Reader’s links for September 29 – 2016

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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.

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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

107 Replies to “Reader’s links for September 29 – 2016”

  1. EU Chiefs Blindly Back Migrant Relocation Plan in the Face of Growing Opposition (sputniknews, Sep 29, 2016)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/20160929/1045839245/schulz-juncker-migration-turkey.html

    “European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Parliament President Martin Schulz have once again defended the controversial plan to relocate migrants from Greece and Italy according to a quota plan, as well as the EU-Turkey migrant deal, despite growing opposition within Europe.

    Despite massive opposition in many member states, Juncker and Schulz are still arguing for the migrant policy to be imposed, because both the Greece-Italy relocation plan and the EU-Turkey migrant deal have been agreed at Brussels-level. Speaking in Brussels in a TV program sponsored by France 24 and Radio France International, Juncker said:…..”

  2. Belgium’s migration minister slammed for sharing GIF labeled racist (CNN, Sep 29, 2016)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/29/europe/belgian-minister-francken-racist/index.html

    “(CNN) Belgium’s state secretary for asylum and migration is facing criticism after sharing a satirical GIF in which he is seen arresting an undocumented migrant.

    A video shows the official, Theo Francken, with his face digitally edited over that of a police officer’s while being lowered from a helicopter and placing a suction cup on the head of a black man. The man is arrested and lifted into the sky. The clip is followed by the tag line: “Tolerance Zero.”

    RTBF, the public broadcasting radio station in Belgium, reported that Francken posted it on Facebook with the comment: “Look what I found, zero tolerance, it’s amusing.”

    The post has been deleted from Francken’s Facebook page, but at the time of publishing, the minister had it favorited in his liked tweets.

    In a statement Thursday to CNN, Francken said he didn’t intend to hurt anyone by sharing the clip and didn’t understand the reaction. “I do not want to be drawn into the excitement of the day,” he said, explaining why he later removed the post.

    The creator of the GIF told CNN he was surprised to see it used politically. “The original message has taken (on) a whole new meaning,” Roberto Salvador said.

    He explained the GIF was inspired after reading an article in Le Vif magazine about Francken’s “excessive” use of force while detaining undocumented African immigrants in Brussels’ working-class neighborhood of Molenbeek.

    “The media quickly talked about ‘racist video,’ but it is purely contextual,” he said.
    Several lawmakers publicly criticized Francken for the post.

    Lawmaker Ahmed Laaouej of the Belgian Socialist Party told CNN that racism is a problem in his country. “In Belgium, the trivialization of racism at the highest levels of the state has become a reality,” he said. “It is a wound that will be difficult to heal.”

    Laaouej also posted on Twitter to express his anger: “You think this is funny? You make us vomit, Mr Francken.”

    Catherine Fonck of the Humanist Democratic Centre party called Francken’s behavior unacceptable. “It is the responsibility of the Prime Minister to guarantee impeccable behavior of the members of his government,” Fonck told CNN. “It really is not funny at all despite what the minister said.””

  3. Islamic School, Township Settle Lawsuit Over Zoning Denial (abcnews, Sep 29, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/islamic-school-township-settle-lawsuit-zoning-denial-42455666

    “An Islamic school has settled a federal lawsuit against a Michigan township that denied zoning for a new school building.

    The Michigan Islamic Academy will get $1.7 million and can build a school and housing on the land in Pittsfield Township, near Ann Arbor. Township officials approved the settlement Wednesday.

    The academy sued after the township, in 2011, rejected its request to build. The academy says its current Ann Arbor location is insufficient to meet its religious and secular needs.

    Township officials also settled a Justice Department suit that said it violated a law that prohibits imposing land use regulations that put a substantial burden on religious exercise.

    Pittsfield Supervisor Mandy Grewal says Thursday that the township denies any wrongdoing and that traffic and congestion were original concerns.”

  4. Mob attacks a CHP officer in his cruiser

    Footage has emerged of a mob attacking a California Highway Patrol cruiser while the officer was trying to shut down an illegal sideshow at the weekend.

    The incident occurred at the intersection of North and Orange Avenues in Southwest Fresno on Sunday afternoon around 3.40pm.

    Police say a group of about 40 people blocked traffic by putting on a sideshow that involved reckless driving and cars doing burnouts.

    When the officers tried to break it up, the crowd violently turned on them and targeted the vehicle, with one heard shouting: ‘F*** the police, n****. We run the streets, motherf*****.’

  5. Sanders’ voters not showing up for Hillary

    DURHAM, N.H. — Hillary Clinton — campaigning at a college here and hoping Bernie Sanders can help deliver critical millennial voters — instead drew a crowd largely of baby boomers, while hearing faint praise from her former rival that paled in comparison to the language President Obama has used on the trail.

