attack on the nation's power grid were to occur today, the time it would take to restore power would pose daunting national security challenges,' said John Everett, Darpa program manager.

'Beyond the severe domestic impacts, including economic and human costs, prolonged disruption of the grid would hamper military mobilisation and logistics, impairing the government's ability to project force or pursue solutions to international crises.'

The deal was reached at a meeting in Switzerland, Reuters and AFP reported, citing Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity on Thursday.

A senior official in Jerusalem also told Haaretz that two Israeli officials, PM Benjamin Netanyahu's envoy in the contacts with Turkey and the current national security adviser and incoming Mossad chief, met with a Turkish diplomat in Zurich to finalize the principles of the agreement.

A controversial sign has been put up by a roadside, telling drivers approaching Pontoglio that the Lombardy town of almost 7,000 inhabitants is one of “western culture and profound Christian traditions”.

The sign goes on to say that anyone caught disrespecting the town’s deep-rooted culture and local traditions would be asked to leave.

Mayor Alessandro Seghezzi was granted permission from the local council to erect the sign at entrances to the town, explaining in a letter that the move is intended to preserve the area’s values and culture, as well as keep citizens safe.

They are smart enough not to give it that actual title of course. It is instead the Border and Coastguard Corps but it will be given the same sort of power as an invading force. It will have the considerable power to take control of a nation’s borders without the consent of the relevant sovereign government.

So if it decrees that the French are not enforcing border control as robustly as they might it can march in and take control. Literally. Never one to miss out on the chance of a sly land grab, this is the European Commission’s response to the migrant crisis as voiced by President JeanClaude Juncker...

A 2,500-strong army (or “corps”), to be deployable within days, to secure the frontier of the Schengen unrestricted travel zone. They will have their own uniforms and be equipped with naval patrol craft, helicopters and drones. A base has been identified in Warsaw and, bizarrely, 1,000 officials will be housed there permanently, meaning the actual strength of the army is 1,500. It is as if each soldier gets his or her own pen-pusher.

It will surely fail. Error has been heaped upon error by the EU in the migrant crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel initially threw open her arms and bellowed “Willkommen!” like Julie Andrews in The Sound Of Music, only to recoil in horror weeks later as a million migrants took her up on her offer. The criminally weak European borders did virtually nothing to stem the flow of humanity that ensued and by virtue of the Schengen treaty, once they arrived there was nothing to stop their movement.

In the LBC televised Europe debate between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage that I hosted last year, Farage was ridiculed when he floated the idea that the EU wanted its own army. He seems now to have been on the money... or should that be the euro?

As PM David Cameron battles with other European leaders and gains little ground, the true intent of the European dream becomes clearer. And it is a dream that could be set to become a nightmare.