Reader links for July 21 – 2015

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.

Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

69 Replies to “Reader links for July 21 – 2015”

    • I guess I have to believe this thing is true.

      I didn’t. Like the industrial-scale murder of Jews – it’s hard to believe such things really happened.

      • That is one reason abortion has been supported so long, people didn’t understand what was happening or they thought it was minority babies being murdered. The videos along with the new ultrasound images are changing a lot of minds. A fact the left understands, you can tell that from the way they have come out attacking the makers of the videos and the intelligence of the reporters who are telling the world that these are sales of body parts for profit, not donations to research facilities.

        • If my comments turn disjointed I have a very severe headache and have taken the appropriate medication.

      • Socialists having slave-camps? Can’t be true of these dividers of people into favorable and less-favorable identities.

      • According to the late Great Dan Alderson (while he was alive the JPL called him their tame genius) 20 years after we go into space to stay we will have a faster then life drive. This means if we had build the Moon base in the 1970s we would be colonizing other planets right now. We would have a frontier to go to so we could maintain our freedom. That is the main reason I want FTL drive, so the people who want to remain will have a place to go if/when the totalitarians take control of the nations.

        Remember the American colonies were founded by people who wanted to be free of an oppressive government, they weren’t founded for profit but for freedom. Almost all of the greats of Science Fiction wrote about people who wanted freedom and knowledge.

    • Notice: the NYT is calling it “Islamic State” these days.

      That’s going to be hard for the O to pronounce. Or his little buddy CaMORON.

      • Yeah I have noticed that, if is the NYT saying they are a nation not just a group of murderous terrorists. I have been wondering how long it will take the rest of the left to do the same.

    • The Latest: Pope hopes Paris produces ambitious climate deal

      22 photos

      Pope Francis delivers HER speech in the Synod Hall during a conference on Modern Slavery and Climate Change at the Vatican, Tuesday, July 21, 2015. Dozens of environmentally friendly mayors from around the world are meeting at the Vatican this week to bask in the star power of eco-Pope Francis and commit to reducing global warming and helping the urban poor deal with its effects. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

      VATICAN CITY (AP) — The latest developments at the Vatican’s meeting of mayors on fighting climate change and human trafficking. All times local.

      5:20 p.m.

      Pope Francis says he has “a lot of hope” that negotiators at Paris climate talks will reach an ambitious agreement to reduce global warming.

      Francis told about 60 mayors at a Vatican summit on climate change and human trafficking that he placed great trust in the United Nations to bring about a good agreement.

      But he also wants U.N. nations to prioritize fighting both human trafficking and the exploitation of the world’s most vulnerable people.

      The Vatican is angling to make sure the U.N.’s new Sustainable Development Goals, to be finalized in September, address the problems of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.

      ___

      4:45 p.m.

      Birmingham Mayor William Bell had a very personal reason for being at the Vatican’s conference on climate change and human slavery.

      Bell, an African-American, told 60 fellow mayors from around the world Tuesday: “At the time of my birth, I was born into a society in Birmingham, Alabama, that existed as a close cousin of slavery called segregation.”

      He continued: “Segregation was designed to exploit individuals and groups based on race and race alone. It was for the economic purpose of cheap labor. It was to control society. It was to control human beings.”

      Bell said he was pleased to heed Pope Francis’ call for an end to all forms of modern-day slavery.

      ___

      4:35 p.m.

      Oslo Mayor Stian Berger Rosland got a round of applause at the Vatican conference of mayors not because of Oslo’s leading efforts in sustainable development or the way it integrates immigrants.

      Rather, Rosland was cheered when he revealed how honored he was to be at the Vatican as “the first Catholic mayor of Oslo since the Reformation.”

      ___

      4:25 p.m.

      Monica Fein came all the way from Pope Francis’ native Argentina to tell her fellow mayors that the Jesuit pope is a game-changer in the debate about climate and sustainable development.

      The mayor of Rosario, Argentina, said she was convinced that history’s first Latin American pope had the moral authority to contribute to a “new conscience” that changes the global economic system.

      Fein, who is also the executive secretary of Mercociudades, Latin America’s network of cities, said Latin mayors came to the Vatican conference on climate change and human trafficking because their people “want to live better. We want to live with dignity. We want decent work and a roof over our heads. We want sustainable development, without excluding the extremely poor.”

