Reader supplied news links for July 25 – 2015

Daily Links Post graphic

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

74 Replies to “Reader supplied news links for July 25 – 2015”

  1. This series of articles seems tailor-made for Vlad Tepes.
    I worked backwards from this enticing intro in Mosaic to get all the pieces.

    Radical Islam, Anti-Semitism, and the Left
    In an essay published earlier this year, the American political philosopher Michael Walzer strongly criticized his left-wing comrades for their blindness to the dangers of Islamism. In a recent discussion with a group of British thinkers and activists, he was asked why the left seems paralyzed by a fear of “encouraging Islamophobia” while having no such qualms about encouraging anti-Semitism. His reply:

    [T]he fear of Islamophobia is related to the hostility to Israel. There is this eagerness— I’ve heard this often in America, I don’t know if it happens [in Britain]—to describe the Islamic minority in the U.S., or in Europe, as the “new Jews.” Somehow, that gives you license to ignore the “old Jews,” and to focus on these “new Jews,” and to claim that we must not repeat with them what we did to the “old Jews.” But that can lead to any criticism being interpreted as hostility to this minority and a way of targeting this minority. The argument becomes “if you are critical of Islam, you are joining hands with the new xenophobes of the West.”

    ………..
    Start here:
    Islamism and the Left
    By Michael Walzer, Dissent Magazine. Winter 2015
    http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/islamism-and-the-left

    • This is the response to which Mosaic is referring:

      Islamism and the Left: An Exchange
      By Andrew March
      Michael Walzer has taught multiple generations of political theorists about the importance of belonging and connection in political judgment. Although in this essay he is eager to stress that “individual liberty, democracy, gender equality, and religious pluralism aren’t really Western values; they are universal values,” the distinctive feature of Walzer’s political theory is its distrust of abstract political justification and its celebration of political struggles that transform communities from within. For Walzer, the moral hero has always been the prophet who speaks his tribe’s own idiom in an effort to remind his people not so much of the best of which they are capable as rational beings, but the best that they have already committed themselves to.

      http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/islamism-and-left-exchange

      • The final piece is the transcript of a debate about issues raised by Walzer. Published in Fathom Magazine, July 23.

        Debating Michael Walzer’s ‘Islamism and the Left’

        Michael Walzer is professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and one of the democratic left’s foremost political philosophers. His recent essay ‘Islamism and the Left’ – published in Dissent, the US journal he co-edited for many years – sparked much debate on the left. Fathom invited a range of thinkers to respond critically to the essay in conversation with Michael in our offices in London.

        http://fathomjournal.org/debating-michael-walzers-islamism-and-the-left/

  2. Europe braces itself for a revolutionary Leftist backlash after Greece

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11758853/Why-Greeces-ritual-humiliation-wont-kill-off-Europes-revolutionary-Left.html

    This is why the rich have been buying sanctuary houses outside of Europe, (there are ample stories about this happening) while I am not aware of any article of the rich transferring wealth out of nations that are not at massive risk I am sure that this has been occurring quietly. We have seen the governments of a couple of nations seizing bank accounts above certain levels and their are rumors of the governments eying investments above a certain level. If/when when is more likely push comes to shove the various socialist governments will start seizing assets in their quest to find the ability to maintain welfare payments.

    “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship.”
    — Alexander Fraser Tyler, 18th century Scottish historian, The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic

    We are seeing this statement being proven correct, we don’t know how many nations will turn to dictatorships to end their economic crisis’ but we have seen most of the democracies in the west turning into dictatorships and oligarchies since the beginning of this century. We are living in the age of scientific miracles but economic disasters, we are moving towards what the SF author Mack Reynolds (a communist) called the peoples capitalism with the western nations becoming very class conscious and you class determines how much guaranteed annual income you will receive from the government. We have seen various attempts towards this from the left, they have all ended in failure but the leftist in charge of the school systems refuse to teach about these failures thereby insuring that more nations will follow down the path to economic and social destruction.

    • Podemos is every bit as bad as Syriza. Spain hovers near the brink; let Greece off the hook and Spain will bristle.

      As for the comparison to 1968, if only!
      There’s no fat cushion of wealth behind these left-wing protests. They can’t even manage their steadily increasing domestic security requirements.

      The “youth” in the streets aren’t indigenous Greeks or Spaniards.

      There are no jobs. Without capital investment there’s no hope of job creation. Who wants to invest there? The rich are buying themselves bolt-holes, but that’s not productive capital.

      That’s a neo-colonial trend and that’s ugly. Like the Saudi king dominating the public beach in France during the summer high season.

      • I agree, the lack of a big backer that can semi control the protesters/rioters is what makes them so dangerous, during the 60s the KGB worked hard to keep the pressure at a certain level and not raise it to the point that the US government would have to react violently. The protesters in Greece on the other hand want the government to react violently and for the violence to spread that is how the left or the Moslems will be able to cement their control.

