Reader’s links for October 25 2016

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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

113 Replies to “Reader’s links for October 25 2016”

  1. Turkey will take ‘own measures’ in Iraq, Syria: Turkish FM (hurriyetdailynews, Oct 25, 2016)
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-will-take-own-measures-in-iraq-syria-turkish-fm.aspx?pageID=238&nID=105333&NewsCatID=352

    “Turkey is ready to launch a ground operation in Iraq if it feels threatened by developments there, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu said Oct. 25, at a time when a U.S.-backed offensive to drive the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the city of Mosul is on the agenda.

    “If there is a threat posed to Turkey, we are ready to use all our resources including a ground operation… to eliminate that threat,” he said in an interview with the Kanal 24 TV station.

    Turkey will not tolerate the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state for greater “Kurdish autonomy,” using parts of northern Iraq as bases, Çavu?o?lu said. The PKK wanted to make Sinjar a “second Kandil,” but such actions would not be allowed and Turkey will “intervene more actively” to stop it from happening, he added.

    He said Iraq’s central government in Baghdad is “tying itself to a terrorist organization,” adding that Turkey would take whatever steps necessary to protect its soldiers stationed at the Bashiqa military camp, near the northern city of Mosul…”

  2. Campaign calls for end to forcing girls to wear headscarves in some schools in Egypt (ahram, Oct 25, 2016)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/246582/Egypt/Politics-/Campaign-calls-for-end-to-forcing-girls-to-wear-he.aspx

    “Egyptian women’s rights organisation New Women Foundation (NWF) has called on the education ministry to ensure that schoolgirls are not forced to wear the Islamic headscarf as part of the dress code in schools all over the country, said the campaign coordinator Lamya Lotfey.

    The NWF launched a campaign last week titled “no to imposing the veil on school girls” after Lotfey’s daughter was punished for not wearing the veil in her middle school in Sharqiya governorate.

    “After my daughter’s case, we [the NWF] received a number of complaints leading us to launch this campaign nationwide,” Lotfey said in an interview with Ahram Online.

    “My own daughter endured physical punishment for not wearing the veil after being instructed to,” she said, explaining that a teacher made her stand in the playground after school hours.

    “My husband and I immediately filed a formal complaint with the educational directorate in the governorate… Frankly, the officials responded quickly and investigated the issue.”

    Lotfey reveals that the investigations showed that it was a personal decision by the headmistress so girls would not get “harassed.”

    “This is a part of the harassment cycle,” Lotfey said, adding that boys should be taught to respect the girls in class as their colleagues.

    On Monday, the deputy education minister assigned to Sharqiya sent a written order to all schools in the northern governorate clearly stating that the headscarf is not part of the obligatory dress code for girls, but merely a personal choice…”

  3. Hostility towards minorities ‘widespread in Bavaria’ (thelocal, Oct 25, 2016)
    https://www.thelocal.de/20161025/hostility-towards-minority-groups-is-widespread-in-bavaria-report

    “Hate and hostility towards groups deemed to be different are not just sentiments felt by fringe extremists, a new report on Bavaria shows.

    Bavarians are particularly hostile towards Muslims, the unemployed and Sinti and Roma people, according to a study released by social scientists at the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich on Monday.

    “Group-focused hostility is a widespread phenomenon in Bavaria, in particular the denigration of Muslims, the long-term unemployed, Sinti and Roma, as well as refugees,” the report states.

    Social scientists surveyed more than 1,700 people in the state between April and June and asked them a series of questions including to rate how “pleasant” it would be to have foreign neighbours, and whether inter-racial marriages should happen.

    “It is a phenomenon of the middle,” study co-author Christian Ganser told the Münchner Merkur.

    Muslims in Bavaria make up roughly 4 percent of the state’s population, but this group elicited the strongest feelings from respondents.

    More than half (56 percent) of those surveyed expressed mid- to high-level hostility towards Muslims, meaning they felt threatened by people who practice Islam, and felt negatively about the religion’s culture and activities.