      Fein said the goal was simple: “We fundamentally want to leave our children and future generations with a planet that isn’t contaminated.”

      ___

      4:10 p.m.

      Madrid’s new leftist mayor, Manuela Carmena, has told a Vatican-organized debate on climate change and human trafficking that society needs to ask itself why people use prostitutes.

      Carmena said Tuesday that students in schools should debate “why one goes with prostitutes, why one accepts prostitution, etc. This needs to be done.”

      She said if the world wants to avoid the “terrible crime” of sexual slavery, society needs to reflect upon its causes. She said society has not been educated enough about sexuality.

      Carmena, a 71-year-old retired judge, was elected the mayor of Madrid in May, ending the conservative Popular Party’s 24-year grip on the Spanish capital’s government. She was a candidate from a coalition of leftist groups.

      ___

      3:50 p.m.

      The Vatican’s conference of mayors on climate change and human trafficking has heard sobering testimony from two Mexican women who were victims of modern-day slavery.

      Ana Laura Peres Jaimes on Tuesday showed the mayors photos of some of the 600 scars that she suffered as an indentured servant, forced to iron for hours a day without food, water or even a bathroom. She said she had to urinate in a plastic bag.

      “We are human beings,” she said.

      Karla Jacinto, a 22-year-old mother of two, told of how she was forced into prostitution at the age of 12, servicing more than 30 men a day for the next four years until she was rescued.

      “I didn’t think I was worth anything. I thought I was just an object that was used and thrown away,” she told the hushed audience hall.

      Jacinto now campaigns on behalf of trafficking victims.

      ___

      3:25 p.m.

      San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee is taking a cue from Pope Francis, whose nature-loving namesake St. Francis of Assisi is also that of the California city.

      Lee announced at a Vatican conference of mayors on Tuesday that the city and county of San Francisco will “completely phase out the use of petroleum diesel” in its municipal fleet of vehicles and replace it with renewable diesel by the end of the year.

      “This action will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from our diesel fleet by over 60 percent,” Lee said, to applause.

      He added that thanks to federal and state credits, San Francisco’s fuel costs will actually be reduced as a result.

      ___

      2:30 p.m.

      The mayor of New Orleans says his coastal city’s abundant natural resources are both a blessing and a curse.

      The Louisiana city that supplies one-quarter of all the seafood produced in America also provides more oil and gas to the U.S. than Saudi Arabia.

      “But that economic benefit comes at a cost,” Mayor Mitchell Landrieu told a Vatican conference of mayors fighting global warming Tuesday.

      Landrieu recalled the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill, which killed 11 workers and disgorged 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. And he reminded 60 of his fellow mayors of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,800 people in 2005 and exposed how the city’s poorest neighborhoods were vulnerable to sea surges.

      “We became a warning to all others that neglect and environmental degradation has consequences,” Landrieu said.

      ___

      1:55 p.m.

      The mayor of Kochi, India, is intimately familiar with the intertwined scourges of global warming and human slavery.

      Speaking at a Vatican conference Tuesday on the exploitation of Earth and its most vulnerable people, mayor Toni Chammany said the projected rise in sea levels as a result of global warming “is going to pose a big threat to the very survival of the city,” which lies only a few feet (less than 2 meters) above sea level.

      As a whole, India is expecting another drought year, meaning more and more farmers will leave their land for the cities “pushing them into the dark dungeons of slavery,” he said.

      Chammany said, because of India’s caste system, the country already knows “one of the worst forms of slavery known to man.”

      Pope Francis called the Vatican summit of mayors to put global warming and human slavery at the top of their national leaders’ agendas.

      ___

      1:30 p.m.

      French President Francois Hollande is calling for an ambitious accord on climate to address the threat of global warming.

      Hollande isn’t at the Vatican climate conference, but he made the call Tuesday at a Paris conference of religious and political leaders.

      Halfway through the year, 47 countries —out of 195 members of U.N. climate talks— have presented their emissions reduction targets, including the world’s top polluters, the U.S. and China.

      Hollande warned that these targets are not sufficient to meet the goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

      ___

      12:15 p.m.

      The mayor of Stockholm says climate negotiators at Paris talks later this year must “exclude fossil fuels” as an option and focus on long-term sustainable energy sources.