    “There is no group of Americans who have more at stake in this election than young Americans, because so much of what will happen will affect your lives, your jobs, the kind of country we are, the kind of future we want to build together,” Clinton told a sea of gray hair and bald-spots at the University of New Hampshire campus field house yesterday.

    The younger voters, among an audience of more than 1,000, were placed on risers on either side of the stage, highly visible spots that could be captured by TV cameras.

    http://www.gopusa.com/?p=15415?omhide=true

    Richard: This is good news but don’t start cheering until after the election, it is still early and anything could and probably will happen.

  6. FEC Dems Lay Groundwork to Ban Fox, WSJ Political Coverage

    (Washington Examiner) – In their biggest threat yet to conservative media, Democrats on the Federal Election Commission are laying the groundwork to bar companies with even the tiniest foreign ownership from American politics, a move that could ban Fox, the Wall Street Journal and even the New York Times from covering political races or giving endorsements.

    In a last-minute submission Wednesday, a top Democrat on the evenly split FEC proposed that the Thursday meeting of the commission begin the process to prohibit companies with foreign ownership as small as 5 percent “from funding expenditures, independent expenditures, or electioneering communications.”

    Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said in her submission, “Given everything we have learned this year, it blinks reality to suggest that that there is no risk of foreign nationals taking advantage of current loopholes to intercede invisibly in American elections. This is a risk no member of the Federal Election Commission should be willing to tolerate.”

    Under Weintraub’s proposal, entities that reach her foreign ownership target would conceivably be banned from advocating for a candidate’s election or defeat.

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/fec-dems-lay-groundwork-to-ban-fox-wsj-political-coverage/article/2603177

  7. AUTRIA – VIENNA – Driver tried to run over pedestrians in Vienna shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’

    Police detained a 21-year old man in Vienna after he deliberately tried to run over pedestrians while shouting “Allahu Akbar” out of his car. No one has been injured and officials are now investigating the motivation behind the man’s behavior.

    The incident happened at around 11:00am local time in the district of Favoriten on Thursday.

    “He aimed and drove directly at the passers-by,” Vienna police spokesperson Thomas Keiblinger said in an interview with Radio Wien as cited by national public proadcaster wien.ORF.at

    “According to the statements of the eyewitnesses the 21-year-old shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ out of the opened window of his car,” Keiblinger added.

    No one was injured in the attack, however one of the pedestrians had to jump from the crossing to save his life, WIEN.ORF says, citing eyewitnesses.

    According to the Austrian media the driver is Vienna resident with a Turkish background. The man was detained by law enforcement officials shortly after the incident.

    Authorities are now investigating whether the man might have had religious or political motives. According to police the 21-year-old has not yet made any statements.

    http://myinforms.com/en/a/42054222-driver-tried-to-run-over-pedestrians-in-vienna-shouting-allahu-akbar/

  8. Bulgaria: Protesters rally against refugee camp in Ruse

    Dozens of protesters gathered in front of the Municipality building in Ruse, the country’s fifth largest city, on Wednesday to demonstrate against the settlement of refugees in a local military barracks.

    SOT, Miroslav Stanchev, protest organiser (Bulgarian): “These migrants passed the border of Bulgaria. They don’t know the language. They won’t obey the laws and our rules. We are worried about their life here on our financial support, which is unacceptable to us.”

    SOT, Miroslav Stanchev, protest organiser (Bulgarian): “We are ready in all legal ways to block all the roads and to demonstrate with civil insubordination in many different ways, which I will not mention now. If we have the necessary information about such trucks, we will block them.”

  9. Hillary Clinton’s Key Aide Huma Abedin Is a Lightning Rod for Attacks

    Conservative groups scour her emails, and Donald Trump says she aided the Clinton Foundation

    Her emails have been sought by conservative interest groups, she has been accused by Donald Trump of doing State Department favors for the Clinton Foundation, and she has been embarrassed by her husband’s sexual activities.

    Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s longest-serving aide, has received an unusual amount of public attention for a behind-the-scenes staffer. Over the years, she has graduated from intern to omnipresent personal assistant to vice chairwoman of Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic presidential campaign and one of her closest advisers.

    Among Ms. Abedin’s most important roles is gatekeeper, a key figure in determining who gets to see Mrs. Clinton, and who doesn’t. She oversees planning for anything involving the candidate, manages her sprawling network of contacts and talks with Mrs. Clinton more than any other aide.

    The 41-year-old Ms. Abedin is often on the road, and those who know her say her power derives from her proximity to Mrs. Clinton. She was part of her debate preparation team, and backstage in Hempstead, N.Y., just before Mrs. Clinton walked onto the debate stage on Monday.

    Her emails with Mrs. Clinton show an intimacy few others can claim. A week after Mrs. Clinton was released from the hospital to treat a blood clot in a vein in her head, Ms. Abedin emailed a reminder to take a nap.