    The study noted that often people with these feelings conflate Muslims and all foreigners, therefore reflecting that the hostility may have less to do with the religion than that some perceive them as being fundamentally foreign in Germany.

    After Muslims, Bavarian respondents expressed high levels of hostility towards the unemployed and towards Sinti and Roma – 35 percent felt animosity towards each of these groups.

    And about one in three (32 percent) were hostile towards refugees.

    Beyond that, one in five expressed anti-Semitic views, such as blaming Jews for certain world problems. Nearly one in five (19 percent) of Bavarians held homophobic feelings, such as that gay people are not moral, or should not have certain rights.

    Despite the scepticism of groups seen as “other” in Bavaria, respondents didn’t express as negative feelings towards foreigners in general: 10 percent showed mid- to high-levels of xenophobia.

    And another 10 percent showed signs of – as the study called it – “classic racism”, such as viewing black people less positively than white people.

    Bavarian women were less likely than men to feel hostility towards certain groups: For example, while 23 percent of men revealed anti-Semitic ideas, 19 percent of women did the same. And while one in four (25 percent) Bavarian men demonstrated mid- to high- levels of homophobia, just 14 percent of women also did.

    The study also found divides based on educational levels: those with higher levels of education had less hostile attitudes towards others.

    Researchers further observed a correlation between high levels of group-focused hostility and people who both strongly identify with Germany and have a low level of trust in political institutions.

    People who said they identified as “citizens of the world” expressed less hostility towards others. And those who had contact with people from different groups within their circles of friends or through their education also had lesser feelings of hostility.

    Munich less hostile

    The report also noted how the state capital of Munich was filled with less hostility than the rest of Bavaria, thus bringing down the average levels of negative attitudes. While outside Munich 60 percent of respondents showed hostility towards Muslims, less than half of Munich dwellers felt the same (49 percent).

    This was true for all other forms of prejudice, except racism: 11 percent of Munich locals expressed racist ideas, while throughout all other areas this figure was 9 percent.”

  4. Hillary’s 33,000 emails might not be ‘missing’ after all

    For months now, we’ve been told that Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 missing emails were permanently erased and destroyed beyond recovery. But newly released FBI notes strongly suggest they still exist in several locations — and they could be recovered, if only someone would impanel a grand jury and seize them.

    http://nypost.com/2016/10/25/hillarys-33000-emails-might-not-be-missing-after-all/

    • Now the race is on for some Clinton aide to find a way to destroy all of the emails before a new Attorney General empanels a Grand Jury and subpoenas the emails.

  5. (Insert eye roll here)

    “Obama Admin: Hungary Should Rescue Communist Party Newspaper

    Obama administration is facing criticism and ridicule after a bizarre outburst by the John Kerry-led State Department urging Hungarian authorities to prop up a defunct Communist Party propaganda organ. In an official statement, the Obama administration, which recently attacked media diversity in the United States, echoed discredited conspiracy theories pushed by communists and called on anti-communist Hungarian officials to prop up the bankrupt newspaper — supposedly to preserve “media pluralism.” But the ownership of the far-left paper, known as Nepszabadsag, wants to shut it down, citing growing financial losses and plunging circulation figures.

    It was not immediately clear why the Obama administration had an interest in saving a radical left-wing propaganda organ reviled by many Hungarians who suffered under communism. The State Department bureaucrat, though, speaking for the administration, claimed it was about ensuring that Hungarians are exposed to a “diversity” of “viewpoints.” Hungarians, of course, were exposed to the savage communist “viewpoint” for decades, having suffered tremendously under a ruthless, murderous Soviet puppet regime that sought to quash all dissent using intimidation, torture, and murder as tools.

    The Obama administration also called on Hungarian authorities to “work closely” on “Freedom of the Media” with a bureaucrat from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a controversial United Nations partner organization founded and still partly controlled by brutal communist dictatorships that Obama invited to “monitor” U.S. elections. When and why using public money to prop up communist propaganda organs or even non-totalitarian media outlets became associated with “freedom of the media” was not immediately clear either.