        Yes if/when Greece either falls or is let off the hook the economic crisis will shift to Spain and Portugal. They are probably the next nations to fall into the mess Greece is in but Italy isn’t far behind. The rest of Europe is in trouble and can’t keep printing money to bail out the PIIGS, the more they print the worse the economic crisis will be and the deeper and longer the recession/depression.

        The Neocolonialism is why I keep saying that North America will have to 1) stop the left and Moslems in North America and 2) liberate Europe. Hopefully at least one nation will remain free enough for us to use them as a staging area and not have to launch an invasion across the Atlantic.

        Check out the long term trend in the US stock markets, they peaked in May and have been sliding ever since, there are rallies but the rally always fails before it gets near the May peak in prices. The market isn’t a Bull or Bear but a mix and is going to yo-yo up and down for a long time with the overall trend being a slow fall with rallies from time to time.

        • FYI the Stock Markets bear very little relation to what the economy is doing, all they show is when some people think they see a chance to make big money.

      • “…Like the Saudi king dominating the public beach in France during the summer high season.

        This is an absolute shocker. And very very very serious as a precedent. I have not been around here lately, long enough to post or to read everything, so I dont know if it was posted here, but the story as I understand it: ”
        A PUBLIC French beach is being closed off to the FRENCH public, it was accessible through a little tunel. On top of this rock, the “Royals” whose “Royal Lineage” has more goats than civilised folk, have bought a property. Now this summer the goat-fucking Arabian King is coming with his retinue of 500 savages. Sudenly one day the French beach goers found themselves shut out by a grill and Arab “security” creatures. And also an ascensceur from the beach to the arab residence on the rock-face was being built, and assorted cement horrors.
        The local mayor immediately protested since this is against French LAW – petitions started etc. Outcome:? The fully corrupt left Government has overruled everything and banned the French Taxpayers and other civilised folk from this little pearl of a beach for the summer. THIS STINKS STINKS STINKS and has now put the stamp on France as a Lawless country. For when the public decapitations on the streets of France?

        • It is very telling about what is happening in France, this and other actions show how the Third World rich really think about Europe and the Europeans. The longer this is allowed to continue the bloodier the rebellion will be.

          As far as the public beheadings go the ordinary French may bring back Madam Guillotine to take care of their oppressors. The French have a rich history or rebellions and they are generally have a very bloody aftermath no matter which side wins. The tamest aftermath was the actions towards the collaborators after liberation in WWII, they didn’t execute them but chose humiliation and imprisonment. That was in reaction to another European nations taking control of France, the reaction towards the politicians that are helping a different culture come in and work to destroy the French culture and enslave the French people is going to be much bloodier.

    • My first reaction is that they are doing to so they can avoid blaming the terrorists actions on Islam, if I don”t say anything more it is because I don’t change my mind.

      • This I love:

        Here’s a hint to IS: start negotiating, say, a 30% reduction in beheadings in return for economic aid and diplomatic recognition and maybe you, too, can change from being zombies, to being “adversaries,” and thence to worthy partners with an important role to play in the stabilization of the Middle East.

  3. Lee Smith, in Tablet’s The Scroll:
    OBAMA BLOWS HIS JEWISH DOGWHISTLE WITH JON STEWART

    Last night, Barack Obama took to The Daily Show With Jon Stewart to promote the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that the White House, along with its P5+1 negotiating partners, signed with Iran earlier this month. It’s a good deal, Obama told the host, it will resolve the issue diplomatically and keep us out of another Middle East war. The president said that hoped [sic] the American public would respond positively. “If people are engaged, eventually the political system responds,” said Obama. “Despite the money, despite the lobbyists, it still responds.”

    http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/192400/obama-blows-his-jewish-dogwhistle-with-jon-stewart

    • The headline says either the editor or Lee Smith or both are taking the gloves off and engaging in a bare hands brawl with no rules.

        • I know that, that is why he is letting Pollard go, the headline is still a declaration of war with Obama.

    • Like the left the Arabic culture is full of corruption, the idea that government officials aren’t suppose to sell positions is foreign to their thinking, and they think we are stupid because we don’t do the same.

      • That’s true in socialist and communist countries too. Huge bureaucracies, corruption endemic.

        Tsipras himself said that building one kilometer of road in Greece costs three times more than it does in Germany. He acknowledged the problem without promoting any solution.

        • Missouri was a Democrat controlled state for a long time, when they finally got the money to expand a killer road to 4 lane it took 10 years for the work to be completed. In our neighbor Kansas the work would have been done in one summer.