    One night in November 2009, the then-secretary of state emailed Ms. Abedin to catch up on a pending matter from that day’s business. “If you want me to come give you download, I will be up for a while,” Ms. Abedin wrote. Mrs. Clinton replied in a note sent after midnight, “I’m up now so come when you are able. Just knock on the door to the bedroom if it’s closed.”

    Ms. Abedin, who declined to comment for this article, is expected to take a senior White House position if Mrs. Clinton defeats Mr. Trump.

    A practicing Muslim, Ms. Abedin was born in Kalamazoo, Mich., to Indian- and Pakistani-born parents. She was raised in Saudi Arabia, where her parents went to teach, before returning to the U.S. to attend George Washington University.

    During college in 1996, Ms. Abedin went to work as an intern for the first lady, and she has been by Mrs. Clinton’s side ever since. Former President Bill Clinton officiated at her nuptials with former Rep. Anthony Weiner, and at another wedding celebration, Mrs. Clinton offered a toast saying that if she had a second daughter, it would be Huma.

    Today, she vets material that will be released in Mrs. Clinton’s voice, helps decide who will introduce the candidate and occasionally meets with donors.

    “She’s multifaceted, has a great strategic sense, and she’s a wonderful colleague,” Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, said. “She’s an integral part of the team.”

    The names of three top Clinton aides continue to surface in newly publicized emails, putting them at the center of the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. WSJ’s Shelby Holliday explains who they are and how they ended up in Clintons’ inner circle. Photo: Getty Images

    Thousands of emails exchanged when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state show that she relied on Ms. Abedin to plan her schedule, untangle technology, recommend restaurants and print emails for later review.

    Ms. Abedin had a personal email address on the Clinton family server, which has resulted in all of her correspondence being released to conservative groups Citizens United and Judicial Watch. They have also successfully sued to obtain some of her emails from her State Department account. More emails are expected to be released by both groups before Election Day.

    Several of the messages released so far show Clinton Foundation officials asking her for favors. For example, in April 2009, Doug Band, then a top foundation official, emailed Ms. Abedin to ask for help for a top foundation donor, Lebanese-Nigerian businessman Gilbert Chagoury.

    “We need Gilbert Chagoury to speak to the substance guy re Lebanon. As you know he’s key guy there and to us and is loved in Lebanon. Very imp,” Mr. Band wrote to Ms. Abedin and Cheryl Mills, Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff at State.

    Ms. Abedin responded with the name of the American ambassador to Lebanon and said she would talk with him. Mr. Band replied that it would be better if she called him immediately. “This is very important,” he emphasized. “He’s awake I’m sure.”

    Mr. Trump said of such email releases in August: “It’s called pay for play.”

    Mr. Clinton’s campaign has said that her decisions as secretary of state were unrelated to requests from the foundation and its supporters.

    Since 2013, Ms. Abedin has been under investigation by Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) for an arrangement under the Special Government Employee program, which allowed her to simultaneously work for the State Department, Mrs. Clinton personally, the foundation and a private consulting firm called Teneo, founded in part by Mr. Band.

    The program was created to allow agencies to give short-term jobs to people from the private sector with particular expertise, and Mr. Grassley charges that using it for Ms. Abedin was an abuse.

    “All of this raises fundamental questions about not just Ms. Abedin’s employment arrangements but the intersection between the State Department, Clinton Foundation, and Teneo business interests,” he wrote last month to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, asking for an investigation into the foundation.

    Part of Mr. Band’s rationale for bringing Ms. Abedin to Teneo was to offer her a pathway to life apart from the Clinton orbit, according to one person familiar with the situation. She didn’t take it, and has never held a job unrelated to the Clintons.

    The State Department has said Ms. Abedin’s work for Teneo was unrelated to her work for the government. It also said her outside employment while at State was arranged so that the government wouldn’t be paying Ms. Abedin for work she did charting Mrs. Clinton’s post-State career.

    Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill, decrying the Republican attacks on Ms. Abedin, said: “One of the more unfortunate lines that have been crossed this political season is that we have an opponent that has no bottom, and that extends to baseless attacks on staff. It’s not surprising, but it is disappointing.”

    Meantime, Ms. Abedin’s personal life has been repeatedly thrust into public view thanks to Mr. Weiner, who resigned from Congress after admitting he had sent salacious photos and messages over the internet to other women.

    She stuck by Mr. Weiner as he tried to mount a political comeback, and even after it was disclosed that he had continued sexting other women after he left Congress—a tale chronicled in a documentary that Ms. Abedin participated in, which was released this summer. The last straw came after the New York Post reported in August that he had done it yet again. She announced she was leaving him.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clintons-key-aide-huma-abedin-is-a-lightning-rod-for-attacks-1475107619