    But Obama’s officials, standing with Hungary’s re-branded Communist Party (now dubbed “Socialist”), were clear in expressing their displeasure with the bankruptcy and subsequent shuttering of the old communist mouthpiece in Hungary. “The United States shares the concerns of global press freedom advocates, international organizations, and Hungarian citizens, over the steady decline of media freedom in Hungary,” claimed Obama’s Deputy State Department Spokesman Mark Toner, echoing debunked conspiracy theories instead of offering specifics on which organizations or how media freedom in Hungary was declining.

    “We are following closely the … sudden closure of Hungary’s largest independent newspaper, Nepszabadsag, on October 8,” Toner continued, without explaining that its owner shut it down because it was losing money, or that it was an organ for totalitarian propaganda associated with the ruthless communist regime that enslaved Hungary. “The loss of this paper — regardless of the reason — is a blow to media pluralism in Hungary.”

    Despite the communist-pushed conspiracy theories, the “reason” for closing the paper was that the ownership wanted to shut it down because, like establishment propaganda organs across the West, it was hemorrhaging money. Hungarian authorities properly pointed out that it would be “an infringement of the freedom of the press, if we were to have a say in the decisions of a media owner,” which it said had made a “rational economic decision” to shutter the money-losing newspaper.

    The Obama State Department, though, called on Hungary’s pro-Western, liberty-oriented government to work with globalist institutions to satisfy its extremist demands. “As a friend and ally, we encourage the Hungarian government to ensure an open media environment that exposes citizens to a diversity of viewpoints and opinions, a key component of our shared democratic values,” Toner concluded. “We urge Hungary to work closely with the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and other experts towards this end.”

    The most insightful analysis of the Obama administration’s bizarre intervention in the case came from Daniel McAdams, executive director of the liberty-minded Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. In a column published online, McAdams noted that the paper, ironically named “People’s Liberty,” was founded by the savage Hungarian Communist Party in 1956. That is the year when Hungarians, prodded by the U.S. government and assured of assistance, rose up against their barbarian rulers, only to be betrayed by Washington, D.C. and then slaughtered by the Kremlin’s savage enforcers.

    Ironically, the strange comments from the Obama administration came just a few days before the 60th anniversary of that uprising on October 2, 1956. On that date, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban rejected what he called the “Sovietization” of Europe led by the unelected European Union super-state. “People who love their freedom must save Brussels from Sovietization, from people who want to tell us who we should live within our countries,” Orban said as thousands cheered at the commemoration of the 1956 uprising against communist tyranny. “We want to be a European nation not a nationality within Europe.”

    McAdams noted that for 30 years after that uprising, the newspaper Obama wants propped up served as the official mouthpiece of the mass-murdering puppet rulers of Hungary. Then, when the Berlin Wall came down, it was purchased by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG. “But while there was a system-change in Communist Party monopoly rule in Hungary, there was never a system-change in Hungary’s former Communist Party mouthpiece,” McAdams explained.

    In the years since, Hungarians have become increasingly anti-communist, with some 70 percent of voters supporting nationalist, anti-globalist, anti-communist parties. The “Socialist Party” successor of the communists, meanwhile, is imploding, with just 10 percent public support. “As might be expected when a political party implodes, readership and revenue of its mouthpiece also declines,” McAdams observed. “That is why Nepszabadsag racked up more than five billion forints ($17.6 plus million) in losses recently and its current owner, Mediaworks Hungary Zrt., decided to close the loss-leading publication.”

    The whole situation would seem to be simple enough — the market rejected leftist propaganda, and so the paper should shut down. But it is not so simple, because the U.S. government, which has been propping up the re-branded communists to oppose Orban and his party, is not happy with the developments. “Yes, the Hungarian government according to Washington has an obligation to make sure private enterprises that happen to oppose it are flush with money and remain in operation,” McAdams said.