      • It is desperate, more then most people realize that is why so many rich are buying gol and silver and demanding possession of the precious metals. I don’t know how the Central Banks have managed to prevent the crash so far, I figured it for a couple of years ago. Having said that I will be very surprised if we make it past fall with out the crash coming, if it comes in the late fall and winter we can avoid rioting until warm weather but not much past that.

        The most dangerous rebellion is one where there is no leader, if enough people get mad enough or desperate enough to resort to violence with no leaders the government has to capture or kill everyone of of them, there is no one to capture and stop the rebellion.

    • As far as I can see the only reason for anyone to assassinate them would be if it was discovered they were going to come out and say there is no global warming and the arctic ice melt occurs in the summer and freezes over again in the winter.

  4. Turkey confirms attacks on PKK militant camps in Iraq

    Turkish fighter jets launched attacks on camps of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq overnight, the prime minister’s office said on Saturday, in what is likely to be a major blow to the stalled Kurdish peace process.

    Ground forces hit the PKK as well as Islamic State fighters in northern Syria, it said, as part of Ankara’s campaign to take a prominent role in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamist militant group.

    The air strikes hit PKK targets in several locations, targeting warehouses, “logistic points”, living quarters and storage buildings, it said.

    The attack will likely deal a blow to the fragile peace process with the Kurds that was started in late 2012.

    Turkey launched its first-ever air attack against Islamic State targets in Syria early on Friday, promising more decisive action against both the jihadists and Kurdish militants.

    Turkish broadcasters later reported a second round of air strikes against Islamic State and the PKK shortly before midnight on Friday.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/136131/World/Region/Turkey-confirms-attacks-on-PKK-militant-camps-in-I.aspx

    • People are going to get sick. There are all sorts of technolgical solutions to the problem. Too bad they can’t ask Israel for help.

    • The Saudi’s aren’t worried about collateral damage, take out the main target and let Allah sort out the souls he wants.

  5. North Korea’s military holds a rally marking upcoming 62th anniversary of Korean armistice

  6. CBC – Canadian converts to Islam focus of study by Australian sociologist

    Public Safety Canada is funding a project by an Australian academic to study why Canadians convert to Islam.

    This is the first study on the subject ever conducted in Canada and one of a number of studies to receive money from Public Safety through its Kanishka Project, which funds research into terrorism and counterterrorism.

    “Canada was a country that had not even one published journal article on converts between its borders. So, I thought, ‘Wow, what a great opportunity,'” said Prof. Scott Flower of the University of Melbourne.

    Flower’s earlier research looked into Muslim converts in Papua New Guinea and Australia and he was looking for comparative cases in other Western nations.

    He hopes to spend the next few months in Canada conducting interviews with converts to Islam with a view to finding out what spurred their conversion.

    “You’d have to be very ignorant to not sense the level of concern amongst the Muslim community in general, let alone the convert community. There’s been a number of recent legislative bills passed in this country — I won’t use the word oppressive — but I would say that it’s really made Muslims go to ground,” said Flower.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-converts-to-islam-focus-of-study-by-australian-sociologist-1.3165573

    • So far 13 Governors have done this with at least 4 having the full time members armed all the time.

  7. Hillary Clinton agrees to appear before Benghazi panel

    But Republican committee sources say not everything has been settled.

    […]“There is no agreed-upon date because there are no agreed upon conditions,” said a Benghazi Republican source. “It’s a leak by Nick Merrill because he wants you all to stop talking about her classified information.”

    *************************************************
    […]Although Kendall, Clinton’s lawyer, approved the October date Friday, he also asked that the date wouldn’t change and for assurances that questions would remain within certain parameters.
    *****************************************************

    The former requirement is significant because the panel has pushed back not only Clinton’s hearing but also interviews with top Clinton staff, such as Huma Abedin, because, Gowdy has said, the State Department hasn’t turned over relevant documents. Republicans say they can’t formulate their questions until they have all of Clinton and her staff’s relevant communications. The department counters that document production just takes time, though even federal judges have blasted State in recent days for the slow pace.

    The sources say the latter requirement — limiting the scope of questions — is the bigger issue, particularly if Clinton’s lawyers seek to limit the panel from looking into her involvement with the Clinton Foundation or her email practices, which they believe may have influenced U.S. Libya policy and, therefore, happened that tragic day.

    And until those conditions are agreed upon, having a date means nothing.

    “You don’t ask a girl to dance then set a wedding date,” the source said. “We’ve gone from eating snow cones to picking out baby names in 24 hours.”

    Even before the the GOP announced its pushback to the Clinton announcement, Democrats sniped that the date could change:

    “Given how Republicans have denied scheduling hearings and other events [in] the past, however, all we can confirm at this point is that the date was offered and accepted, not that the Republicans will stick to it,” said a Benghazi Democratic spokesperson.