      Mayor Karin Wanngard says she had “great expectations” for the outcome but also was fully aware of the challenges. Stockholm is one of the world’s leaders in using renewable energy sources: 75 percent of the city’s public transport network runs on renewable energy. Wanngard’s goal is to make the Swedish capital fossil fuel-free by 2040.

      “Climate negotiators must dare to push boundaries and exclude fossil fuels as an option and reward solutions that are long-term sustainable and recyclable,” she told a Vatican conference on climate Tuesday.

      ___

      11:55 a.m.

      New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced new greenhouse gas emissions targets for the Big Apple at a Vatican summit aimed at keeping up the pressure on national leaders ahead of climate talks in Paris later this year.

      De Blasio is a founding member of an alliance of cities around the world that have committed to reducing their emissions by 80 percent by 2050 or sooner.

      At the Vatican conference Tuesday, De Blasio said New York was taking an interim step, committing to reducing its emissions by 40 percent by 2030.

      “The Paris summit is just months away,” De Blasio said. “We need to see it as the finish line of a sprint, and take every local action we can in the coming months to maximize the chance that our national governments will act boldly.”

      ___

      11:25 a.m.

      The governor of California is denouncing global warming deniers who are “bamboozling” the public with propaganda and putting “troglodytes” into office rather than environmentally responsible leaders.

      Gov. Jerry Brown was one of the keynote speakers Tuesday at a conference of eco-friendly mayors at the Vatican. California has enacted the toughest greenhouse gas emissions standards in North America.

      To rousing applause, Brown denounced the “fierce opposition and blind inertia” in the U.S. by climate skeptics who he says are seeking to “falsify the scientific record” and convince politicians, scientists and the general public that global warming isn’t happening.

      Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian, urged the mayors to not be complacent in opposing them. He said climate deniers are spending “billions on trying to keep from office people such as yourselves and elect troglodytes and other deniers of the obvious science.”

      The mayors are expected to sign a Vatican declaration urging world leaders to take bold action at Paris climate talks this December.

      ___

      11:00 a.m.

      Environmentally friendly mayors from around the world are gathering at the Vatican for a two-day conference rallying momentum ahead of Paris climate negotiations later this year.

      Pope Francis is expected to address the meeting later Tuesday. He’s a new hero to the environmental movement, thanks to his recent encyclical denouncing the world’s fossil fuel-based economy that he says exploits the poor and destroys the Earth.

      The mayors are expected to sign a declaration at the end of the day demanding that their national leaders approve a “bold climate agreement” at Paris talks in December that keeps global warming at a safe limit for humanity.

      http://bigstory.ap.org/article/9b7a1eb048514970ae690f60c88472c8/mayors-vatican-rally-climate-momentum-share-ideas

  1. Lawyer says Tenessee shooter’s uncle detained

    A lawyer says an uncle of the shooter in last week’s killing of five U.S. servicemen in Tennessee has been in custody in Jordan since a day after the attack.

    Abdel Qader al-Khatib told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he was barred from seeing his client and that family members were prevented from visiting. Al-Khatib identified his client as Asaad Ibrahim Abdulazeez Haj Ali, a maternal uncle of the Tennessee attacker, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez.

    The Tennessee shooter had spent several months in Jordan last year, and a Jordanian government official said Tuesday that some of Abdulazeez’ relatives in Jordan were being questioned as part of an investigation into his stay in the kingdom.

    The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case with the media, did not know if the uncle was in detention.

    7:24 a.m.

    Qatar says the shooter in the killing of four Marines and a U.S. sailor in Tennessee last week transited through the Gulf state on his way back from a visit to Jordan but never set foot outside the airport.

    Qatar’s government media office made the comments in a statement responding to questions from The Associated Press on Tuesday following news reports that Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez had visited the country.

    The statement says Abdulazeez changed planes Doha’s Hamad International Airport on his way to the United States in November 2014.

    It adds that statements suggesting “Abdulazeez entered the State of Qatar are false.”

    Qatar has emerged as a major long-haul transit hub in the Middle East thanks to the rapid growth of government-backed Qatar Airways.

    http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e3d3325dcd8d44f395fd8e7327433c7e/latest-lawyer-says-tennessee-shooters-uncle-detained

  2. French prosecutor requests dropping Arafat death probe

    A French prosecutor on Tuesday said there was no case to answer regarding the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose widow alleges he was poisoned.