    In a thought experiment, the liberty-minded analyst at the Ron Paul Institute wondered whether U.S. critics of U.S. government interventionism would be justified in demanding millions of tax dollars to keep their media operations afloat. “Or does American exceptionalism mean do as we say not as we do?” McAdams wondered rhetorically.

    Indeed, it is even worse than that. While the Obama State Department worked to ensure that Hungarians still had access to communist propaganda that they did not want, there was no intervention from Washington on behalf on media outlets banned by the UN from its “global warming” conference. Canadian outlet The Rebel was refused credentials for the upcoming UN COP22 “climate” summit in Morocco. When confronted, the UN bureaucrat in charge, Nick Nuttall, argued that the Canadian news organization had views that were not “particularly helpful.” Even radical warmists in government and media were shocked by the UN’s appalling attack on press freedom.

    It gets even worse. Despite calls for government-enforced media “diversity” in Hungary by propping up communist propaganda organs, Obama is not as fond of media diversity in America. Indeed, closer to home, Obama recently lashed out at what he derided as the “wild, wild West” media landscape in America, outraged that “conspiracy theorists” and skeptics of the man-made global-warming theory had a platform to express themselves. He called for some sort of “curating function” to help define reality for Americans, expressing nostalgia for the days when just three establishment propaganda organs dominated the “news” and were “generally” trusted by Americans.

    McAdams noted that Hungarians were then about to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their heroic uprising against bloody Soviet enslavement. “Perhaps having escaped diktat by Moscow only to fall prey to diktat from Washington and Brussels, Budapest should revisit that 1956 spirit and at least exit the anachronistic NATO alliance,” he added. “Maybe then Huexit?” While Orban has thus far defended EU membership, he has also denounced the “treasonous conspiracy” of “fanatical internationalists” out of Brussels to destroy nation-states, Christianity, and Western civilization.

    Obama’s intervention to save a communist propaganda organ is perhaps less shocking when one considers his own radical background. For instance, Obama launched his political career at the home of communist terrorist Bill Ayers, who was backed by Soviet puppet Fidel Castro while his terror group murdered police officers, bombed the Capitol and the State Department, and, according to the FBI operative who infiltrated the group, plotted to exterminate millions of anti-communist Americans in concentration camps.

    It is time for Congress to rein in the increasingly lawless and radical bureaucracies and bureaucrats across the executive branch. The Obama administration has no business or authority to infringe on press freedom in the United States, Hungary, or anywhere else.”

    http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/24482-obama-admin-hungary-should-rescue-communist-party-newspaper

  6. By Senator Ted Cruz
    America’s missed UNESCO opportunity

    A demonstration of moral courage occurred two weeks ago in a most unlikely place: the UNESCO Executive Board meeting in Paris. During a contentious vote on the “Occupied Palestine” resolution, Mexico’s Ambassador to UNESCO walked out. Andrés Roemer reportedly decided he could not support a resolution that attempts to expunge thousands of years of Jerusalem’s Jewish identity.

    His audacity cost him his job—but it also focused attention on this resolution. Mexico decided to change its stance to abstention and intended to call for a re-vote to formally withdraw support. Brazil also indicated it had serious reservations and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and Chairman of the Board Michael Worbs voiced concerns, raising hopes that another vote would allow countries to reconsider their support, or that final passage would be delayed. Italy’s Prime Minister subsequently criticized the text and added his country would encourage other European colleagues to oppose such measures in the future.

    Last Wednesday morning that opportunity could have arisen. But then “western countries” lobbied against the second vote on the grounds other resolutions passed by consensus might be re-opened, and the resolution passed. While the identity of these western countries is not yet known, we do know that at the very least the United States did not actively lobby for the re-vote. In other words, when given an unprecedented opportunity to rally support for Israel at UNESCO as nations that have voted reflexively in support of the Palestinians shifted their positions, America chose to look the other way.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/24/americas-missed-unesco-opportunity/