  8. Syrian president announces army deserter amnesty (BBC, July 25, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33664350

    “Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called an amnesty for those who have avoided military service or deserted the army, the country’s state agency reports.

    The decree applies to those who have fled the war-torn country and those still living there, Sana reported.

    It does not include people who joined rebels in the civil war.

    At least 70,000 men have avoided military service, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

    More than 80,000 soldiers and pro-government militiamen have been killed since the start of the conflict in March 2011.

    The Syrian army which is fighting rebels and jihadist groups, began a recruitment drive at the start of July to try to tackle its personnel shortage.

    It has suffered setbacks in recent months in the north-western province of Idlib and the ancient city of Palmyra, which was taken over by Islamic State militants.

    Deserters must turn themselves in within two months to be covered by the amnesty announced on Saturday.

    A military source told AFP the decree “only includes those who defected and who did not participate in military activities after their defection or stain their hands with blood”.

    Syria has a conscript army with 18 months compulsory service. Deserters normally face imprisonment.

    President Assad has issued similar amnesties for criminals in the past, but excluded the thousands of political prisoners.”

  9. Tunisia parliament passes new anti-terror law (BBC, July 25, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33662633

    “Tunisia’s parliament has adopted a new anti-terror law which seeks to counter the threat posed by Islamist militants.

    The move follows two deadly attacks on tourism sites – a beach and hotel at Sousse in June and the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March.

    Under the new law, those convicted of terrorism could face the death penalty and expressions of support for terrorism are a jailable offence.

    However, rights groups have criticised the new measures as draconian.

    MPs passed the law overwhelmingly after three days of debate.

    Mohamed Ennaceur, president of the assembly, called it a “historic” moment and said the new law would “reassure” Tunisians.

    The law will also make it easier for investigators to tap suspects’ phones.

    Advocacy groups have warned that the law’s definition of terrorist crimes is too vague and they say it fails to safeguard the rights of defendants.

    The new powers allow authorities to detain suspects for 15 days without access to a lawyer or appearance before a judge.

    Critics have also condemned the return of capital punishment after a lengthy moratorium on executions….”

  10. Boko Haram kills 25 in Nigeria (CNN, July 25, 2015)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/25/africa/nigeria-violence/index.html

    “A bloody and terrifying raid by Boko Haram on Friday left at least 25 people dead in three villages in eastern Nigeria’s Adamawa state, according to residents and a local government official. Adamawa state borders Borno state, Boko Haram’s birth place and main stronghold.

    Storming in on motorcycles, the gunmen attacked the neighboring villages of Kopa, Maikadire and Yaffa around 9 a.m. local time, shooting and killing residents, according to witnesses and local government chairman Maina Ularamu.

    The gunmen are former residents who joined Boko Haram and left to live in Boko Haram camps, according to Ularamu and the village residents. After the Nigerian military launched a campaign of bombing raids and ground assaults on their camps, those Boko Haram militants sought to escape by returning to their villages.

    Villagers tipped off military authorities and the returnees were arrested.

    Friday’s attacks were retaliation against those villages, according to witnesses and the government chairman….”

  11. ISIS suspects reportedly arrested in Moscow suburb

    More than 30 people have been detained in a suburb of the Russian capital on suspicion of recruiting for the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISL) terror group, social media reports suggested on Friday.

    Russian Interior Ministry officials have confirmed to RT that they made arrests in Balashikha, about 20 kilometers east of Moscow. However, they didn’t comment further on the issue.

    The arrests took place in a mosque on Pervomayskaya Street, where IS affiliates were allegedly distributing extremist materials and hiring recruits, according to a post on the town’s community Facebook page.

    A mosque employee told RT that security officials only checked the worshipers’ documents, and everyone has been released.

    Russian intelligence services have recently recorded a rise in the number of Russian citizens recruited by the IS militants, who are rampaging through parts of Syria and Iraq. According to different estimates, there are currently from two to five thousand Russians fighting for the jihadists, head of the Anti-terrorist Center of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Andrey Novikov, told Interfax last month.

    There have been incidents of IS attempts to recruit Russian students, among which is the case of Lomonosov Moscow State University philosophy student Varvara Karaulova. She was caught trying to cross the Turkey-Syria border to join the terror group, along with 13 other Russian citizens in June.

    According to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, 20,000 foreign nationals from about 100 countries around the world were estimated to be fighting for various militant groups, including IS as of January. Nearly a fifth came from Western Europe, with the UK and Germany topping the list, it added. Other countries, whose influx exceeds 1,000 people, include Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.

    https://www.rt.com/news/310688-russia-detains-terror-suspects/

  12. Turkey: Clashes erupt as activists protest Turkish airstrikes, dozens arrested

  13. GREECE – Afghan migrants stranded under appalling conditions in Athens park