    “The prosecution gave the opinion that the case should be dismissed,” the prosecutor’s office told AFP.

    Arafat died in Percy military hospital near Paris aged 75 in November 2004 after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

    His widow Suha filed a case in 2012 at a court in Nanterre, north of Paris, saying he was murdered.

    The same year, Arafat’s tomb in Ramallah was opened for a few hours allowing three teams of French, Swiss and Russian investigators to collect around 60 samples.

    Three French judges concluded their investigations in April and sent their findings to the Nanterre prosecutor.

    A centre in the Swiss city of Lausanne had tested biological samples taken from Arafat’s belongings that were given to his widow after his death, and found “abnormal levels of polonium.”

    It stopped short of saying that he had been poisoned by the extremely radioactive element.

    However, French experts found that the isotopes polonium-210 and lead-210, found in Arafat’s grave and in the samples, were of “an environmental nature,” Nanterre prosecutor Catherine Denis said in April.

    Lawyers for Arafat’s widow accused the judges of closing the investigation too quickly and called for more experts to be questioned.

    http://news.yahoo.com/french-prosecutor-requests-dropping-arafat-death-probe-142005898.html

  3. Kerry slams ‘disturbing’ Khamenei speech

    Kerry told Al Arabiya that he was taking the comments at face value.

    […]U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday said recent anti-U.S. remarks from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were “disturbing,” adding that the United States was “not kidding about the importance of pushing back against extremism.”

    […]“I don’t know how to interpret it at this point in time, except to take it at face value, that that’s his policy. But I do know that often comments are made publicly and things can evolve that are different. If it is the policy, it’s very disturbing, it’s very troubling, and we’ll have to wait and see,” the Secretary said.

    http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/21/Kerry-to-Al-Arabiya-Khamenei-s-speech-was-disturbing-.html

    (11 min 36 )

    • Kerry: Ayatollah’s remarks about being at war with U.S. are ‘disturbing’ ( 59 sec )

    • Obama has probably ordered the FBI to find no foreign links like Clinton did with the Oklahoma bombing.

  4. MECCA – Child’s pee near Grand Mosque sparks furore

    A little girl was caught on camera urinating near drinking water tanks at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia.

    The video has sparked public furore, with most viewers blaming her parents.

    A brief YouTube video published in the Saudi Ajel newspaper showed the girl, aged around three years, pull down her clothes and sit down while other children played around her in the main hall in the world’s largest mosque.

    The paper said most of the viewers who sent comments criticised such an act but blamed the girl’s parents on the grounds that she is just a child.

    Others said measures need to be taken to prevent such behavior by children at Makkah.

    http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/child-s-pee-near-grand-mosque-sparks-furore-2015-07-21-1.597527

  5. Mecca – Saudi official denies reports of Grand Mosque bomber

    Reports of a man attempting to blow himself up in the Grand Mosque in Makkah during Ramadan were unfounded, a security official has said.

    Saudi Gazette reported at the weekend that a video clip of a man being confronted by Haram security personnel went viral on social media sites along with a description that he was trying to blow himself up.

    But an official source on Monday told the newspaper that the public interpretation was baseless and unsubstantiated.

    The video shows security guards trying to ascertain the identity of the man because of his suspicious movements, the source said, adding that the man had initially tried to escape security which drew attention to himself and made officials think he had been involved in a theft.

    The man was later found to be innocent following sustained questioning at a police station, the source explained.

    The incident also occurred around nine days ago rather than two days ago as was reported on social media.

    Saudi Gazette said the official asked Saudi residents to refrain from spreading rumours on social media.

    http://www.arabianbusiness.com/saudi-official-denies-reports-of-grand-mosque-bomber-600092.html

    • Thank you very much, I will spend a long time reading and thinking about what I have read. From what I read he is seeing the same future I expect but is more pessimistic about the outcome. This will make for some very educational reads.

  6. Germany: Interest-free Islamic bank Kuveyt Turk officially opens in Frankfurt

  7. 19 killed, 52 injured in two Baghdad car bombs

    Two car bombs killed at least 19 people in mostly Shiite neighbourhoods of Baghdad Tuesday, police said.

    One attack struck a busy commercial street in the eastern neighbourhood of Baghdad al-Jadida, police said.

    Seventeen people were killed and 43 wounded, mostly civilians, a police colonel said. Hospital sources and an official at the interior ministry confirmed the toll.

    At least two people were killed and nine wounded in another attack in Zafaraniya, a district in southern Baghdad, the same sources said.

    A huge suicide car bomb attack claimed by the Islamic State group killed dozens of people in Khan Bani Saad, a town just north of Baghdad, on Friday.

    No group has yet claimed Tuesday’s blasts, but IS also carried out deadly attacks in Baghdad on July 12 in which at least 23 people were killed in a string of bombings.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/135896.aspx

  8. TURKEY – Erdogan’s Daughter Heads a Covert Hospital to Help ISIL Injured Members

    A discontented nurse working clandestinely for a covert medical corps in Sanliurfa—a city in Southeastern Turkey, close to the border with neighboring Syria— divulged information about the alleged role which Sümeyye Erdogan plays in providing extended medical care for ISIL wounded militants transferred to Turkish hospitals.[…]

    http://en.abna24.com/service/europe/archive/2015/07/21/701681/story.html

  9. INDIA – Protests in Rajouri after VHP burns IS flag, curfew imposed

    Jammu: Curfew was clamped in Rajouri town on Tuesday after some VHP activists burnt terror outfit IS’s flag, leading to protests by minority groups who said that the flag bore religious scripture.

    About 15 people defying the curfew have also been arrested on Tuesday, District Magistrate of Rajouri, Deepti Uppal, said, adding that the situation was being brought under control.

    “Restrictions under Section 144 of CrPc was imposed in the town for banning of assembly of four or over four persons, but still people are trying to violate the restrictions and it has become necessary to impose curfew restrictions in the town,” she said.

    The situation is tense but under control after reports of burning of IS flag by some VHP activists some days ago in Jammu, police officials said.

    Muslims in Rajouri have threatened to hold protests and ‘bandh’ if the police do not arrest the VHP and Bajrang Dal activists for burning the flag bearing Quranic verses.

    Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh has appealed for calm from both the communities.

    “There should be no communal tension. We appeal to both the communities to observe calm,” he told reporters.

    But Singh ruled out arrest of VHP activists.

    “As far as the setting afire the IS flags is concerned, it is a terrorist outfit symbol,” he added. “Is it possible?

    Burning of the symbol of terrorists and anti-national elements is the work of nationalism.”

    “They (VHP activists) cannot be arrested. This is not possible, why should we arrest them? Why should they be arrested,” he said.

    However, clarifying that it had no intention to hurt the sentiments of Muslims, the VHP, on the other hand, asked the protesters to demonstrate against the IS for writing holy inscriptions on its flag.

    “We had only burnt the IS flag. We did not know as to what was written on it in Persian,” the state VHP patron, Ramakant Dubey said on Tuesday.

    http://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/protests-in-rajouri-after-vhp-burns-is-flag-curfew-imposed/ar-AAdhVe3

  10. Rebel Media – Democratic candidate O’Malley: ISIS caused by climate change

  11. USA – NYC- Anti-Iran Rally Expected to Draw Thousands in Times Square

    Thousands of people are expected in New York’s Times Square on Wednesday evening to protest a “bad deal” with Iran, and to urge Congress to vote down the new nuclear accord.

    The “Stop Iran Rally” will take place between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Over 100 organizations are sponsoring the rally which will be live-streamed via Breitbart News here.

    Prominent international experts from military, government, academic and media backgrounds will be addressing the crowd. Featured speakers include Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post Columnist), Alan Dershowitz (Harvard Law professor emeritus), George Pataki (former Governor of New York and current Republican Candidate For President), Monica Crowley (Fox News Political Commentator), James Woolsey (former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Former Congressman Allen West (R-FL), and Col. Richard Kemp, Ret. (former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan).

    […]Similar rallies are planned this week in cities nationwide, listed here. —– link on the page :

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/21/anti-iran-rally-expected-to-draw-thousands-in-times-square/

    http://stopiranrally.org/

    Similar rallies are planned this week in cities nationwide, listed here.